photographs by Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli
In their new book Silent Springs, Italian photographic duo Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli take the audience behind the scenes of some of Europe’s most prominent youth climate justice movements, displaying the discipline and design shaping a generation’s activism. Presented as a contemporary manifesto, the book follows nonviolent direct action as young climate activists organize across borders in the face of accelerating ecological collapse and tightening state repression. From France to Germany to Italy, the project maps a shared urgency shaped by parallel crises and collective resistance.
Youth-led groups including Extinction Rebellion, Ende Gelände, Code Rouge, Last Generation, and Soulèvements de la Terre build road blockades, occupy campuses, enter coal mines, and establish makeshift camps in defense of a shared goal: safeguarding the planet for future generations. Borzoni and Rorandelli follow these actions, from planning and encampment through police confrontation and dispersal, pairing photographs with language that breaks down the tactics and ethical frameworks of climate action and shows how resistance is sustained and justified from within.
Against a backdrop of rising temperatures and social apathy, Silent Springs captures the scale of mass mobilization alongside the lived reality of those involved, examining the fears and hopes that bind young activists together. What emerges is a record of young people choosing to stand their ground with their bodies and their voices, insisting on a future that institutions have failed to protect.
Silent Springs by Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli is published by Loose Joints and available for purchase here.
© Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli 2026 courtesy Loose Joints
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Photographic Duo Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli Document the Youth Protesting for a Safer Planet
Photographic Duo Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli Document the Youth Protesting for a Safer Planet