Behind the lens
CHANTAL PINZI Documentary photographer www.chantalpinzi.com
Courtesy of Creo
Based in Berlin, Chantal Pinzi took first place in the Sport category of the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Professional competition. Her series taken from Shred the Patriarchy, one of her long-form projects, was captured in India and documents the lived experience of female skaters resisting the patriarchy through skateboarding. We sat down with Pinzi to discover more about her career to date and her motivations.
Why did you become a photographer, and how did you get started?
I love being a witness to my time and documenting it through photography, one of the many languages that allows me to exist. Maybe that’s enough to define me as a photographer, a word that holds a broader and more diverse range of nuances than photojournalist or reporter. But if I really had to place myself within a category, I’d consider myself a visual activist.
With the awareness of being a woman and inhabiting a body that in itself is a struggle, I grew up resilient in the face of a system that penalised me in multiple aspects. I never accepted the notion of ‘it has always been this way, and so it will always be’, but rather sought to understand the mechanisms of power, structural oppression, sexism and misogyny. I also consider it my responsibility to actively oppose these forces and I do it also through photography.
Untitled. Asha’s hand, decorated with mehendi or henna, an ancient form of body art that originated in India.
© Chantal Pinzi, Italy, Winner, Professional competition, Sport, Sony World Photography Awards 2025