Casta Diva is a project documenting some minor beauty pageants in rich, bored provincial Italian communities.
With Berlusconi's commercial television inciting people's dream of fame, a particular (sub)culture has become a forced media dictatorship. This cultural involution, in which women are continually judged by their looks, has a specific effect: the manipulation and negation of female identity.

The story was reviewed on issue 29 of GUP Magazine, an international bimonthly authoritative publication on photography; it devotes each issue to a specific theme, featuring every angle of photography, from extensive portfolios of respected photographers to a complete international gallery and museum exhibition guide. 

A slideshow showcasing some pictures from Casta Diva can be found on GUP's website (link).