Bio

Pier Paolo Cito was born in Brindisi, South Italy in 1963.

In 1991 he started his career freelancing with a local newspaper.

In 1992 he worked with Italian most important newspapers and magazines.

In 1997 he started stringing with the Rome’s bureau of the international news agency Associated Press (AP).

In 1998 he became an AP staffer and moved to Rome.

Since then he covered major international conflicts, Montenegro e Kosovo (1999, 2000, 2004),  Ethiopia (2000), Gaza's Strip, West Bank and Israel (from 2000 to 2006),  Iraq (2003, 2004), Lebanon (2006), Afghanistan (2010), Libya (2011) as well as the Vatican and abroad activities of Pope John Paul II (trips to:Assisi, Ischia, Poland, Slovakia, Israel, West Bank, Syria) and Benedict XVI (trips to: Germany, United States of America, Poland, Spain, Turckey, Austria, Jordan, Israel, West Bank, Cyprus, Croatia).

In 2014 he started working as a consultant with the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations).

In 2019, after obtaining a "Deep Diver" certification he started taking photos in what he considers "the other side of the world".

Pier Paolo Cito has received numerous international acknowledgements and awards.

In 2002, in the United States, he was awarded by the NPPA (National Press Photographers Association) for his photo coverage of the Etna volcano’s eruption in 2001. The same work appeared in TIME magazine among the Photos of the Year 2001.

In 2007, he was awarded by APME (Associated Press Managing Editors) in the category News Photography. The prize, which dates back to the 30s, recognizes excellent reports issued by Associated Press photographers and is awarded every year by an examining board of over 1,500 American and Canadian AP associated newspaper members.

The same year, Cito was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the most prestigious acknowledgement awarded by Columbia University to distinguished journalists and photojournalists on an international level, in various news sectors.

In 2008, with the photo "Waiting", Cito won the Award of Excellence, in the category General News Reporting, in the 65th edition of the international prize Picture of the Year International. The image, taken in San Luca, Calabria, depicts several women waiting in a church for the coffins of three victims of the so-called Mafia slaughter of August 15 2007, which took place in Duisburg, Germany. Founded in 1944, the Picture Of The Year International is the oldest and one of the most important international photojournalism contests in the world.

In 2020 one of his underwater photos has been "Highly Commended" in the International contest "Underwater Photographer of the Year 2020"

Cito put his activities as a photojournalist side by side with being an expert of photojournalism and war journalism at prestigious universities and journalism schools, both in Italy and abroad.

He published several books and took part to many photo exhibitions in Italy and abroad.

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