{"id":43662,"date":"2026-09-01T17:22:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T15:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/?p=43662"},"modified":"2026-09-01T17:26:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T15:26:39","slug":"lorenzo-roncaglione-wins-the-urban-press-award-2026-with-appleby-horse-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/en\/lorenzo-roncaglione-wins-the-urban-press-award-2026-with-appleby-horse-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"Lorenzo Roncaglione wins the URBAN Press Award 2026 with Appleby Horse Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are delighted to announce that <\/span>Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/b>, with his project <\/span>Appleby Horse Fair \u2013 Portraits of a Tradition in Motion<\/i><\/b>, is the winner of the <\/span>URBAN Press Award 2026<\/b>. Every year, in the English town of Appleby-in-Westmorland, thousands of people from Gypsy and Traveller communities across the United Kingdom come together for the largest horse fair in Europe. Roncaglione photographs it through the faces and everyday gestures of those who bring it to life.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n \n \u00a9 Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/a>\n \n \u00a9 Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/a>\n \n \u00a9 Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/a>\n \n \u00a9 Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/a>\n \n \u00a9 Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/a>\n \n \u00a9 Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The project was selected by <\/span>Federica Berzioli<\/b>, editorial coordinator of <\/span>IL FOTOGRAFO (Gruppo Sprea Editori)<\/b>. A visual communication professional with extensive experience in both design and publishing, she has worked for Kartell and for the Contrasto agency on exhibitions, campaigns and corporate projects; she is active in portfolio reviews, chairs discussions on photography and sits on the jury of numerous Italian photography awards.<\/span><\/p>\n

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This is how Berzioli explained her choice:<\/b><\/p>\n

Lorenzo Roncaglione captures the spirit of Appleby Horse Fair, the largest traditional gathering of Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities in Europe. He portrays not so much the fair itself as the life of the community, in images that are spontaneous and unstaged. AAlongside the energy of the celebration are young people, faces, horses and a powerful sense of belonging: a perfect meeting of documentary photography and street photography. His eye turns reportage into a study of contemporary identity: he does not stop at tradition, but gives voice to new languages and new aesthetic rules. The work can be read in dialogue with the documentary tradition of major photographers such as Bruce Davidson, for its ability to portray a community through individuals, relationships and places, and with Martin Parr, for its ability to turn a popular event into a story about social identity.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The project<\/b><\/h3>\n

This photographic series moves away from the more spectacular image of Appleby Horse Fair, a historic annual gathering that brings together Gypsy and Traveller communities from across the United Kingdom and has its roots in the tradition of horse trading, to turn its attention towards its true protagonists: the people. Faces, presences and ways of inhabiting this temporary space reveal a dimension of the fair that exists beyond the event itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n \n \u00a9 Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/a>\n \n \u00a9 Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/a>\n \n \u00a9 Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/a>\n \n \u00a9 Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/a>\n \n \u00a9 Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/a>\n \n \u00a9 Lorenzo Roncaglione<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Among caravans, open fields and horses, the images capture moments of everyday life and show how a sense of community is built through the sharing of space, habits and an experience that renews itself year after year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rather than documenting a tradition, this work reflects on the relationship between continuity and transformation: on what remains and what changes. Appleby still maintains a strong connection to its history and cultural heritage, yet like any living tradition it has inevitably evolved over time, embracing new languages, aesthetics and forms of presence without losing the sense of belonging that defines it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Appleby emerges not simply as an annual fair, but as a cultural space in constant redefinition, where individual identities and collective memory continue to intertwine.<\/span><\/p>\n

This photographic series seeks to offer a reflection on the way a community continues to exist, gather and represent itself today: not as a fixed image of the past, but as a living, changing and contemporary reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The author<\/b><\/h3>\n

Lorenzo Roncaglione photographs fragments of everyday life in the cities where he lives, Milan and Lisbon. His work focuses on urban contexts, often linked to problematic and marginalised situations, telling the stories of people, places and social dynamics through his images, with the aim of exploring complex issues such as marginalisation, poverty and the challenges of life on the street.<\/span><\/p>\n

Website:<\/span> www.lorenzoroncaglione.net<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/a>Instagram:<\/span> @lorenzoroncaglione<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are delighted to announce that Lorenzo Roncaglione, with his project Appleby Horse Fair \u2013 Portraits of a Tradition in Motion, is the winner of the URBAN Press Award 2026. Every year, in the English town of Appleby-in-Westmorland, thousands of people from Gypsy and Traveller […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[530,6],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43662"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43662"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43681,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43662\/revisions\/43681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanphotoawards.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}