Although the artists showcased in “Give me yesterday” differ considerably in their stylistic approaches, all of their work is intensely personal. Dutch artist Melanie Bonajo for example, has, for her series “Anti-Selfie”, photographed herself every time she cried, a tour de force of raw vulnerability as well as a reaction to modern society’s notions of happiness and male-centric female imagery. In a similarly brave act of exposure, Portuguese photographer Tomé Duarte has captured himself in his girlfriend’s clothing in an attempt to reconnect with her identity as well as his own.

Others artists like Brooklyn-based artist Leigh Ledare and South African photographer Lebohang Kganye have chosen to tell their story through a close family member. Ledare, once an assistant to Larry Clark, has photographed his mother in intricately staged, risqué poses for his series "Pretend You're Actually Alive", while Kganye’s work, also centered around her mother who has passed away, features old family photos of her mother on which the artist has superimposed her own image, blurring the line between real and imagined memories.

The exhibition also features work by Ryan McGinley—the most important photographer in America according to GQ—whose cross-country car trips with friends in the mid-2000s produced a series of pictures that combine a sense of motion with an air of intimacy, as well as Italian photographer Antonio Rovaldi, whose photographs are also the product of extensive travelling, in his case along the Italian coastline during the summers of 2011 and 2014, but which contrary to McGinley’s work, evoke, by capturing views of the horizon, a sense of stillness and solitary contemplation (“Orizzonte in Italia”).

Rounding up the show’s photographic journey of personal experiences, artists Kenta Cobayashi, Irene Fenara, Vendula Knopova, Wen Ling, Izumi Miyazaki, Joanna Piotrowska, Greg Reynolds and Maurice van Es perfectly encapsulate Fondazione Prada’s dictum that “culture should help us with our everyday lives, and understand how we, and the world, are changing.”