Fabio Ponzio was born in Milan in 1959. His interest in photography began in 1976, during a trip to the Balkans. Europe, travel and photography have formed the three main threads of his life in the decades since. In 1991, he was awarded the European Kodak Prize at Arles; in 1993, the Mother Jones Foundation Award for Documentary Photography; and in 1998, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award in Germany.