Masks 2014 – 2016: Federica Pellegrini and Other Icons for Api

Masks is a photographic project developed by Gianluigi Di Napoli in collaboration with AIPI, Italian Pulmonary Hypertension Association Onlus, to raise awareness of pulmonary hypertension, a rare, progressive and devastating lung and heart condition, as well as to raise funds for the association, which was created in 2001 by a group of patients.

The first edition of Masks, which received an honorable mention at the MIFA Moscow International Photo Awards, featured twelve Italian female celebrities, including film actresses, sportswomen, dancers, journalists, portrayed with clown make up, symbolizing the “mask” that patients may need to wear to go on living their never easy every day life with the disease. The make up was designed inidividually for each celebrity by David Larible, the most famous living clown in the world and inspired by classic clown masks.

The new campaign features Federica Pellegrini as sole testimonial, and the make up in this case is more subtle and closer to the reality of the patient experience. The seven photos of Federica evoke three main elements, air, the colour blue, and flowers, all three of which relate closely to Federica’s life but also to the experience of patients. Air, as in breathing, is vital for Federica and in patients with pulmonary hypertension is lacking because their lungs are affected, blue is the colour of water for Federica and the colour of lips and fingers in patients because lack of oxygen. Finally flowers are a symbol of nature and its wonderful capacity to regenerate itself and represent the hope to defeat the disease and be cured.