Nothing predestined Armelle Martignoni Caumont Caimi to photography, except an insatiable curiosity and a deep love of distant travel. Perhaps it was the sense of being hemmed in by the mountain peaks of her native Switzerland that awakened her desire to look beyond them. For decades she has practiced photography in a spontaneous, intuitive way, seeking fleeting moments of life and, above all, faces—and the gazes returned to her.

Armelle’s engagement with philanthropy began at the cusp of adulthood, when her father received his first liver transplant. As her family journeyed through illness and the uncertainty of survival, they cultivated a sense of marvel for the pure generosity of strangers and the invisible forces of hope and resilience that unite us all. 

Understanding early on that philanthropy is not limited to financial contributions, she has taken her camera across the world to shine light on the unseen, whether during international residencies or on solitary, offbeat paths. Compelled to capture moments of essential truth in the gazes of her subjects, whose eyes meet ours to draw us into their presence, Armelle strives to give space to those too often ignored and raise awareness that we are all part of one world.