Flavio Brancaleone
2025 Kennedy Award winner for Outstanding News Photograph and People’s Choice Awards.
Flavio Brancaleone won the 2025 Kennedy Award for Outstanding News Photograph with the same photo also winning the People’s Choice Award. It was an unusual and candid photo of Pope Francis lying in-state at the Domus Sanctae Marthae Chapel that broke all the rules.
Flavio is a freelancer born in Rome who has made Australia his home for the last 12 years. His approach to his craft and how he managed to get that photo are great stories in themselves.
Flavio: “I wasn’t very good at school. I dropped out a few times and changed to a few different schools. I decided to leave and start helping Dad, who was a photographer and it all started making sense. I started studying photography in Italy and working along with my dad but until I came to Australia I never really worked as a photographer. I did a little work but getting published was way harder. Anyway, I eventually made my way in the field here in Australia .”
So what sort of things were you doing that weren’t professional photography when you were in Italy?
Flavio: “Same as I'm doing now professionally, meaning reporting because for a lot of reasons. I found in photojournalism a way to communicate, a way to report on things the way I see them. It's like feeding a need. I always have this need to report on things that have a strong impact on me and I have this feeling to show them to others as well. Let’s say, writing and talking with words have never been my best skills. So when I found photography, it could give me the opportunity to witness and to report; I was like, that's all I want to do in my life.”
You're a storyteller, not with words but with images.
Flavio: “Exactly, exactly. I love storytelling. And again, it's this sort of need. I found exactly my medium for a need that I felt I had. I always dreamed to be a journalist, to be honest, but I have no capacity with words and writing. I'm actually dyslexic and photography is much more instinct and that fits my personality perfectly.”
Why did you always want to be a journalist?
Flavio: “I have great respect for journalism. I always saw journalists as the guardian of the democracy and I have seen in journalists the opportunity of giving visibility to a situation, issue or people that otherwise wouldn't have it. So I think the journalist has this great power of showing and bringing the attention on things and I always admire this power a lot.”
Why come to Australia?
Flavio: “Well, it was the right time in my life. I was very kind of old already for this big change because I was 27 when I moved to Australia. I couldn't speak any English back then but I was opening up myself to a new experience. I had this big curiosity. I wanted to see other things, so I just said to my mom and my family, I'm going to Australia for six months maybe a year and it's been 12 now.”
So you like it?
Flavio: “I love it. I love it. Absolutely.”
Of all the countries in the world why Australia ?
Flavio: “It was super interesting because it was very exotic. It was so far away and I wanted an English-speaking country because I wanted to learn English. I have another big reason I have an auntie who lives here so I knew someone. It was a big, big point that made it a bit easier. I was curious; curious about nature and extremely fascinated about surfing.”
Surfing! How does someone from Rome get fascinated by surfing?
Flavio: “I love water. I feel more comfortable in water rather than outside most of the time because I've been swimming my whole life. I used to do competition swimming, then I used to skateboard and snowboard a lot. Surfing must be the perfection. It is in the water. I'm still riding a board like I want to do that. In fact, as soon as I arrived, I think one of the very first things I did was to rent a wetsuit and paddle out. It was a huge day, it was a big swell and I had no idea. I battled out and got smashed wave after wave. Then for some crazy reason I thought- I love this. I want to do this over and over and over again.”
Have you always been a freelancer?
Flavio: “Always, yes, yes. It's increasingly hard. It's always a tough business to get by; to make money as a freelancer or photographer, it's increasingly hard. People are not happy to pay for the work when they still think that it's just about clicking a button.”
How did you manage that? What sort of things were you doing?
Flavio: “I started with real estate photography. I got an opportunity when I saw an advertisement. A friend lent me a wide angle lens, I bought a little flash and I went out doing real estate photography without knowing much about it. In a few years I opened my own company with another two people doing real estate photography and I started making my way into the professional world that way. Then I got this incredible opportunity that was the dream of my life. A single opportunity with the Daily Telegraph to do work experience.
I knew at that moment I had this opportunity. I was supposed to go back to Italy so I extended my visa and changed it to a student one. I started working and helping the staff photographers. This work experience was supposed to be just a few weeks but I was still there after a few months. Little by little I start getting more opportunities from the editor to shoot myself, not just helping. They saw something in me and everything started from there.”
What was the main thing you learnt during that time?
Flavio: “The Australian way; it's a different way of doing journalism than in Europe, Italy and other English speaking countries. Here newspapers look more like a magazine so there is more stories, portraits, the opportunity of shooting my photos with my flashes or creating the image. That was a great, great school. A lot of jobs per day, a lot of technical jobs per day, every day and then I started applying this knowledge to the Telegraph. I started being noticed a little bit more and then I got my opportunity with News Corp’s News Wire service. I started working on the news, the portrait, features and started putting all the pieces together.”
Why do you think you're good at it?
Flavio: “Well, because I'm curious and as I have said ‘it is a need rather than a passion’. I actually feel the need to tell what I'm feeling so I think that's what makes me good at what I'm doing.”
How did you feel on the night at the 2025 Kennedy Awards when your name was called out as the winner of the most outstanding news photograph?
Flavio: “Unbelievable. That was a great, great night. I was hoping so much and then I got the pleasure to have two awards that night -the People’s Choice and the News Photography. It was incredible and I shared that night with colleagues that I've been admiring, looking up to and now they were sitting just next to me and I actually won the prize. It was a bit of, not dream come true because my dream coming true is doing the job but to get recognition for my work - it was such a great pleasure.”
Well, it's a confirmation of your ability.
Flavio: “Exactly, exactly.“
I've heard there is a really great story about how you shot that winning photo of the Pope lying in state. How were you there? How did you get it? Tell us about it.
Flavio: “Yes, the Pope, yes that's very funny. First of all, I have to say that I was so lucky as I was visiting family that lives right in Rome, about 20 minutes from the Vatican at night. However, during the day, it might take a couple of hours because of the Roman traffic, which is mental!
I knew I wanted that picture but the Vatican was controlling all the media and they wanted to have full control on what is seen and the pictures that come out from the media. I was not really allowed to take that picture. All the media were supposed to take it from a media bay which was quite far away - a horrible shot to be honest. I had seen during the day people were not respecting the rules, so this had been thinking, ‘how do I get that shot?’. I know I wanted that shot. I went with my mother at 01:30 am so that I could avoid the Vatican media people, who might recognizeme from during the day. I asked my mother to go first and be very loud about trying to take a picture with her phone. This would get the attention of the security guards and I would try to come out from behind her to get my shot.”
So, your Mum was an enthusiastic participant in your conspiracy?
Flavio: “My mum was extremely excited at the idea of helping me. We queued and my mum went through!
She started taking her photos and got their attention. I managed to get three single frame shots before I got stopped by the security. At that point, I hugged my mum, put my hoodie on and hid my camera. I pretend to be part of the visitors hiding in the crowd again, whilst the security was actually looking for me. Like - ‘get that guy, get the pictures’.
But they lost me, I walked all the way out of the Vatican City. I took my camera out to see what I had got and saw that one out of three frames I took was exactly the frame I wanted. Plus there is the Gendarme trying to stop me. I think that adds a layer of meaning to the photo. It shows how hard it was for people like me who were queuing up to 9 hours per day to have the opportunity to see the Pope lie in state just for a very few seconds. So I think that the Gendarme trying to stop me explains better what the feeling of being there was like.”
While you're escaping was your mother being arrested?
Flavio: “No, no my mum hugged me and we got in the crowd and walked away. She was extremely excited. She was asking to come every day with me to help me with my work. As I told you, my dad was a photographer so she used to help my dad. She was very excited to do this with me. She never saw me working; it was a very nice experience.”
What camera did you use?
Flavio: “I used a Nikon. To be honest, the camera I used that day was nearly broken. It was one that I brought to Italy just to have with me whilst visiting family. I wasn't planning on needing anything better but it did the job.”
How good were the photos on your mother's phone?
Flavio: ”Hopeless, a side of someone’s head, a bit of ceiling, she probably was not even looking. She was part of the trick.”
Was your winning photo was part of a sequence telling a story?
Flavio: “Correct, yes. I was trying to concentrate all my work on people’s reactions. I had a lot of content about how people were reacting to this big news. That is, one Pope dying before the other had been elected. I knew that to complete the story, I needed a more straight on shot of the main thing - the Pope lying in-state. That shot was actually more about the fact that where the media had to shoot from was too far away and awful framing. You needed to be closer. That's what the great photographer, Robert Capa, said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” I need to be close to the subject so that whoever looks at the photos feels like they are actually next to the subject. I want to make the audience be inside the photos, to leave them with the same feeling I lived the moment I was there - that's always my goal.”
Sadly after all this you are moving back to Rome to look after your ailing dad?
Flavio: “Yes, I leave part of my heart here. Absolutely, I had probably the best time of my life in this country. Thanks to Australia for welcoming me like you have for the past 11-12 years. It's been incredible.”
Sydney Mardi Gras, 2022