Mauro D’Agati met Marzia in 2007. She was six years old and playing on a beach in Termini Imerese, just outside Palermo. She was spending her summer vacation with her family.

Marzia's welcome was so immediate and spontaneous that from that moment on, the artist chose her as the subject of a project that lasted years, and is still ongoing. The photographer got to know her, her family, and her friends, becoming accepted as one of them. He attended parties, weddings, birthdays, and funerals, and watched Marzia’s transition from childhood into adolescence, with the ambition of spending several days with her family every year.

“As time unfolds, Mauro D’Agati’s project Marzia’s Family undergoes a profound transformation. What began as a non-judgmental exploration of a poor Sicilian family, centered around the then six-year-old protagonist, the charming Marzia, has evolved into an intricate family saga over the course of eighteen years. During the first fifteen years, the photographer was deeply immersed in the family’s life, bearing witness to Marzia’s maturation into a young woman. 
Now, D’Agati has assumed a more intermittent role 
as the family’s photographer, summoned to capture significant milestones, such as the first communion of the youngest child, Martina.
 Here familiar faces, framed in the vibrancy of makeup and ceremonial attire, have inevitably aged, their once youthful exuberance replaced by the fatigue 
that etches lines on their faces. The parents, now surrounded by their adult children,
 no longer reflect the carefree, joyful gang of youngsters from past beach holidays.
The photographer’s role has narrowed, with his presence now requested solely for major family events, patiently awaiting the inevitable wedding invitations that will mark the next chapter.
 Shifting away from the dynamic format of a publication that spanned from 2007 to 2022, the project 
has now embraced a new format:
 each forthcoming family event will be documented as a zine.”
- Kateryna Filyuk