Two years ago Lee Jeans launched the “Make History” campaign, a project that urged passionate and creative photographers of all ages and from all over the world to send powerful and engaging images that could tell special stories and create an alternative and fresh advertising campaign.

A panel of judges comprising Le Book’s Veronique Kolasa, i-D’s Terry Jones, Ojo de Pez editor Frank Kalero and Carla Sozzani, owner of the eponymous Milanese art gallery, went through the 16,000 entries sent from 90 different countries and selected 101 finalists. Rossella Dimichina with her underwater photograph entitled “The Weak in Wonderland” was proclaimed the overall winner of the €50,000 prize at an event that coincided with the opening of Milan Fashion Week. 

Born in Bari, but working in Bologna as photographer for a well-established company that sells designer clothes and accessories online, Dimichina hopes the prize will allow her to develop new and exciting projects in advertising and communication, her main areas of interest.     

Dazed Digital: What was your reaction when you heard you had won the award?
Rossella Dimichina: I was simply ecstatic. I was sure I hadn’t won because I never heard back from the competition organisers until the afternoon before the awarding ceremony when they actually phoned me. I was at work when I got the phone call and I started jumping for joy. Having been selected among so many professional photographers and by such an expert panel of judges really fills me with joy.  

DD: What are you planning to do with the prize money?
RD: I’m into a job I like at the moment, but I see this award as a completely new opportunity to gain more visibility and contacts. I will use the prize money as a sort of grant that will allow me to buy more equipment and pursue new projects I couldn’t have otherwise afforded.

DD: Why do you think the jury chose your photograph?
RD: Because it doesn’t fall into any particular genre, it’s not about music, fashion or lifestyle, in a nutshell it can’t be pigeonholed, but has a more universal theme and meaning behind it than many other images.  

DD: Can you tell us more about the story behind the photograph?
RD: It’s part of an underwater series I took with a Kodak throwaway camera, one of those cameras you have to break if you want to have the film developed. The photograph was taken in the Salento area last year. The bizarre thing was that when I took the film to be developed they didn’t print that image because they hadn’t seen it or the exposure wasn’t good enough. Then, looking at the frames I realised there was a picture that hadn’t been developed and with the help of my boyfriend’s scanner I managed to get the picture printed.

DD: Would you like to work as photographer for a fashion magazine one day?
RD: I find fashion as something very exciting and stimulating and I would like to work for alternative publications rather than for glossy magazines since my work would probably fit better with the former. That said, my real passion is advertising. For example, I never watch any particular programme on TV, but I watch a lot of ads, and, rather than reading the articles when I flip through a magazine, I usually end up looking at the advertising pages.  

DD: Is there a brand you’d like to set up an advertising campaign for?
RD: There are a lot of adverts I don’t like at the moment, but there are some brands that seem to have perfect advertising campaigns that really go with their style, ethos and message, such as Moschino, and I would like to work for someone like them one day.

The 101 finalist photographs of the Make History Award will be exhibited at the Galleria Revel, Via Thaon De Revel 3, Milan, until 9th March. The Make History campaign is nominated at the 2009 Lead Award for the category “Best Advertising”. The Lead Awards will be assigned on 1st April 2009 at Hamburg’s Deichtorhallen.