In each couple I encountered, I saw a kind of open-mindedness: an ability to see the other for who they are, without prejudice or bias. This constant observation led me to wonder: if love can create families so advanced in their way of thinking, why must we still hear discriminatory and racist rhetoric in our society? Why isn’t the verbal violence of those who turn racism, xenophobia, and homophobia into values — broadcast on talk shows, posted in online comments, or slipped into a casual joke — entirely marginalised, or better yet, stopped altogether?

We fool ourselves into thinking these are small things, easy to dismiss. But they reveal an underlying rot that, left unchecked, builds up over time until it erupts in acts of real violence. And despite our quiet awareness of this, society has yet to develop a definitive, collective rejection of those who still discriminate against others based on skin colour or sexual orientation.

This photographic project seeks to represent — through the love of five couples — a break with every form of discriminatory and racist thinking. It aims to show a different reality, one rarely reflected in mainstream media. A reality partly hidden, yet alive in the fabric of society, and helping to sustain it.

Marco, a true son of the Marche region, and Anastasia, of Russian origin, met at a party and fell in love at first sight; less than three years later, they were married. Filippo and Sara, both hip-hop dancers — he from Milan, she of Eritrean and Ethiopian heritage — were friends for years before love brought them together. Yasi, Brazilian, and Joaana, Neapolitan, met through social media and chose to make a life together in Milan. Lamen, from Senegal, and Nathaly, from Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, met in Brescia through mutual friends and, after a year of courtship, were married. Liu and Peiyi both hail from China, one of the world’s largest countries, but met and fell in love in Milan.

These young people — these individuals — have chosen to love in defiance of prejudice. Love has its own rules, uniting people by fate or chance, as one might say, even when they are born at opposite ends of the earth, with different skin colours, cultures, or the same sexual identity. None of them sees differences as divisions; instead, they share their cultures freely, without limiting the ways they can blend and grow together.

There should be no limits to love — no matter who it is between — and no feeling should be forced into repression, only to ferment over time into hatred, frustration, or violence.