Cadets by Paolo Verzone and Catherine Sauvat - book review: Portraits of elite young officers from Europe's leading military academies

His subjects symbolise the connection between tradition and the future of Europe

Verzone's subjects symbolise the connection between tradition and the future of Europe (Paolo Verzone/Agence VU)

For Cadets, Italian photographer Paolo Verzone spent five years visiting Europe’s leading military academies to shoot portraits of the elite young officers.

Verzone saw his subjects as symbolising the connection between tradition, the history of the military schools, and the future of Europe that the cadets represent. The photograph featured here was taken at the Koninklijke Militaire Academie, Breda, The Netherlands, and was a winner in the 2015 World Press Photo awards. Breda has hosted the military academy for the Dutch armed forces since 1828.

Paris-based photographer Verzone was born in Turin, Italy, in 1967, and started to take pictures at 18. His photographs have featured in Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and The Independent. He is a member of Agence VU, in Paris, and examples of his work are found in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the National Library of France. Verzon’s Cadets portraits have been exhibited at the Les Invalides military museum in Paris.

His collaborator in Cadets, journalist and writer Catherine Sauvat, divides her time between France and Austria. She is the author of numerous artist biographies, which have been translated into several languages.

Editions de la Martiniere £30.39