47 ≥ 46

47 as the number of chromosomes present in a person with Down syndrome.

“47 ≥ 46”starts from a personal experience - growing up side by side with a cousin Lucio, who has Down syndrome. The project grows in Rome, when Troiani gets in touch with the AIPD (National Association of Down Syndrome people), which follows the person from neonatal age to adulthood, until complete autonomy is achieved. It is a path divided into various steps, with daily challenges to overcome for everyone’s personal independence.
For this project, Troiani focuses, for a year, in particular on a branch of the AIPD, namely “I Circoli”, aimed at people who have at least five years of involvement in educational projects behind them and who, for different reasons, feel the need to deal with new social contexts and more elaborate experiences of autonomy.
The desire to broaden and deepen the aspects of the life of a person with Down syndrome is what pushed the photographer to develop this project, trying to bring out, through the photographic medium, that delicate intimacy built over the months of relationship, based on mutual respect and curiosity about other people’s lives, which were the ingredients behind 47 ≥ 46.