Born in 1989, Jonathan grew up in the Chianti hills, spending most of his time hiking and exploring the surrounding forests. For nearly 15 years, his faithful companion Duman followed his adventures.

Since his adolescence, he started to question why the world looks the way it is and how ancient events shaped current biodiversity. This initially lead him to pursue a bachelor in Physics and Astrophysics; however, due to his overwhelming passion towards biology, he switched to Natural Sciences at the University of Florence: a crux in his life. Besides acquiring his first DSLR camera, this course provided him with the skills to critically and empirically analyze the surrounding environment. He developed a BSc dissertation project on the microscopic larvae of the Mediterranean mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis), investigating their dispersal along the Tyrrhenian coastline involving world leading experts on marine coastal ecosystems from the University of Rhodes (Dr. Francesca Porri) and the University of Florence (Prof. Stefano Cannicci).

Once graduated, he worked and traveled for one year across Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and India, documenting the trip with his camera. He got fascinated from the reptile diversity in Australia, the stunning landscapes of New Zealand, the unbelievable underwater world of the Philippines and the craziness of India: “the land of the contrasts” as he commonly refers to.

Then, he got accepted in an international master course in Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystems (Tropimundo), attending lectures in Italy, Belgium and Australia; he worked on the variation of venom composition of the Australian black snakes (Psudechis spp.) under the supervision of the world expert on venom Bryan Fry.

His academic career continued at Ghent University, and in early 2021 he has been awarded with the title of PhD in Biology under the supervision of Matthew Shawkey, Liliana D’Alba, and Susana Clusella-Trullas. The work explored how the colored integument of reptiles (Archosauria and Lepidosauria) can influence the ecology and evolution of organisms in light of climate change. Currently, he is a postdoctoral fellow in the Evolutionary Ecology Unit at Lund University with Nathalie Feiner and Tobias Uller where he continues to explore the colorful world of vertebrates.

To couple his academic background with photography, he decided to engage the wide public with pictures taken during his multiple trips, mostly targeting anthropogenic climate change due to its undeniable potential to modify ecosystem structures. With his pictures he would like to transmit to people how fragile is biodiversity in our changing planet. He firmly believes that only by sharing the reality we are living in, reporting images from from close and remote areas, disclosing the beauty we are surrounded by, may help us to re-connect with our Earth.

AWARDS and RECOGNITIONS

• 2023 – 2025: Wenner-Gren Foundation Fellow
• 2017 – 2021: BOF grant holder
• 2018 – 2019: Awarded with the Gustave Boël-Sofina Fellowship
  
• 2017:  Awarded with the King Leopold III Fund for Nature Exploration and Conservation
• 2016: MSc graduation with the Highest Distinction
• 2016: 3rd place in the YNHM photographic contest 
• 2016: Three pictures exposed at the Natural History Museum of Paris
• 2016: Advanced Open Water (AOW) Diver certification (PADI)
• 2015: Venomous snake handling course
  
• 2015: Picture selection for “urban wildlife” storyline on National Geographic
• 2015: Editorial selection for National Geographic Photo Contest (Italy)

For the list of publications see the dedicated section.