On his recurring visits to the Torretta district, he lensed his subjects’ bodies as they morphed from frail into sturdy, witnessed their voices grow deeper, their faces change overnight. It was through that process that Canalis realized that “allowing an idea to brew means understanding that, sometimes, a story will shift away from your initial conception of it to take on different forms, volumes and colors—to mimic the needs of those captured in it.” 

Ultimately, the collection holds a mirror up to the growing path of Neapolitan youth, projecting their vitality, hopes and dreams back at them. “When you are forced [to be in] a dead-end context, it is hard to imagine any other alternatives,” Canalis says. “With ‘The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Stars,’ I wanted these children to see who they are, who they can be.”