Born in Turin in 1973, Elena Franco is an architect and photographer. Her artistic practice focuses on projects that connect architecture, archives and territory, with particular attention to the enhancement of cultural heritage.Her main photographic research, Hospitalia (ongoing since 2012), has been exhibited and presented in institutional venues in Milan, Naples, Turin, Lausanne, Venice, Florence, Arles, Lessines and Siena, often accompanied by conferences and workshops inspired by her work. The project has been published as a book edited by Tiziana Bonomo (ARTEMA, 2017), followed by an English edition (ARTEMA, 2019). In 2015, after being featured among the best portfolios of the year at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, she won the first edition of the Premio Mediterraneo Fotografie, and a selection of her works entered the Fondo Malerba per la Fotografia. In 2016 she was shortlisted for the Premio Combat at the Museo G. Fattori in Livorno and selected for the Premio Streamers. In 2019, through a residency promoted by Creativamente Roero, she produced the triptych Devotio, now part of the Govone Contemporaneo collection at the Castello di Govone. One of her works was also selected as the Premio Castello di Govone 2019, awarded to Pier Giovanni Castagnoli. Her project Imago Pietatis, created for the Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna and exhibited at Galleria Studio Cenacchi, was among the winners of the New Post Photography prize at MIA Fair 2020. Since 2014 she has exhibited regularly in institutional venues and museums in Italy and abroad. Her works are held in public and private collections. She collaborates with Il Giornale dell’Architettura and, for her artistic work, is part of the Medical Humanities working group at the hospital of Alessandria. She is artistic director of Fondazione Arte Nova and collaborates as a curator with Museo Villa Bernasconi in Cernobbio.