Marco Casino July 16, 2015

Weight Room at the San Siro Racetrack in Milan, Italy, 2012

Marco Casino (b. 1986, Italy) studied Biomedical engineering before becoming a a photographer. In March 2012, he won the Leica Talent 24×36 contest with the series The Death of Italian Horse Racing. The same year he was nominated ambassador for Leica Camera in Italy and founded the commercial agency Made in Milan. In 2014  he was a recipient of the annual scholarship grant from the Lucie Foundation and won the PDN Award and the the first prize in the Short Feature category from World Press Photo Multimedia Contest. His pictures has been published in National Geographic Proof, D di Repubblica, CNN and Wired among others. Marco is based between Milan and Turin and is represented by the LUZ Photo Agency.

About the Photograph: 

“Dario Vargiu, one of the best Italian riders, in the weight room at the end of a morning training session. A jockey must weigh as little as possible to prevent handicaps during the race.​ This picture was made during the Italian horse racing general strike. All the 43 race courses were closed in 2011. In February 2012​ after more than a month of a strike the race tracks reopened to the public. The real risk is that a quaint and charming world might forever disappear. A world that is responsible for countless personal and family economic downfalls but at the same time inspired writers, painters, designers, directors, and fueled the dreams of many small owners and punters helping to explain and enhance Italy abroad.”

Eugenio Grosso June 28, 2015

 
Faith in Sicily – Easter in Enna Italy 2012

Eugenio Grosso (b. 1984, Italy) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera. He worked as a part-time commercial photographer since 2007 and then as full-time photojournalist since 2009. He is a regular contributor to Italian publications including: Corriere della Sera and la Repubblica and la Stampa. His work has been featured in the Guardian, the Financial Times, BBC and the Washington Post. He is currently working on the theme of immigration and the relationships between the populations living on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Eugenio is based in London.

About the Photograph:

“I was born in Sicily and left my hometown when I was 18 to move to Milan in the north of Italy. Since then I have always had a conflicting relationship with my region. On the one hand I missed it while on the other I felt I was changing and couldn’t find myself in the same place and condition where i lived before. At the time when I took this photograph I was developing a project about religion and rituals in Sicily, trying to return to my roots and re-discover Sicily.”

“Photographing Easter in Sicily made me feel a bit uncomfortable at the beginning but, after a while, it became natural and the rest of the day went smooth. The main challenge was to keep the tourists with their smartphones out of the frame. Exploring the environment I was raised up in as an outsider helped me accept the pros and cons of my homeland and build a new more mature relationship with my origin.”

Alice Sassu August 28, 2014

From the project Giambellino 146, Milan Italy

Alice Sassu (b. 1979 Italy) studied Philosophy and Photography at Cfp Bauer in Milan. After obtaining a MA degree in Philosophy, in 2009 she received a European grant to complete photo and video projects in Palestine. in January 2013 she concluded an internship at the Luz photo agency in Milan, Italy. In addition to making documentary videos, Alice has collaborated with several NGOs based in Middle East. Her photographs have been published in Der Spiegel, Foto8, Popoli and Redattore Sociale.

About the Photograph:

“This picture tells the story of Anna, a blind woman who lives with her cat and dolls in a public multi-ethnic social housing residence near  Milan. Giambellino 146, is an example of self-management social housing: to compensate for the lack of public and private investment in social housing. Residents gather together in meetings and make decisions on the management/maintenance of their building. 146 Giambellino is a photographic series part of a larger project on housing issues. Later, with Italy under eviction I worked on a project about several families forcibly evicted to their houses in Milan neighborhoods. Technically, it’s called guilty arrearage: it consists of eviction because of scarce income of inhabitants. The situation worsens with the approval of the House Plan by the Italian government: for which the illegal occupants cannot have the residence, so they become invisible citizens.”

Paolo Marchetti July 14, 2014

Skinhead gathering in the Lazio region of Italy. 2010.

Paolo Marchetti (b. 1974, Italy) began his photographic studies with particular attention to anthropology issues. His work has been published in magazines such as TIME, Newsweek, The Guardian, De Spiegel, Geo, 6Mois and others. Paolo’s photographs have been recognized from Photo District News, The National Press Photographer’s Association and Leica. In 2013 he won the ANI Pix-Palace Award in Perpignan. He is based in Rome.

About the Photograph:

“Young Italian skinheads during an Hawaiian party on the coast of Lazio. Each year, the Italian skins come together on the Italian coast (in the region of Lazio) and celebrate the beginning of summer, wearing Hawaiian style clothes. The rules are simple, there are three. No one can speak about the Hawaiian party before participating, everyone must wear Hawaiians and the last rule is that no one should talk about it after attending. The event lasted twenty-four hours from lunch on a Saturday until the following day with plenty of live music. There were skins from England, Spain and Hungary- a strong network exists between European skinheads, a bond of brotherhood but the Hawaian party theme is an Italian tradition.”

Clara Vannucci April 28, 2014

Theatrical production at Prison Volterra in Tuscany Italy 2012

Clara Vannucci (b.1985, Italy) studied graphic design at the University of Architecture of  Florence. In New York after an Internship with Magnum Photos, she had access for a two years to work on a project in the battered women’s section at Rikers Island prison. Her clients and publications include Repubblica, L’Espresso, Touring Club, Private, La stampa, The New York Times, Le journal de la photographie, Le Courrier International and Vogue Italy among others. She is currently participating in a year long residency at Fabrica, the communication research center of Benetton group in Treviso, Italy.

About the Photograph:

“This picture was shot during the show Mercuzio non vuole morire in the corridor of  the Volterra Maximum Security Prison. Both subjects in the picture are prisoners and actors. Every year, the inmates at Prison Volterra in Tuscany put on a show. They are directed by Armando Punzo, who established the Compagnia della Fortezza in 1988. About a third of the 170 men imprisoned participate. Many are dangerous felons who are in prison for life. Most of them come from criminal gangs.”

“Prison theater is about redemption. It teaches prisoners to work collaboratively. They become actors, not only prisoners. They take their show around the country. For one week they were on tour performing in a small town close to the border. During the day they were free to walk around the square without being guarded. Afterward, they were driven to the local prison where they slept in cells. I asked a prisoner why no one tried to escape. He said, ‘Why should I run away’? Where would I go? I’ve lived in prison 20 years. Now I have something to live for. Life has meaning.’ ”

Marco Gualazzini February 11, 2013

Feast day of Our Lady of Polsi, Calabria, Italy 2011

Marco Gualazzini (b.1976, Italy) began his career as a photographer in 2004, with his hometown’s local daily, La Gazzetta di Parma. His recent works include reportage photography on microfinance in India, on the media in Laos, as well as on the discrimination of Christians in Pakistan. He devised and took part in the creation of a documentary for the Italian national TV network RAI on the caste system in India. His photographs have been published in national and international publications including Internazionale, Io Donna, L’Espresso, M (Le Monde), Newsweek Japan, Sette (Corriere della Sera), The New York Times and Vanity Fair among  others. Marco is represented by LUZ photo Agency.

About the Photograph:

“This picture was taken last year in Calabria  during the solemn feast day of Our Lady of Polsi while I was developing a reportage about 12 journalists that were threatened by the Ndrangheta between 2010 and 2011. In Italy the so-called Mafia has different names in each region. In Sicily it is called Cosa Nostra. In Campania: Camorra, in Puglia: Sacra Corona Unita, and in Calabria: Ndrangheta. The Ndrangheta is considered the most dangerous criminal organization in Italy, but it is also among the most powerful in the world.”

“Last year when I read about the 12th journalist threatened by the Ndrangheta, I decided to take the portraits of these 12 colleagues of mine who were risking their lives to do their job. Soon I realized that I had to contextualize those portraits. It wasn’t enough to tell the story. So the idea was to show not only the faces of the journalists but also the newsrooms where they worked. To complete my report I decided to add some Ndrangheta landscapes that might be familiar for Italians, to remind us of the lands where these journalists are used to working. It was important to photograph the annual meetings, called Crimini, at the sanctuary of Polsi, so on the 2nd of September I went to the solemn feast day of Our Lady of Polsi. I was photographing in the rectory just before the Mass, when I saw this bolt of light reflected on the priests. I couldn’t not have taken this picture.”

Giulio Piscitelli December 3, 2012

From a Project on Political Refugees in Italy. Naples 2012

Giulio Piscitelli (1981, Italy) received his bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences from the University in Naples. He collaborated with the photographic archive of Naples Parisio as post producer of images and archivist. Giulio’s work has been exhibited at the Villa Pignatelli (Naples), University of Catanzaro (Italy), International Festival of Journalism in Perugia, Angkor Photo Festival and the National Library of Bologna. In 2010 he began freelancing with major national and international newspapers and magazines including Vanity Fair, Oggi, Corriere della Sera, Stern, Vanity Fair, New York Times and L’espresso . Giulio is based in Naples.

About the Photograph:

“This photo is part of a more extensive work related to migrants who arrived in Italy and then Europe. After the crisis of Lampedusa in 2011, the asylum seekers have been welcomed in hotel rooms and forgotten, waiting for documents that recognized them as political refugees. In Italy, they have no way to leave the country, which is normally a territory of transit to the countries of northern Europe. I met the guests of the hotels during a rally for migrants rights telling my previous experience and knowledge about the question of the immigrants in Italy. After working in the Naples, I moved to Rome, where the issue of asylum seekers is even more serious, a group of young Afghans lived on the edge of a railway station received little or no assistance from the government.The man in the picture is Mohamed who escaped from Libya during the war because he was a supporter of the Gaddafi regime. He offered me a cup of tea in his hotel room and told me about his plans to travel to Norway, but for the moment he can’t move from Naples.”

Simone Donati September 7, 2012

From the project “Valley of Angels”, Sicily 2010

Simone Donati (b.1977, Italy) completed a three-year course in photography at the Fondazione Studio Marangoni in Florence. After an internship at Magnum Photo in New York he started working in the field of documentary photography. His work focuses on the political and social situation of Italy.
 In 2011 he was shortlisted at Fotografia Festival Roma, Voices Off in Arles and at the OjodePez Award for Human Values with his project “Valley of Angels”. In 2010 he received the Ponchielli prize (3rd place) for “Welcome to Berlusconistan”. 
His photographs have been part of solo and group shows in Italy and abroad and have been published in: Le Monde Magazine, Newsweek, L’Espresso, Vanity Fair Italy, GEO Italy and Monocle among others.
 He is one of the founding members of the collective TerraProject: a collective of Italian documentary photographers.

About the Photograph:

“This is a picture from my project Valley of Angels, which I shot in Southeastern Sicily between 2010 and 2011.  The work documents the life of Angelo, Angela and their daughters Hybla, Lua and Siria. I met them in 2008, while working on a project about the oil industry. A friend introduced them to me and we spent some time in their old home. In 2010 I remembered  them, I found their contact and asked for permission to spend some time together to document their daily life. The family chose to be careful about the food they eat and the education they give their children who were all born at home. With the same convictions, they use alternative energy sources (such as wind turbines and solar panels) that allow them to live independently of a main electricity supply. They only buy and grow organic and local food.”

“I was attracted by their choice to live a natural lifestyle. I have visited them three times, each time living with them for about a week. I tried to follow my instinct with the photographs and of course I wasn’t photographing all the time. Sometimes I lent a hand with the work of the house, preparing meals, etc. I focused my photography on the family, choosing to avoid all the people who visited them. In this picture, taken during my second visit, all the family is having breakfast early in the morning. The location is an old stall which they were using as kitchen-dining room, while waiting for their new house to be ready.”

Magdalena Solé July 25, 2012

Barbiere Figaro in Venice, Italy 2010

Magdalena Solé (b.1958, Spain) graduated with a Masters of Fine Art in Film from Columbia University in 2002.  She was the Unit Production Manager on the film “Man On Wire”. Her current work includes: Kamagasaki: a photo documentary on the shunned elderly day laborers of Japan. Cuba: communities on the brink of change, where the past is still visible, but the future not yet in focus. Japan | After the Water Receded, an exploration of the aftermath of the great 2011 Tohoku disaster. Most recently her photographs of the Mississippi Delta have been selected as a PDN Photo Annual 2011 Finalist. Her book “New Delta Rising”, published by the University Press of Mississippi, has just been released. It has won the Silver Award in 2011 at PX3 Prix de la Photographie. She is also winner of the Silver Prize at Slow Exposures in 2011. Her work has been exhibited in Asia and the US.

About the Photograph:

“As I always do when I photograph, I wander the streets for days. One of the most beautiful places to do that is Venice. I remember visiting Piazza San Marco when I was six years old with my parents and getting lost, which was both a thrilling and very scary experience. I also spent my 20th birthday there, surrounded by its decaying beauty. The barber in the photo was called Barbiere Figaro, he loved opera. His real name was Umberto. I went to look for him again, when I returned to Venice, with his picture in hand. The labyrinth of walkways didn’t make it easy to find him. It was evening and already dark. I asked about him at the little bodega that was just closing across the way. They told me the sad news that he had suddenly passed away in 2010, just a few months after I took his picture. Barbiere Figaro has become an inspiration for my new project: “Barbers”, a visual journey through barbershops and their cultures around the world.”

Dave Yoder May 28, 2012

Fashion Week, Milan Italy 2009

Dave Yoder (b.1964, United States) spent his youth in the USA and Tanzania. His interest in photojournalism began at university while studying journalism. Dave’s work has been published in National Geographic Magazine, Smithsonian, National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and Newsweek among others. His photo essay on bounty hunters was exhibited at Visa Pour l’Image in Perpignan, France. He is in the process of completing a four-year project for National Geographic Magazine on the high-tech search for a lost Leonardo da Vinci painting, which is currently featured on a television program on the National Geographic Channel. Other projects include a children’s circus in Peru, Indiana and travel stories for National Geographic Traveler. Dave is based in Milan.

About the Photograph:

“Raquel Zimmerman is in this photo, at a Pucci show, shortly before she is sent out onto the catwalk. Like most of the models, she was very friendly, intelligent, and worked very hard. Fashion weeks are grueling, and there is no room for a prima donna. I shot backstage on and off for four years, and had gone into it with the usual stereotype expectations. They were soon dashed. Each show is a miracle, each of them involving scores of people working their asses off. I never saw any drugs or temper tantrums, and soon developed a respect for what I eventually called the hourly miracle that is fashion week.” (more…)

Lorenzo Meloni September 15, 2011

After a Rave. Dead City, Rome 2009

Lorenzo Meloni (b.1983, Italy) studied at the Scuola Romana di Fotografia for three years. He has reported on Palestinian refugees and Yemen where he is planning to relocate. Other works include retrospectives on the Italian techno-rave and hip-hop youth scenarios.  Lorenzo’s work has been exhibited at: The Luigi Pigorini National Ethnographic Prehistoric Museum in Rome and the Fotoleggendo Festival. His photographs have been published in L’Espresso, La Republica  and TIME.

About the Photograph:

“This photo was shot during an illegal rave party on the outskirts of Rome, in an area known as the ‘Dead City’. These three young people are regaining mental clarity after a night dancing under the effect of drugs and alcohol. The music, blaring out of a 20,000-watt sound system, still hasn’t worn them out and to chat, they have to speak in each others ear. The silence of the woods surrounds them, but the mix of drugs and alcohol, continues to keep them close to the vibrations of the music. This photo is part of a project on illegal raves that I have been following for the last two years. The purpose is to tell the story of a non-place, where there are no rules; an unfettered realm, where the conventions of the real world don’t exist and illegality and drugs are the only means to find pleasure.”

Piero Martinello November 22, 2010

“Bar Portraits”. Schio, Italy 2007

Piero Martinello (b.1985, Italy) joined FABRICA, the Communication Research Center of Benetton Group. At FABRICA Piero has worked extensively for Colors Magazine, becoming the director of photography of Colors 76, “Teenagers”. His work has been published in La Repubblica, The Herald, Le Monde, Il Corriere della Sera, La Stampa La Tribune and Internazionale, and has had exhibitions in Luxembourg and Lisbon. Piero has also worked on various social awareness campaigns; a campaign for the situation in Darfur commissioned by the Canadian newspaper Walrus, two World Health Organization campaigns entitled “Stop Tubercolosis” and “Child Injury Prevention”, and two campaigns for United Colors of Benetton. In 2010 he has been assisting Mary Ellen Mark in New York, and he’s currently working in London with Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.

About the Photograph:

“This image is part of the “Bar Portraits” series, a collection of portraits of gentleman met and photographed inside small and dodgy bars and cafes of small villages all around Italy. It was taken in the town where I come from, Schio, a village at the bottom of the mountains in the northeast of Italy. And this is actually my favorite bar, Osteria Due Spade, a place where Ernest Hemingway had some good times when he was an ambulance driver with the American Army. The man in the photo comes to this bar every single morning and every single afternoon, no exceptions. He always sits on his own, reads the news and has a coffee or a glass of wine, white during the summer and red during the winter. He’s a man of few words, when I asked to take his portrait he didn’t complain or say anything, he just followed me, sat at the table with an incredible spontaneity and posed like an worldly-wise Hollywood actor.”

Greg Miller May 1, 2009

From the series “Primo Amore”, Italy, 2001

Greg Miller ( b.1967, American) While maintaining a commercial photography career that began in 1988, Miller has produced several bodies of personal work including photographs from County Fairs, Marching Band Camps and Ash Wednesday. In 2008, this work earned him a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Since 2001, he has taught regularly at The International Center of Photography in New York. He received a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in photography from the School of Visual Arts in 1990. Greg lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.

About the Photograph:

“I took this picture of Doriana and Mirko in 2001, during my third trip to Italy.  Mirko is an amateur body builder.  He and Doriana had been dating for about a year at the time this picture was taken.  I had been bugging Mirko for weeks to photograph him.  He would always agree to meet me, but then would not show. After a couple of times, his mother intervened and he finally agree to meet us at Via Appia, the oldest Roman road.  I was playing around with the idea of Mirko being a  blue jean wearing, modern Roman god in an ancient setting.  I took a few photographs of  him alone, then a few with some tourists nearby.  As the sun was going down, I asked Doriana if she would be in the picture.  I took two sheets of them together.  In the first, Doriana was looking at Mirko.  As I was taking the film holder out of the camera, I saw that she turned and looked away in a most solitary gesture.  She was miles away from us at that moment. That was the picture.” (more…)