New technologies run like parallel lines to scientific progress, but for many teenagers they become an endless tunnel. “The New Addiction” does not speak of substances, but of a modern addiction: that of a virtual world overlapping real life to the point of replacing it. In this reportage, I documented the dark side of those tools that, while bridging distances on one hand, can generate devastating "social" loneliness on the other.
The project was born on December 29, 2011, when I met Antonio. He is 13 years old and has a video game in his hands. It is the beginning of an observation lasting ten years, a visual story that bears witness to how technology has become an extension of ourselves and, at times, our trap.
The Aesthetics of Social Solitude: The photographic research focuses on the space surrounding the subject: a room that both isolates and welcomes him. I sought to capture the contrast between the cold light of screens and the shadow of a fading reality. Each shot documents the loss of self-confidence and the disappearance of verbal communication, allowing a humanity that loses itself in its own digital reflection to emerge.
Video Storytelling: Time Flowing By: The video component is an integral part of this decade-long testimony. Through editing, the passage from 2011 to 2022 becomes tangible: we see Antonio grow as his bond with the virtual world evolves. The video conveys the hypnotic rhythm of video games and the deafening silence of a room where the outside world (the scents of the streets, the colors of the sky) ceases to exist.
A Visual Case Study: The heart of the project is Antonio’s personal story, who uses play as a shield against a real pain: the loss of his father. Photography and video become tools of psychological inquiry, observing how an ideal and protected dimension can turn into a dependency that prevents one from perceiving the beauty and harshness of real life.
Creating “The New Addiction” meant growing up alongside the subject, remaining a silent observer for over a decade. The integration between photography and video was born from the need to show not just a moment, but a process of transformation. My commitment was to translate into images the fragility of a generation that projects myths and anxieties onto an artificial system, seeking to rediscover, through the lens, that human contact which the digital risks erasing.
