Currently you’re working with Nina Caprez on a new project called ANDREA, which aims to share your passion with the world. Could you tell us more?
Of course photography is now part of my DNA, but above all else, my partner and I want to share our love for sports and the outdoors. We strongly believe that sports bring happiness and help improve personal development. We’re not trying to save the world, but we thought about how we could use our passion and energy to help to people in need. So, ANDREA was born.
Founded in 2020 with my partner, world-class Swiss climber, Nina Caprez, ANDREA is a Swiss non-profit organization whose goal is to explore, meet, and share through sports, often of the extreme kind. ANDREA is also an expedition truck, in which we’ll travel through to remote regions to meet and learn from the communities that live there.
Our card tricks? A removable climbing wall and a multimedia platform that will allow us to engage with communities through sport, particularly in climbing. A platform for life, a moving basecamp for exchange, a common spring of momentum.
How did you come up with the idea for ANDREA?
ANDREA was born during lockdown in Switzerland. First, the idea was to get a bigger van so we could live in it properly. We love being outdoors and it’s where we feel the happiest. After lots of online research looking for the perfect van, our minds started wandering. My longtime dream was to get an off-road vehicle so that we could drive in remote places. The idea of pushing the project a little bit further to give a special meaning to our lives. And here we are, with a project 10 times bigger than the original one but more fired up and excited than ever for what’s to come.
What is the main goal of this project?
We want to offer a bubble of escape for locals whose paths we cross, who often live in precarious and marginalized conditions. Between the two of us, Nina and I have traveled a good chunk of the planet, had hundreds of sporting adventures, and met many people. We want to stop on the side of the road, listen to stories, exchange views on small things and universes. And who knows, maybe it will change the course of a life? ANDREA will use sport to promote positive social connections and relationships.
When you started your career, did you have a plan to head in this direction?
I’m not a big career guy. I do not have many expectations regarding this and I didn’t think about the where and how I would see my career going too much. At first, I just followed a passion for skiing. It brought me to photography and traveling, always with sports. Then, it took me more into photojournalism, always with a sport aspect but more focusing on socializing and people - which I prefer more than just photographing sports now. Today, different experiences in my life brought me where I am now and I couldn’t feel more happy, grateful and accomplished than I do today.