Born in Genoa, Italy, in 1995, Diego Dylan Bianchi (DDB) is a research scientist and photographer with a passion for the world of filamentous fungi. With a background in Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology from the Universities of Turin and Milan, his work bridges the scientific and the artistic, offering new perspectives on these fungi. 

His fascination with fungi began during his undergraduate studies, when he encountered the ancient and essential relationship between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). These symbionts were key to the colonization of land by plants, and they continue to play a vital role in ecosystem stability and agricultural productivity today. This early discovery sparked a lasting curiosity that led him to explore biological alternatives in agriculture, focusing on the use of fungi in the growing fields of biostimulants, biofertilizers, and biopesticides.

His artistic practice began naturally during his time in the lab. As he kept discovering more fungal isolates during his PhD at Trinity College Dublin, one Petri dish at a time, he felt drawn to document them visually. These fungal life forms struck him as strange, extraordinary, at times even unsettling, yet deeply evocative, often triggering unexpected associations within his creative vision. Faced with the stark absence of compelling imagery devoted to filamentous fungi (unlike the rich visual culture surrounding mushrooms), he asked himself: how could such a visually fascinating world remain so overlooked? This question became a catalyst to open the lids, both literally and metaphorically, and let the spores spread beyond the lab.

What started as a side project turned into a pioneering work of fungal macrophotography, officially launched online in February 2025 under the name Fungal Galaxies, that is an ongoing exploratory practice inspired by the natural biodiversity of wild filamentous fungi.