The fifth edition of the Longevity Fest Costa Smeralda 2026, the event dedicated to the culture of longevity, concluded yesterday evening in Porto Cervo with the presentation of the Longevity Award Costa Smeralda to American photographer Steve McCurry, considered one of the greatest contemporary visual storytellers.

The 2026 Costa Smeralda Longevity Award is presented to Steve McCurry, according to the citation, for having narrated, through nearly fifty years of photography, the extraordinary power of the human experience and its relationship with time. His gaze has spanned continents, cultures, and generations, encountering children, women, and men, witnesses of war and peace, fragility and resilience, work, traditions, and everyday life. In his portraits, time is not simply what passes: it is what remains. In the faces, eyes, gestures, and stories of the people he photographed, McCurry has constructed a universal memory of the human being. For having transformed photography into a testimony to life, memory, and the value of time, the Longevity Fest presents Steve McCurry with the 2026 Longevity Award.

The award was presented by Pietro Mereu, director and creator of the Longevity Fest Costa Smeralda, and representatives of the Costa Smeralda Consortium, which promoted the initiative together with Smeralda Holding.

During the awards ceremony, four previously unpublished photographs by the American photographer taken in Porto Cervo were also presented, capturing the beauty of the Costa Smeralda: the Capo Ferro Lighthouse, the Capo Ferro promontory, the Stella Maris Church, and the Cala Romantica Arch. The Longevity Weeks Costa Smeralda continue until October 11th with Prevention Days on October 5th, 7th, 8th, and 10th, the presentation of holistic practices on October 8th, the Walking Experience & Mindfulness, and the Terra Mare Cup on October 10th and 11th, which combines running on the Pevero trails with swimming in the bay of Porto Cervo.