Behind the lens

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.

- CHANTAL PINZI Documentary photographer www.chantalpinzi.com

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.

Were you influenced by any other photographers when you were starting out?

Through the study of the history of photography, for example, the work of Letizia Battaglia or Susan Meiselas, I've realised the power this universal language has to inspire change and initiate a debate that welcomes the participation of those who feel excluded and silenced. We can learn from others to observe more carefully, look beyond, ask new questions and use new terms that create new possibilities.

Congratulations on your SWPA 2025 win. How long were you working in India on Shred the Patriarchy?

For this chapter, I travelled more than 3,290 miles (5,300km) in India for more than a month to meet the protagonists of Shred the Patriarchy and see how skateboarding is the chosen way to break societal norms and smash the stereotypes that oppress the female gender in this country.