Filippo Zambon / Goodbye Meadow

Goodbye Meadow is a deeply personal journey through memory, loss and rediscovery. Filippo Zambon returns to Prato, a city he once left behind, to confront its past and his own. Through intimate photographs and poignant text, he navigates the streets of his childhood, the spaces his mother inhabited and the emotions of a long-awaited homecoming. This photobook is more than a documentary – it is a meditation on grief, identity and the ties that bind us to place and family.

As Filippo Zambon explains: “I left Prato nearly 20 years ago without hesitation. Prato – whose name literally translates to “meadow” – is an industrial town neighbouring Florence. For many years, I felt completely disconnected from the city of my youth. A difficult relationship with my mother, along with a lingering sense of unease about the provincial mindset of its inhabitants, kept me away.

In 2021, when my mother’s fragile health took a turn for the worse, I was forced to return to Prato to handle practical matters. This period marked the beginning of a profound nostalgia for the place where I grew up. Homesickness set in as my mother’s condition rapidly declined. During this time, I began photographing her, her home and the city.

In early 2022, my mother passed away suddenly. Throughout her hospitalisation and in the months following her death, I continued the project, also incorporating written material alongside the photographs. In 2023, I returned to further document the city – this time focusing on elements that could connect our memories to the place. Through this process, I sought to intertwine my life with her experiences, discovering connection and meaning in a city that holds both of our histories.”

Filippo Zambon (b. 1981, Florence) is an art photographer based in Helsinki, Finland. His work currently explores themes related to identity, belonging and the intersection between personal and collective memory, often combining documentary photography with conceptual and experimental approaches. He holds an MA from the University of the Arts Helsinki (2014) and has exhibited in numerous institutions and festivals across Europe, including the Festival of Political Photography (Helsinki), the Imago Lisboa Photo Festival (Lisbon), ISSP Gallery (Riga), the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg and the Tampere Biennale. His works are part of public and private collections, including the Helsinki Photography Museum, the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg (Sweden) and the Paulo Foundation. Zambono has received numerous awards and grants, including funding from the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Finnish Ministry of Culture. In 2023, he was nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award. He has also published The Komi Diary (Lecturis, 2018) and ShortCut (The Angry Bat, 2021), and is actively involved in teaching, offering courses at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Oulu, the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki and the Art School Maa in Suomenlinna.