Parallelo zero: the reportage bank

Russia - The Krokodil drug

2013-05-15

The Krokodil is a home-made drug produced with highly toxic chemicals such as iodine, hydrochloric acid, solvents and phosphorus. The main ingredient is the desomorphine, an opiate that is obtained through the synthesis of codeine, a painkiller available in any pharmacy. Those who use it shut themselves up in the house and engage themselves in a continuous cycle of preparation and getting high even 50 a day, with an effect that lasts about 40 minutes each time. The desomorphine that is 'cooked' is highly impure and has devastating effects on muscle tissue, brain cells and organs. Liver, kidneys and heart are the first organs to be affected. Those who use it have a life expectancy of about three years. In Yekaterinburg, a Russian city on the edge of Siberia, the Krokodil is widespread in the suburbs of the city as an alternative to heroin.

Europe - Living on the edge

2013-05-14

The UE has worked since its foundation to achieve border integration. Nevertheless, the creation of new borders and the strengthening of existing ones still occur, especially within cities. Divided cities are both cohabitation laboratories and battlegrounds. The aim of this project is to portray the day-to-day reality of people living in Nicosia (Cyprus), Belfast (Northern Ireland), Mitrovica (Kosovo) and Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina). What these cities have in common are physical borders that were born from conflict. In each, social, ethnic and religious collectives feel that their community in those territories should be exclusive. Even so, there are also members who would like to overcome the past and define a common future, beyond differences.

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Medjugorje

2013-05-10

In 1981 Medjugorje was a poor village of the Socialist Yugoslavia surrounded by low stony hills. It was on one of these hills, the Podbrdo, that on the 24th of June six minors started to claim that they had seen a female figure with an oval face, black hair and blue eyes: it was the Gospa, the Virgin Mary. She invited them to convert, showed them how to find peace and communiated ten secrets to be revealed to the world in due time. Is all of this false, as some people claim? The Church has had a cautious attitude so far and those visionaries, who have now become adults, continue to see the Virgin Mary. In the meantime Medjugorje has become one of the world´s top destinations of religious tourism with more than a million pilgrims visiting the village every year and a successful business of souvenir shops, books and tour packages.

United States - Slab city

2013-05-06

Since the housing bubble burst, nearly 4 million American homes have been lost. Slab City is a squatters' camp deep in the badlands of California's poorest county, where the road ends and the sun reigns, about 190 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The vast state-owned property gets its name from the concrete slabs spread out across the desert floor, the last remnants of a World War IIera military base. In the decades since it was decommissioned, dropouts and fugitives of all stripes have swelled its winter population to nearly 2,000, all attracted by the do-it-yourself and rent-free living, beyond the reach of electricity, running water and the law. And while the complexion of the Slabs, as the place is locally known, may be changing in some ways, the same old rule applies: respect your neighbour, or stay the hell out of the way.

2013-04-15

United States - New York Renaissance

2013-04-15

New York? Simply being there is exciting. Tom Wolfe is right: being in New York, walking around its districts, visiting this puzzling and hectic post-modern metropolis that never sleeps, is a sensory experience. A quarter of a century ago, in his novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, Wolfe provided an image of New York as an ambiguous, corrupt and class-conscious city. Wall Street´s ambitions and arrogance are still the same and continue to be the symbol of a financial city without industries, where all kind of trends, good and bad, are created and then spread all over the world. New York is an ever-changing city, reinventing itself all the time, where little by little minorities become majorities. It is like Florence during the Renaissance. History is made here now, claims the Italian rapper Jovanotti, who has recently moved to New York.

La Vie - France - Ethiopia

2013-04-15

Italy - Dear Mr. President, I'm Italian too

2013-04-09

G 2 (Generation 2) is the common definition used to identify boys and girls born in Italy from foreign parents, who, according to the italian government, can't be italian citizens until they'll turn 18. The issue is becoming of great interest and involves artists like Amir, a young rapper born in Italy with italian mother and egyptian father. In his song Dear President Amir asks Giorgio Napolitano to put the issue of citizenship for second generation youth at the center of his political agenda. Amir's petition has been already signed by 10,000 people and even the new Minister has underlined the same issue as a priority of the Gov't.

D/La Repubblica delle Donne - Italy - Makallè, the perfect prison

2013-04-08

Rolling Stone - Italy - Tito's bunker

2013-04-08

North Korea - Inside the utopia

2013-04-03

An exceptional reportage from the heart of the impenetrable kingdom of Kim Jong Il, the absolute dictator of the most totalitarian state on the planet. The country has been completely isolated from the rest of the world, anchored to a rigid pseudo-socialist ideal and founded on the most maniacal cult of personality which the human mind has ever been able to create. In the immense cities and deserts, in the woods, in the ancient villages, the people try to survive the scorching summers, freezing winters, hunger and famines but without neglecting their duty as good citizens: to honour the sacred name of their Great Leader every day of the year. And now they are challenging the world with nuclear attacks.

GDL - Belgium/The Netherlands - Swimming Kamasutra Style

2013-04-02

Ethiopia - Macallè, the perfect prison

2013-04-01

There's a special prison in Ethiopia from which inmates don't want to escape because it teaches them a profession and it's a perfect model of prison enterprise. In the Macallé jail prisoners sell fruit and fabrics, build houses, bake bread, manage beauty centres and food stores. All this through cooperatives that have direct commercial relations with the outside. The project, created by ILO (International Labour Organization) and initially financed by the Italian Development Cooperation, is self-financed thanks to microcredit , a bank has also opened a branch in the prison. In the past relatives used to send money to the prisoners while now the latter support their families. Former prisoners find a job quite easily or in many cases they continue to work in the prison cooperative, which often becomes a second family for them.

XL - Russia - Tibet - Living under China's rule - by Giancarlo Radice

2013-03-27

Gente - Italy - Baby Mom

2013-03-25

Italy - Love givers

2013-03-19

This is a journey. A physical and mental journey. A journey for a right. Sexual assistance is a technique of psychophysical approach to disabled people, based on massages, kisses, visual contacts and erotic stimulation. It is commonly believed that disabled people have no sexual needs and their isolation causes them deep psychological problems. Gabriele Piovano, 27 years old, is affected by spina bifida, a disorder that has forced him into wheelchair since his birth. Debora De Angelis and Max Ulivieri are testimonials of Love Givers, a campaign to regulate the profession of sexual assistant: a person who is professionally trained to give sexual assistance to disabled people. This project is an opportunity, perhaps the only way for disabled people to have such an experience. It is a life encounter. Milan-Turin one-way.

Kenya - Young Africans are growing up. Perhaps too much.

2013-03-18

Africans have become sedentary. We spend our days in the car or in the office, we eat fast-food and our children put on weight watching television. Professor Vincent Onywera from Kenyatta University in Nairobi is studying a problem that is becoming dramatic: escalating obesity, particularly among very young people. While outside the capital the real problem is malnutrition, in Nairobi things go the opposite way: middle class people, whose life style is similar to that of Westerners, eat junk food and do not practice enough sport. The Ministry of Health has recognized that this is a problem and school menus are now under control while vending machines are forbidden in the schools. However, figures are unmistakable: one person out of two in Nairobi is overweight.

D/La Repubblica delle Donne - Italy - Kenya - Junk Food in Africa

2013-03-17

Iraq - Beyond the news, 10 years later

2013-03-16

In the last 30 years, Iraq has been magnetically drawing the attention of the global media. But what do we really know about Iraq? We are used to focusing on the news, on the war, on the pain and everything related: bombs, mines and tears. In Italy Parallelozero represents Metrography, the first Iraqi photo agency. To its photographers, Iraq is in the first place their homeland, a country they can describe without any filter tied to the need for global information where the images of the war usually overlap in a plot that forgets about the contexts, becoming a sole, figurative, endless War. Their visual research thus becomes a sort of cultural-aesthetical revolution, that gives us back a different, unexpected idea of this tormented country where the people and their stories become the absolute protagonists.

Italy - Favignana, the island of memory

2013-03-15

An ancient Paleolithic site, the island of Favignana hosted many people over the centuries. In 1874 the island was bought by the Florio family who reinforced here the so-called tonnara, an Arab tuna-fishing tecnique. The mattanza (the result of the tonnara) and the use of caves of calcarenites - a sophisticated type of limestone - have influenced the history of the island which now survives in the tales told by the tonnaroti (tuna fishermen) and the piarratura (cave workers) still living in the island. Others just refuse to come to terms with a future of immigration and of a tourism based economy. Instead, they keep fishing for that fish that made the Favignana´s fortune in the past.

Greenland - Artic Ice

2013-03-13

The expedition 'Graal II' has been organized by the French speleological association Spele'Ice, created and lead by the speleologist Serge Aviotte at his 14° expedition on the Greenland glaciers. The explored area is approximately 80 km north of Ilulissat, on the eastern coast of Greenland, on the 70° parallel at 1,000 m on the sea-level, 25 km from the coast. The aim of the expedition is to explore new glacial cavities, scientifically identified as 'glacial mills', and above all to follow the tracks of the French explorer Paul Emile Victor. Victor has left several diaries with detailed descriptions of his expeditions and the dangers encountered in Greenland and he is still an example for modern pioneers.

El Molo Renaissance

2013-03-13

An Italian project on the shores of the Lake Tukana in Kenya, is trying to protect and document the linguistic heritage of the El-molo, the smallest African tribe still existing.

For more info: elmolorenaissance.com

Mo - Belgium - Mitrovica - Marco Ansaloni

2013-03-12

D/La Repubblica - Italy - Motel America

2013-03-09

Panorama - Italy - Yes we Kenya

2013-03-05

Kenya - Kung-fu grandma

2013-02-28

Some time ago, a myth started to spread among men living in Nairobi´s slums: if you rape an elderly woman, you´ll live a long life, be protected from bullets in a firefight, and become immune to Aids. As a consequence, the number of sexual assaults against women up to 80 years old (often carried out by men heavily intoxicated by drugs and chang´aa, the strong alcoholic beverage illegally brewed in the shantytowns) has increased dramatically, to the point that it has become one of the country´s top common felonies. One day, women took matters in their own hands. And with the help of a few martial arts instructors, among which a former athlete of the tae-kwan-do national team, decided to learn how to defend themselves. Now classes are being held regularly in the slums. Students are of all ages, but the majority are still grandmothers.

Financial Times Germany - Graziano Delrio

2013-02-27

Cuba - Cuban greenhouse

2013-02-27

Urban agriculture is an emerging trend in many cities of the world. In Cuba, this practice has been diffused since the beginning of the 90s, i.e. during the Periodo Especial which saw the end of the relations with the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the harshering of the United States embargo. To meet the emergency needs some citizens began to cultivate the abandoned areas in their neighborhood, to convert their courtyard into vegetable gardens and breed animals. The government initiated a process of institutionalization and spread of the phenomenon on large-scale transforming the conventional model of agriculture in a sustainable one. The urban gardens (known here as organoponicos, the name of a particular technique of cultivation) are managed by citizens or state cooperatives providing jobs and products sold within the same.

Azerbaijan - Full step on the gas

2013-02-26

The Caucasian country is desperately attempting to renew its image. The 2012 Eurovision festival, hosted in Baku, the capital, was supposed to present the new look of Azerbaijan to the world, but the international press that converged on the city preferred to highlight the human rights violations by president Aliyev, the country´s strongman. After the boom of oil prices, Azerbaijan, one of the world´s major oil and gas exporters, enjoys a new and sudden prosperity: the same that made its fortune from the 1850s, when the first oil wells on the planet started pumping crude here. And today, 20 years after independence from the ex USSR, it plans to use it to finance a development project of unprecedented size.

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Hopping into Tito's bunker

2013-02-26

October 1962: the Cuban missile crisis was about to drag Europe into the nightmare of a global nuclear warfare. Although the Russians decided to dismantle their atomic weaponry, the Cold War continued until the fall of the Communist regimes at the end of the 80s: all the governments decided to gear up against the threat of an atomic conflict and also Marshal Tito ordered a fallout shelter to be built. Located along the Neretva river at 50 kms from Sarajevo, this facility is 300m deep and was designed to withstand up to a 20 KTs burst. Hopping in it means being blast into the past to witness the mood of the Cold War and its paraphernalia, like vintage telephones and telex machines. After the first exhibitions in 2011, the bunker will be definitely open to public in 2013 to host installations and paintings by contemporary artists.

World - Child survival in a changing climate

2013-02-25

Climate changes represent one of the biggest challenges humanity will face in the coming years. Global warming, ice melting, the frequency of droughts and floods are all symptoms of the ongoing climate change and the huge risks for the planet and for future generations. As a consequence of these changes, in fact,175 million children are in danger every year, 40% more than in the past decade. The climate changes will also effect malnutrition, according to UNICEF, in the year 2050, there will be 25 million malnourished children. The 'Child Survival in a Changing Climate' project, aims to show the consequences of climate change on the environment and living of populations, especially children. The 'Child Survival in a Changing Climate' project, is promoted by Witness Image entirely funded by the Nando Peretti Foundation.

Italy - In the rice triangle

2013-02-24

The European China is located between Lombardy and Piedmont and is a perfect network of ditches, streams and small canals ten thousand kilometres long. A unique hydraulic system in continental Europe watering 235 thousand hectares of fields which produce most of European rice. During spring the rice triangle between Vercelli, Novara and Pavia seen from above looks like a checked sea where everything gets reflected: poplars, bell towers, tractors and old farmhouses similar to those seen in the 1949 movie Riso amaro, starring Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman. Rice arrived in Italy around the 11th Century and was grown in the Lombard wetlands by Cistercian monks. Today 4000 farms, approximately fifty midsize industries and four leading companies preserve the secrets of a trade handed down for centuries from father to son.

Kenya - The best option: Obama there, Obama here

2013-02-21

These days Obama is running for governor in Kenya. No, we are not talking about the U.S. president. It´s his brother Malik who went into politics, and he is now competing to be elected as governor of Siaya county, a rural and impoverished region in the west of the country, where the brothers´ native village of Kogelo is, and where Malik, a Muslim, came back from the U.S. four years ago, settled down and opened a restaurant. His campaign motto reveals a flair for humour: The best option: Obama there, Obama here. Poll results are uncertain, but one thing is for sure: Malik is a natural-born negotiator. In order to obtain permission to photograph him, we had to buy him lunch in his own restaurant, as 'a contribution to my campaign'.

Gabon - Libreville, a dirty African star

2013-02-20

Libreville, the seventh most expensive city in the world, is hot, dusty and distressing. More than half of Gabon's population lives here, among shantytowns and open sewers, hoping for a brighter future that is not going to come. However Gabon, the country where the most amazing 'African miracle' has come true thanks to its natural resources, is among the first twenty consumers of French champagne in the world. And not far from the shantytowns, in residential areas, in expensive restaurants and nightclubs, the extremely wealthy Gabonese oligarchy leads a luxurious life style well above European standards.

Burkina Faso - Albinism in Africa

2013-02-20

Albinism is a hereditary anomaly that occurs when the body is unable to produce melanin, a natural substance giving color to the hair, skin and iris. The melanin pigment acts as a photo-protective pigment absorbing ultraviolet rays, acting as prevention of skin damage and involved in the eyesight developement. Despite the aid of glasses it's impossible to have a normal vision and the skin needs high protection in order to prevent burns that may turn into cancer. The percentage of albinism is very high in equatorial Africa, affected individuals have to live with their physical defects as well as psychological problems as they are excluded from the community. Beside this in some villages albinos are considered either a source of hope or the opposite and most of times are taunted by all the other inhabitants.

The Netherlands - The wonderful world of Lize

2013-02-19

Lize is a 25-year-old Dutch woman with Down syndrome. She has attended regular middle and secondary schools, as well as green schools and catering training courses. She has taken part as an athlete in the Special Olympic European Youth Games in Rome and as an ice-skater in the USA, where she has been awarded several gold metals. She has been living on her own for 4 years and works in a supermarket in the village where she lives. Last year Lize became quite famous as an actress of 'Downistie', a Dutch soap opera that caused a heated debate all over Holland. Lize has a boyfriend, Ruben. They are planning to get married and are considering whether or not having any children. She is a happy person and her experience shows how important being loved and stimulated is for these people to be an integral part of society.

Gabon - Iboga, Freud´s root.

2013-02-15

A young pregnant woman, supervised by a shaman, is ready to take for the first time what is considered a drug in most parts of the world. It is called iboga, an endemic root in Gabon forests, used to make an hallucinogenic infusion, which takes people through a strong experience: a couple of hours of self consciousness that are described as ten years of psychoanalysis in one night. For the Gabonese this is an initiation rite, influenced by a strong Catholic syncretism, marking admission to maturity. However, this root is a potential business for traditional medicine and the pharmaceutical industry since experiments have shown that it is very effective in the treatment of drug addiction, alcoholism and several mental disorders. The active principle, recently become available in the European market, is worth 250 dollars per gram.

Italy - Gibellina, utopia laboratory or ghost town?

2013-02-15

Gibellina Nuova was created in contrada Salinella, Salemi, 20 km from the old town of Gibellina, destroyed by the Belice earthquake in January 1968. Senator Ludovico Corrao, former mayor of Gibellina, asked several artists to install works of art in the town. Alberto Burri, Pietro Consagra, Mimmo Paladino, Arnaldo Pomodoro and others took part in the project. Significant funds were also allocated for the reconstruction. Today many works are being renovated and others have never been completed giving the impression that Gibellina is a partially abandoned surreal place. How do the citizens of Gibellina Nuova live? Particularly the elderly who have left their houses destroyed by the earthquake and the youth who were born here?

Italy - Tuscany: a different view

2013-02-14

The Val d'Arno is a long flat region stretching from Florence to Pisa. Not far from it, you will come across the typical Tuscan landscape with rolling hills and vineyards, well-groomed fields and bucolic panoramas. Throughout the years the series of villages in the valley bottom have turned into a built up area: houses and warehouses, with a high-speed road as the area backbone. Tuscan entrepreneurial vocation, the tanneries and the Vespa factory have attracted thousands of people, Italians and foreigners, who have transformed the valley into a never-ending industrial area. And even though the farming legacy has not been entirely forgotten, residents of the valley bottom have turned into a community of commuters trying to survive to dramatic social and territorial changes. In their own way.

World - Into the silence. Hermits of the third millennium

2013-02-14

A new utopia? A distant reality? Forget it. Hermitage might seem a paradox in our self-celebrating society but it is a growing and fascinating phenomenon, instead. Modern hermits don´t indulge in the search for isolation for social or personal ambitions, neither it´s a matter of misanthropy. Most of them come from a religious background - monks, priests, nuns- but many others are part of a well established middle class - architects, doctors, lawyers, writers and teachers - fed up with the social routine. Following their own personal path made of prayer, silence and meditation they decided to live in isolated places to listen to and rediscover their own inner rhythm and individual atmosphere. This is the portrait of a small, solitary, soft world.

Motel America

2013-02-13

The Motel, an American institution, was invented in 1925. Originally intended to stimulate business travel along the highways of the nation, Motel culture reached its height in the 1960’s as their popularity among vacationing American families increased. Complete with swimming pools and rooms modeled after Native American tee pees, they made cross-country road travel for the country’s middle class possible and became a stark symbol of capitalist America. Today, many motels across America are serving as a permanent home for millions of Americans caught in the flux of the “Great Recession”. Some have lost their jobs and their homes to foreclosure, or just can’t quite generate enough income afford an apartment. They are one step above homelessness, living on the fringe in an unstable world of linoleum and polyester bed spreads.

FOLLOW OUR ONLINE COMMUNITY

2013-02-12

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Vatican City - The secret archive

2013-02-12

Following the recent and unexpected events that has lead the Pope to his resignations, this reportage tells the story of one of the most unaccessible places of the whole Vatican State, the Secret Archive. The Catholic Church has always tried to hand down its documentary heritage since the early times. Nothing of those periods, however, has been preserved. Ransacking and devastations have destroyed documents and erased memories. That's why more than 400 years ago, Pope Paul V decided to create the Secret Archives, a place meant to preserve and protect the materials that was being accumulated. Today the Archives continue to grow offering an extarordinary journey through kilometres of documents and letters representing a unique heritage. Our photojournalist for the very first time has been granted access to document those secret memories.

United States - Motel America

2013-02-10

The Motel, an American institution, was invented in 1925. Originally intended to stimulate business travel along the highways of the nation, Motel culture reached its height in the 1960´s as their popularity among vacationing American families increased. Complete with swimming pools and rooms modeled after Native American tee pees, they made cross-country road travel for the country´s middle class possible and became a stark symbol of capitalist America. Today, many motels across America are serving as a permanent home for millions of Americans caught in the flux of the Great Recession. Some have lost their jobs and their homes to foreclosure, or just can´t quite generate enough income afford an apartment. They are one step above homelessness, living on the fringe in an unstable world of linoleum and polyester bed spreads.

Italy - Travelling Jesus

2013-02-09

The Christians evangelical Protestants community Christ is the answer counts on around 80 members, regularly moving throughout Italy every 6/7 months. The idea of the congregation dates back to the early 70s when hippy American movements, like Jesus People and Jesus Freaks started their on the road life in the States. Nowadays in Italy there are families coming from the Jesus People organization whose children are perfectly integrated with new members of the travelling community. The group also welcomes people who has experienced troubled lives before joining the community (drugs, crime, illnesses), and every one of them is considered with solidarity and simplicity: their path towards God is free and unforced.

Cameroon - Theater of life

2013-02-09

Genetic scientists constantly discover new characteristics of the bacterium that causes leprosy; this make it difficult to find proper treatments. The bacterium can't be cultured in laboratories, and for this reason, the biological information and research is quite difficult. Polychemotherapy, luckily, is an effective therapy that, with an early diagnosis, is able today to avoid permanent damages. The World Health Organization maintains the goal of one case every 10.000 inhabitants. But leprosy is considered nowadays a re-emerging disease, thus quite impossible to eradicate. Leprosy is as old as the world, and still carries with it the same stigma and social rejection despite the fact that we are living in the XXI century. A tragic mask that can still turn human beings in outcasts.

Armenia - The wedding plan

2013-02-08

Armenia has more than three million inhabitants, a third of which lives in Yerevan, the capital of the country. The actual figures differ from the official ones for the simple fact that there is a strong phenomenon of male migration towards Russia: this country infact has decided to open its doors to the armenians men looking for a job. But expatriation is causing severe problems to the family structure: women are often left alone; they have to work, raise and educate their children on their own; they are a sort of 'white widows' abandoned by their husbands who often live abroad with their new russian women. Considering that very few men remain in their homeland, the most important mission for armenian girls is to find a husband before turning 25. That's why the city is full of beauty centers and wedding dress shops.

Kenya - Nairobi

2013-02-05

The independent state of Kenya is 50 years old in 2013. Since 1963 Nairobi, the largest city in Eastern Africa with more than 4 million people, is the capital of a developed country growing at a fast rate where wealth is concentrated in the hands of few millionaires. Nairobi is a mirror for the country: a modern growing metropolis, with heavy traffic, full of luxurious shopping centres and a starting point for tourists. Nairobi is no longer the dangerous Nairobbery of the 90s, even though more than half of its young population is unemployed and the slums (such as the huge Kibera) are still there, where people survive with less than a dollar a day, next to rich neighbourhoods where the rich are escorted by armed guards. A situation that is not going to change no matter how the elections in March 2013 will go.

Famiglia Cristiana - Italy - Slaves for few euros

2013-02-04

Italy - Faces of Piazza

2013-02-01

Italy, Piazza Armerina: like one of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, a non-place. A town which, because of its name, most Italians still mistake for a square (that's what Piazza means). A village in the heart of Sicily doomed by its own name to an existential limbo, a chronicized crisis of identity. To which the problems of every village in the island add up: unemployment, degradation, the sensation of having been left behind by the rest of the country, the resulting fatalism. All of this seems to contribute to a general distress which is higher among the people of Piazza than in the average Sicilian: we see it in the faces of those Piazzesi who finally gave up to it, becoming its prey to the point of losing sanity. Faces which seem to ask, rather than for help, to simply be recognized as human.

China - Beijing 798 revisited: art for the people

2013-01-25

Situated in the northeast Dashanzi area, the 798 Art District is the third most popular destination in Beijing, after the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Since 2002, it has established itself as an artistic hub of international repute. 798 is a bombardment of art, shops and bars, housed in Bauhaus architecture. In his past life the area was a center of production, designed by East German architects, with factories making military components. By the end of the 1990s a large number of buildings were left vacant, independent artists moved in and their presence turned the area into a successful art district. Now the district has been transformed into a glitzy tourist attraction, with accommodation, a hotel, design studios, restaurants, cafés, and bars. Needless to say that the area has lost its original artistic essence.

India - Karnataka, the key to India

2013-01-14

When the British took Karnataka in 1799, they knew they had India. The state of Mysore, as Karnataka was known in ancient times, has always been of high strategic importance in the subcontinent, and since the 3rd Century b.C. it had been coveted for its immense natural resources among which the rich gold mines and dense teak forests and ruled by dynasties of every color, confession and provenance, from the Chola and Ganga to the Hoysala, builders in the 11th-14th Centuries of some of the most spectacular temples in India, to the Deccan sultans, the Wodeyar and finally Tippu Sultan. It was from his hands and from the French´s that the British took Karnataka. And only then did the actual expansion of the Indian Empire begin.

The Guardian - UK - Ucraina - by Giancarlo Radice

2012-12-28

Alpha Mag - India - Orissa

2012-12-21

Prier - France - Lîle du silence

2012-12-11

World - Ships and the sea

2012-11-18

Ships, men and the sea, in all its forms. From one continent to another: crossing the Atlantic ocean on a cargo, living the Caribbean Sea on a cruise, watching the Mediterranean on a oil rig, visiting the worlds biggest shipyard in South Korea, exploring the Baltic Sea on an icebreaker or thinking about Sicily situation on a ship stuck by the economic crisis. Chasing a humanity that live on the water, a species at ease. The seaworld has no seasons or rest: different oceans, continents and jobs leave a bunch of stories worth to tell behind its back. Captains, shipboys, sailors, welders and workers, who have all gone to sea chasing a dream, struggling against hunger, following their fathers' path. Different hopes and needs melt here. But in front of a storm or at anchor in an African harbour, they all become the same.

National Geographic France - Argentine

2012-10-17

Financial Times Germany - Moleskine

2012-09-19

Financial Times Germany - Giovanni Bernesch

2012-09-18

Peru - America's biggest native pilgrimage

2012-07-11

Perù is home of the Senhor Qoyllur Rit'i ritual (a Quechua word for Star of the snow), a religious festival held annually. The feast consists in a pilgrimage to the Sinakara glacier to pay homage to the image of Christ painted over a boulder. On the second day, groups of Ukukus, the offspring of an Inca princess and a llama, climb till the top of the glacier (over 5000m) bearing crosses and making offers. Up until a few years ago, they used to bring back blocks of ice to water their village with the holy flow of the mountain as a sign of prosperity. This practice has now been banned because of the progressive disappearance of the ice. But the syncretism between Andean and the Catholic tradition remains with the procession of the pilgrims following the cross and the adoration of the rising Sun at dawn.

Ethiopia - A waterless paradise

2012-07-11

Drought in Ethiopia is worse than a military coup. This is what Sando Santilli admits as he jumps on his car heading to Sora, in Southern Ethiopia. Sandro an Italian from a family based in Addis Ababa for 3 generations designes and produces filtering systems to make pond and muddy river waters drinkable. This is a useful invention, considering that in 2011 the most severe drought of the last 60 years affected Ethiopia. Hygene is not guaranteed, pandemics are widespread and food costs rise while the farmers are in crisis: desertification riduces the space for cultivable fields and forces the farmers to move to new lands, with quite predictabile social tensions. On top of the that, drought which used to arrive every 10 years is now occurring every 2 years.

Western Sahara - Saharawi: 35 years of solitude

2012-07-09

With the liberation of the Italian Ngo worker who has been kidnapped 9 months ago in the Saharawi refugees camps in Southern Algeria, some attention has come back to the dramatic situation of this people which has been fighting for his own freedom for decades. But who are the Saharawi and which is their current situation? The area of Western Sahara which is not under Moroccan occupation, has just celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. But it was an unhappy celebration as Morocco is obstructing the referendum that should decide whether the former Spanish colony, where Moroccan army has established since 1976, will proclaim its independence or integration with the occupying country. The United Nations mission, which is in charge of organizing the referendum, seems to make a weak impact on the situation.

Myanmar - The Karens: a long war against the Burma regime

2012-07-09

The Karens are an ethnic groups inhabiting the Myanmar area. Their territory runs along the Thailandese border. They have been struggling for their own independence against the Burma regime since 1948: this war hasn't finished yet and resulted in a massive migration to Thailand where they often live in refugee camps like that of Mae La, which presently hosts over 50.000 people. They also escape to find a job in Mae Sot, a growing, industrial reality beyond the Moei river, the actual border between the two states. Here, the women work in a quasi-slavery condition. Others end up living as dropouts with no assistance other than the little help offered by the NGOs. But the hard core of the Karens' fight is still rooted in the very heart of Myanmar where an endless civil war is still going on in the wild jungle as well as in the fields.

L'Aquila, the Nicolas - by Davide Scagliola and Bruno Zanzottera - Documentary Showreel

2012-07-04

For over 50 years the Nicolas have been successfully specializing in the conservation and restoration of modern and ancient paintings on canvas, detached frescoes, wood panel paintings, wooden and stone statues. On September 2011, with some of the 35 highly-qualified restorers part of their team, Guido and his wife Maria Rosa went to L’Aquila to take care of a great piece of art survived to the earthquake and offered their help to restore it. This painting, “La prova della vera croce” by the 15th century painter Giulio Cesare Bedeschini, was lying wrecked inside the church of Santa Maria del Suffragio, one of the churches most seriously affected by the quake. Once they had recovered it, they brought it
to their atelier in Piedmont where it is currently being restored at their expenses.
We’ve been documenting step by step all the stages of this delicate work - the recovery, the transportation, the analysis - along 9 months of restoration process.

Our new website about photography workshops is finally online

2012-07-03

Profession Reporter, Lectio Magistralis, Travelling with the Reporter, Photoediting and Journalism. These are just few of the many events that Parallelozero will be glad to host from the next fall. These workshops are aimed at anyone interested in broadening their skills on field reportage production. A brand new, well-rounded kind of photography halfway between audio and video, multimedia and journalism is now taking unexpected paths which share a common vision: the idea that technology and journalism need to work in synergy to meet the future of international publishing. That's why we're working on brand new partnerships with renowned personalities of the media universe to extend our offer of courses and workshops.

WWW.WORKSHOPFOTOGRAFICI.COM

Indonesia - The Green School

2012-06-15

Imagine a new concept of learning and teaching set in a very special environment, with a unique vision. This is what Cinthya and John Hardy - she´s American, he´s Canadian - have put together in Bali on the banks of the Ayung River. They managed to build a school with 75 buildings with minimal environmental impact, where renewable energy (mycrohydro power, solar panels and bio diesel), bamboo and mud walls, are the pillars of a whole living philosophy. The Green School aimes at turning its students into responsible citizens that respect the people and things around them. While traditional subjects like maths, languages, arts or social studies remain the focus, students can also spread their entrepreneurial wings in courses like organic farming or sustainable engeneering. The school enrolls students from the local and global community.

Italy - The earth shakes in Emilia

2012-06-14

They've lost their friends and their jobs. They saw their households falling into pieces because of the earth tremors. They've seen the ground cracking in two and a liquid sand, coming straight from the deepest part of the earth, flooding them. Now they're living in the streets, no matter if their houses are declared safe or not. They're afraid of new, strong shakes. These are the people struck down by the May 2012 seisms in the Modena area, Emilia. Strong, hard-working people who only wished for getting back to their normal lives after the first earthquake on May 20th and find the light at the end of a tunnel made of dust and rubble. But the earth shook again. Now an Imam, a Catholic priest, an elderly man, an entrapreneur and a father share the same hope: they're waiting for the shakes to end forever.

Russia - No Protest, No Comment

2012-06-14

After the Russian elections held last December, marked by presumed plots and strong protests, that have made think about a possible new Decabrist revolution, the Duma has just launched a new law that impose strong fines to whom participates and organizes non authorized public demonstrations. Another strong hitch to freedom of expression in this country that, in the last months, has been undermined by tyrannical measures. The first step was an attempt to control the web through a net of hackers that had the task to stop the most known Moscovite social network, VKONTAKTE. Then the laws about restrictions on the registration of new parties. Then the video about electoral plots made possible thanks to the use of fake electoral cards. Now the fines, between seven and twentyfour thousands Euros for non authorized protests.

Ukraine - Saved by the caregivers

2012-06-13

Every week many private vans full of caregivers and nannies leave Milan to go to Chernivtsi Oblast, the old Bukovina region of the Austro Hungarian Empire, in south western Ukraine, the epicentre of Ukrainian immigration in Italy. They return home only once a year for a short holiday, to meet their husbands and children, to attend weddings or religious ceremonies, to help work the fields or the restructuring of the family home, where they will return once retired. They ensure the survival of the entire south western Ukraine, a country plunged into a deep crisis where the majority of the population is unemployed and where only the elderly and children are still living permanently.

World - Madonna World Tour

2012-06-13

God does not exist, but Mary is His mother wrote George Santayana. From Europe to the Far East, from Africa to America and the Muslim world, here is the stunningly cross-sectional image of the Virgin, on altars, printed on fabrics sold in African markets, on souvenir stalls, on monuments, on the windshield of a taxi cab. Thus the Virgin, also venerated by Islam as the mother of one of Allah´s prophets, or by the Chinese who in the past decade have embraced the Christian cult more as a Western fashion than a religious doctrine, appears in the most diverse contexts, some of which surprising and absolutely non-consistent, revealing all the global power of Her icon. And, maybe, some sense of humour among Her followers.

Sri Lanka - Back to life

2012-06-13

Three years after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers militia, North Sri Lanka is coming back to life, trying to leave 30 years of civil war behind. The national reconciliation is passing through a 1 billion dollars plan launched by the Sri Lankan government to rebuild roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, power plants, and to start industrial and commercial projects that may attract private investments. Yet, everywhere there are signs of the war, from the Jaffna Peninsula to Trincomelee. North Sri Lanka remains under military control, with several checkpoints along the major roads. As evident as this, there are also signs of recovery in civil and social life, with the normalization of the relations between the minority Sinhalese (Buddhist) and the majority Tamil (Hindu), and also the end of discrimination for Muslim and Christian communities.

Italy - The fountain of desires

2012-06-12

As for every huge, renowned city, Rome has its own ritual: throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain grants the visitors to come back to the eternal city. But where all these coins end up eventually? Who collect and use them? Every morning, short after dawn, 4 employees from AMA (the company in charge of the waste management in Rome) collect tons of coins. They hold Rome's treasure in their own hands: they collect over 280 kg of coins from all over the world. They hand them to the Caritas, a relief and social organization, which bank it and convert it into euros which will be used to fund aid projects for the poor people of the capital.

GQ - Russia - Mafia

2012-06-11

Italy - Private Celebrities. Touring the Italian world of the look-alikes.

2012-06-09

Sometimes resemblance spreads out like a slow evolution of the body. Sometimes people have a real yearning for it, often they want it (and get it) by any means, even by plastic surgery. Many look alikes state that resemblance is not just a matter of the body, but a true matter of nature. Others say that you can wear it and get rid of it when you don´t need it. Other have compulsively studied the biography of the originals, others live it as a fun roleplay, often freaking out for being the main attraction of public attention. In some countries, like the Usa, the media industry and the private events are a good way to make a living. In Italy, this rarely happens. Look-alikes have their own jobs and appear to be famous only in their free time, a kind of second life.

French Polynesia - Searching for Paradise

2012-06-05

In a 1872 novel, Pierre Loti wrote:Working is an unknown word in Oceania and for the Tahitian people, the years go by in idleness. These words attracted painter Paul Gaugin's curiosity. With no money and a true yearning for leaving France, one day he came across a leaflet that he found in Paris: Tahitians are a magnificient race, their women are the prototype of the perfect model for a sculptor. Then he decided to leave. Still today, Tahitians and all the inhabitants of French Polynesia are a wonderful race, hospitable, peaceful people who are rooted to their traditions, like tamurè dances and tattoos. But they're also a fierce, modern people, who has never stopped regarding itself as completely independent from France. Far from a postcard stereotype as they have always been portrayed, they're strong and sometimes rebellious.

Oggi - Italy - Italian Families

2012-05-23

Italy - Travelling with the Nicolas. Let's save the art in L'Aquila.

2012-05-23

The Nicolas are an ancient, renowned family of restorers. They´ve been active in the field, working on paintings, frescoes and statues, for over 50 years now. In their labs in Aramengo some of the most important Italian and international masterpieces have been brought back to life: from Tiziano to Tintoretto, from the Egyptian mommies to the Turin Holy Shroud. After the 2009 earthquake which destroyed L´Aquila, the Nicolas very keen to art as well as to human and social catastrophes- decided to rescue a painting named Il miracolo della vera croce by G.C. Bedeschini located in the San Francesco da Paola church and ravaged by the seism. The Nicolas decided to restore it on their own expenses. Parallelozero folloall the steps of the process as a part of a broader discourse on the history of the city and of this special family from Aramengo

Greece - Evros, gate and wall of Europe

2012-05-22

The new gate to Europe is called Evros, a border area between Turkey and Greece and a river, which every year about 55.000 illegal immigrants from all over the world cross. Algerians, Afghans, Kurds, Nepalis and even Dominicans escaping from their own countries, often from civil war. Despite the accurate patrolling system run by the Frontex the European agency for external border security and a proposed 12 km long fence, no longer funded by the EU, the Greek-Turkey border is still leaking like a sieve. The river and the entire border area is a no trespassing zone, howewer it can be easily crossed with a little help. Every night dozens of immigrants are helped to pass through by traffickers or the Turkish police.

Egypt - Christian Coptics. An uncertain future for the oldest people in Egypt.

2012-05-19

Saint Mark introduced Christianism in Egypt during the first century when Nero reigned over the Roman Empire. Shenouda III, Alexandria's patriarch and pope of the Christian Coptic church, died on March 17th 2012 after leading this community for 40 years. The Christian Coptics hold on to their religion and tradition as a strong identitary tie and today they are roughly eight millions of people. A minority who perceives itself as autentically Egyptian. Indeed the words Coptic and Egyptian share the same Greek origin and the same meaning. Yet, Christian Egyptians have always felt persecuted. The latest terrorist attacks in Alexandria's Christian churches reinforced fear and uncertainty. Rumor has it that nearly 100.000 Christians left the Country since the beginning of Tahrir square revolution.

Sette - Corriere della Sera - Italy - Niger

2012-05-18

Italy - Hotel House Riot

2012-05-18

The Hotel House is a huge residential complex in Porto Recanati, Marche. 17 stories, 480 flats and 20 shops, it hosts almost 4000 people. A traditional summer residence, in the last 20 years it's been turning into the regular house for families from all over the world: mostly Senegal, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Thus it's also become a dangerous ghetto: for at least 15 years, the HH has been used as a freight routing base for counterfeit goods as well as for the drugs destined to the regions of Marche and Abruzzo. Here at the HH drug dealing was a daily routine. The flat owners, mostly working-class families, have been coping with this issue as they were frightened by any criminal retaliation. Then on the night of September 11th 2011, during a spontaneous riot they took the streets to claim their dignity and the safety of their houses back.

Financial Times - Germany - Beppe Grillo

2012-05-17

Financial Times - Germany - Amministratore Delegato Pininfarina

2012-05-16

Italy - The death supermarket

2012-05-16

Dying has its own price, and it's shown on a price tag. This is the new frontier of consumerism: funerary consumerism with products, services, marketing communication and even special offers. Business, to cut a long story short. This is the core business of Tanexpo, the biennal fair of Bologna devoted to the funerary art. Wooden coffins for sale, soccer ball-shaped or Swaroski funerary urns, personal styling agencies for dead people, coffin-shaped rings and call center operators promoting tombs as if they were pans. But there's more than that: virtual cemeteries, digital frames telling the story of the loved ones, corpse-processing workshops and classes meant for funerary operators. Because dying is a serious matter.....especially for those who stay alive.

PARIOLI_FOTOGRAFIA_FESTIVAL - Rome - From Saturday 19th May to Saturday 27th May 2012

2012-05-15

Da sabato 19 maggio a domenica 27 maggio 2012 - Venerdì 18 maggio 2012 dalle 19 alle 21 inaugurazioni nelle diverse sedi espositive- SAVE THE DATE: venerdì 18 maggio dalle 19:00 alle 21:30 - inaugurazione Parioli Fotografia Festival in via siacci 2/c allo studio PARIOLI_FOTOGRAFIA.

Le fotografie invadono il quartiere dei Parioli a Roma: dal barbiere al ristorante glam i clic di undici fotoreporter italiani in mostra. Un intero quartiere chic coinvolto in una rassegna dove i protagonisti sono i fotografi e i loro racconti sui piccoli paesi italiani, sui paesaggi e le atmosfere dell’America Latina, nonché del Nepal, delle Filippine, dell’Iran. I luoghi che ospitano le foto sono non-gallerie, il barbiere, la trattoria, il ristorante alla moda che per qualche giorno si trasformano e parlano di arte fotografica, dei fotografi e di quel loro ruolo di narratori, di mediatori, di costruttori di un racconto per immagini dotate di significato. Immagini visionarie da catturare con lo sguardo mentre magari ci si tagliano i capelli, si fa colazione, l’aperitivo o la cena e si compra un mazzo di fiori. Foto a colori o in bianco e nero uniche, elementi di un progetto ragionato, frutto di uno “sguardo di tempi lunghi” e non di un prelievo occasionale.Sergio Ramazzotti è uno dei fotografi scelti dalla manifestazione. Maggiori informazioni sul sito: www.pariolifotografia.it/news.php?idx=23&pg=210

Italy - L'Aquila. Living among the rubble

2012-05-15

On April 6th 2009 a dreadful earthquake struck L'Aquila. Since that day the Old Town has been declared off limits to everyone. Those who lived in the so called Red Zone could never come back, it was too dangerous. Still today, only those who hold a special permission from the local authorities are allowed to enter the area accompanied by either the firemen or the army. But people are tired of waiting: that's why many have decided to defy the law by sneaking into what used to be their own homes as fugitives not caring about being reported or fined. But there are also others who managed to return to their own houses legally. They're few, very few though. They are the new pioneers of the city center of L'Aquila. They decided to bring the safe buildings back to life even after being surrounded by ruins, rubble and silence.

"Eliminazioni di Massa" - New book from Alberto Salza

2012-05-14

Bothaina Kamel is a strong resourceful woman. A famous newscaster for the national television, she resigned to protest against the regime and for years she has been one of Mubarak´s fiercest opponents. She now decided to test herself in an almost impossible task: becoming Egypt´s first female president to bring equality in her own country. Bothaina Kamel is at the top of a female movement very active during the Egyptian revolution. Women engaged in politics and civil rights, female artists who brought art in the poorest areas of the city, women who keep crying the loss of their loved ones killed by the police. Women who don´t want to give up the possibility of being part of the society which is trying to keep them apart, especially after the recent victory of the Islamist Party.

Italy - Deserted Lunigiana

2012-05-02

There is a corner of Italy that is wounded and forgotten, hit by flooding and isolated by landslides. Not a part of Italy one would expect, it is not Sicily nor Calabria, but Lunigiana, an historical area between Emilia, Liguria and Tuscany in the wealthy Northern Italy. Here a flooding of the river Magra invaded the town of Aulla in the winter of 2011 causing two deaths and damages for millions of euro. The same thing happened the following year in 2012: the river flooded again causing huge damages. Aulla is different from Monterosso and Lunigiana is not as attractive as the Cinque Terre. This is why this town has been forgotten. Children have been attending school in containers for the last two years, collapsed bridges have not been rebuilt and landslides have let entire local communities isolated.

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Sarajevo twenty years ago

2012-04-30

On April 6th 1992 a sniper hidden in the ancient Jewish cemetery, killed 2 young girls crossing a bridge on the river Miljacka. This was the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo: 4 years of massacre and over 11.000 civilian casualties with many children among them. 20 years after the city partly recovered from the tragedy. Yet, the wounds lie in the hearts of those who survived it: from the 4 year-old girl now college student who remembers the happiness of a scoop of jam during the bombings, to the librarian who spent the night of August 25th 1992 saving the books while the library was on fire, to the director of the theatre who kept playing with the company during the siege. These people now look at their common uncertain future marked by the economic crisis and the religious segregation despite a superficial image of multiculturalism.

Philippines - Dirty Dancing

2012-04-25

DIRTY DANCING. At Cebu Provincial Jail, in the Philippines, something extraordinary happens every fourth Saturday of the month: the gates are opened, hundreds of people are admitted into the courtyard, and here they spend the day watching the show performed (for free) by a quite unique corps de ballet. It is formed by almost nine hundred inmates, many of them jailed for serious offences like rape, drug trafficking and manslaughter. The initiative was born almost by chance as a correctional program, and it has since become a model that´s been looked at with growing interest by many prisons in the world, as well as a show of the highest quality. Not by mistake: some of its numbers have been personally designed by Michael Jackson´s coreographer.

North Korea - The Cult

2012-04-16

Their faces are on the big wall paintings that in a country with no advertising board are the only spot of color in the cities, suspended in a surreal atmosphere where time seems to have been frozen in the fifties. They are inside the government buildings and on the pins that every north-Korean citizen carries on his suit. They are even in the lobbies of the almost empty hotels, where the furniture is scarce and dated. A personality cult closer to a religious devotion and more obsessive of those of their masters Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong surrounds the Great Leader Kim Il-Sung, the founder of the reigning dynasty, and his son, the Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. There are no other decorations anywhere, and the leader's pictures always show them young, healthy and in great spirit.

Philippines - Manila Glam

2012-04-15

The capital of the Philippines is an unexpected treasure of style and flair. The city is in its fullest growth and has a bright and lively social, cultural and economic life. Gigantic shopping malls pop up in the 16 metropolitan areas who make Manila one of the most densely populated megalopolis in the world (with an estimated population of 15,000,000 inhabitants). Brand new skyscrapers and exclusive residential districts are being designed and built. Fashion, beauty and finance are the solid pillars which makes life in the capital go round. New designers, artists, as well as local and foreign investments, an old grounded establishment made of wealthy influential Filipino families, a new group of Asian and Chinese entrepreneurs, make the city a new melting pot for long term perspectives.

Alpha Magazine - UAE - Somalia: Dead Calm

2012-04-13

Oggi - Italy - L'Aquila, illegals in their own homes

2012-04-09

Africa - Footballing Africa

2012-04-09

Soccer in Africa isn't just about sport and leisure. It also represents a different perspective for your own future. Media are all focused on African soccer stars, whose success and popularity are often bigger than those of political leaders. Following these dreams of glory, millions of youngsters run after battered footballs on improvised dust fields, while from Cairo to Capetown, important matches may paralyze entire nations. A strong passion that is inversely proportional to the money Africa can afford to invest. That's why African football is forced to share the same destiny of the Black Continent: raw materials export. Nowadays African soccer is a gold mine that produces champions and sport fairy tales. But also disappointments and ruthless failures.

Max - Italy - Manila Glam

2012-04-08

Condè Nast Traveler - Italy - Mongolia: Ulaanbaatar

2012-04-06

Greece - The desperates of the shipwrecks

2012-04-02

Once upon a time, Perama, a suburb of Athens, used to be the flagship among the Greek shipyards. This area has now become a memento of a crisis which brought the whole country down to its knees. Nearly 90% of the qualified workers in the public dockyards have lost their jobs. Young people are the most affected by this widespread unemployment and they often drown their own malaise in drugs. There´s even people who, not knowing where to go and where to sleep, have found a new home in the ships they used to build. Just like Aristidis, a metal worker who was fired back in 2009 and has been living in an abandoned yacht since then. Just like Edward, who´s been living in a small fishing boat along with other countrymen from Tanzania or like Theophilos, an unemployed sailor who´s been sleeping on board the Dimitra, an old tanker no longer in use.

Israel - Holy and divided Jerusalem

2012-04-02

The city of Jerusalem is for Israel its only and indivisible capital while Palestinians want Eastern Jerusalem as the capital of their future State. However, according to the UN, the status of Jerusalem depends on future negotiations. This is why one of the world´s tourist destinations, a holy place for all three monotheistic religions, has been and continues to be subject to a complex international controversy for years. While Tel Aviv is still a parochial and cynical city, Jerusalem, with its 750 thousand inhabitants, a third of whom are Arabic, is mature and cosmopolitan. The hope of many has been expressed by Amos Oz: 'One day there will be a Palestinian embassy in Israel and an Israeli embassy in Palestine. They will be few kilometres apart since one will be in Western Jerusalem and the other in Eastern Jerusalem'.

Corriere della Sera - Italy - Niger

2012-03-31

Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar, the glamour side of Mongolia

2012-03-30

Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator) looks like a chip of future popped out in the middle of a country apparently stuck in its distant past. Mongolia is wholly made of steppes and deserts, inhabited by nomads who still live in their Gers (traditional circular tents) while herds of yaks and horses move through the boundless natural landscape. Yet, the center of the capital is marked by skyscrapers, shopping malls, large neon signs of global corporations and traffic. A revolution brought by the enormous flow of money produced by the exploitation of the Country's huge minerary resources. Today, Ulaanbaatar is becoming a glittering city just like the European or Asian ones, where a new industrial and financial upper class buys at Armani or Louis Vuitton, eats at trendy restaurants and cafes like "Monet" or "Bugis", drives Mercedes, Bmw or Hummers.

Famiglia Cristiana - Italy - The missonary in the trash dump

2012-03-28

United States - Marx Attacks in USA

2012-03-22

In a recent survey, when asked about the choice between capitalism and socialism, half of U.S. youngsters under 30 answered socialism. Recession and unemployment are encreasing the strong criticism against unrestrained capitalism. Social unrest gives strength to movements such as Occupy Wall Street and visibility to unknown parties such as the Socialist Party or the Communist Party U.S.A. The core of this critical thought lies in New York: social analysis magazines are founded in Brooklyn, conferences on Marxism are held at the Brecht Forum and in the Chelsea galleries art gives its own reading of the protest. I´ve given more talks on Marxism since 2011 than in the last 40 years, economist Richard Wolff explains: Obama was accused of being a socialist, but the thought of many people is: if Obama is a socialist, then I am too

China - Midnight in Peking

2012-03-20

A walk through the major scenes that feature in the book Midnight in Peking´ by Paul French: the true story of the murder of Pamela Werner, a young Englishwoman, in the cold January of 1937. Trying to recapture some of the essence of the city during those dark days as the Japanese army prepared to occupy it. Those were the last days of old Peking: a city of opium dens, refugees and warlords steeped in terror of the impending invasion. From the Ming Dynasty-era alley where Pamela lived, to the scene of the crime, the Fox Tower, through the former Legation Quarter, the old Tartar City and the area once known as the Badlands.

Italy - Soldier's family

2012-03-19

Italian women began entering the army in the year 2000, since that date they tried to make a good carrier and go abroad up to the age of 34 in order to have then the chance to have a family. Women can become captain, first liutenant and corporal but at the same time they can also be wives and mothers keeping in mind that their oath will never end up. The choice of joining the army can be dictated by the desire of wearing the uniform, by the passion for the military life or simply because they wanted to leave the south of Italy and find a good job. These soldier women can be the wives of soldier husbands and are aware that their military carriers will stop once they'll become mothers. These are the families of the soldiers who live the privileges and sacrifices associated with the uniform.

Philippines - Till death do us part

2012-03-18

The Philippines are the last country in the world where divorce is illegal: here, a marriage can be only undone by death. Moreover, the problem is worsened by domestic violence: according to statistics, 80 percent of Filipino women are abused by their husbands. Since many years, activist groups, and among them many members of Congress, lobby hard in order to change the law. But the Catholic Church, which in the Philippines holds an enormous sway over the political life of the country, opposes them just as hard. Meanwhile, those who desperately want a divorce find creative solutions: some even went as far as converting to Islam.

Italy - Adriatica highway

2012-03-12

Interstate 16 connects Padova and Otranto, the north and south extremes of the Italian country. Over 1000 kms in length, this is the longest highway in Italy: it crosses six regions becoming a unique leitmotiv which tells the rich and complex story of the Italian East´. Banners, shopping malls, clubs and sexy shops disappear to leave space for the beaches and beach umbrellas where the Adriatic sea, from Ravenna to Otranto, plays the leading role. Adriatica is a sort of contemporary pilgrimage where every little, easy stage of the trip is part of a visual path leading to the sea. And the sea stands there, sometimes hidden underneath a winter tarpaulin, behind the threshold of summer dreams or in the back of a fast escape, in the impossible promise of a sunset over the water. Always looking Eastwards.

Italy - Chinese generation

2012-03-08

Chinese generation is the story of 15 chinese people - only four of which belong to the so-called G2 - that have chosen Italy to carry out their works to the highest possible level in different fields, from fashion to music and science. Thanks to the in-depth knowledge of both countries these people introduce us to the understanding of their discreet culture, protected by the whole community and well known for its seclusion and other dtereotypes that do not help to understand and facilitate the social integration. Chinese generation is also the story of the changes that are occurring within this group that is reaching unexpected results and opening new perspectives.

LAfrica come non lavete mai vista.

2012-03-07

“L’Africa come non l’avete mai vista”. Nell'ambito della 22a edizione del Festival del Cinema Africano, d’Asia e America Latina – dal 20 al 25 marzo, presso il Festival Center (Casa del Pane, Casello Ovest, MM Porta Venezia). Orari: 10.00 – 20.30. Al termine dell’esposizione milanese, la mostra diventerà itinerante. Informazioni: 334.2440655 - www.missionaridafrica.org

Un racconto inedito sulla nuova Africa. La mostra fotografica "Good Morning Africa" – realizzata dalla rivista Africa per celebrare i suoi primi novant'anni – raccoglie immagini scattate dal Cairo a Città del Capo. Sono fotografie di reporter di diverse nazionalità, capaci di immortalare la vitalità di un continente in pieno movimento. Un mosaico composto da scatti originali e pieni di suggestione. Si vedono le notti dei manifestanti egiziani in Piazza Tahrir, i backstage della moda senegalese e dell'industria cinematografica nigeriana, le prodigiose magie dei baby-illusionisti sudafricani, le operazioni di bonifica dei topi sminatori in Mozambico, i manager occidentali a lezione dai Masai nelle savane del Kenya, il teatro di Carlo Magno sulle isole di São Tomé e Príncipe, le donne del Malawi che scendono in campo per arbitrare il campionato maschile di calcio... Un collage di storie inedite tutte da scoprire.

La mostra è composta da 40 fotografie scattate da 22 reporter di varie nazionalità: Mohamed Abdiwahab, David Abiaw, Walter Astrada, Yasuyoshi Chiba, Stephane De Sakutin, Pius Otomi Ekpei, Andrea Frazzetta, Alessandro Gandolfi, Marco Garofalo, Glenna Gordon, Gianluigi Guercia, Tony Karumba, Marc Hofer, Pascal Maitre, Joanna Pinneo, Benjamin Schilling, Daniele Tamagni, Marco Trovato, Pedro Ugarte, Paolo Woods, Bruno Zanzottera, Tadej Znidarcic.

Italy - Napoli. Neomelodici: the new music circus

2012-03-02

They are the new faces of an old folk tradition, but they are also part of an unrivaled sideshow of music freaks. This is the new generation of new melodic singers from Naples: a boundless battalion of the youngest performers of the local melodic taste, trying to replicate Nino D'Angelo's fame which burst on to the scene in the 90's. Alessio, Raffaello, Rosario, Nancy and Fortuna grew up watching local Tv programmes, dreaming of being part of the dream factory that is showbusiness. Dreaming of becoming stars. Just like the American dream, but with a Neapolitan twist, they started performing in front of their families and friends hoping someday to get to the Sanremo festival stage. But life is different and the everyday routine is made up of countless days singing in small restaurants, weddings or local festivals.

GEO Italy - Saharawi: 35 years of solitude

2012-02-28

United States - Louisiana: BP oil - the day of reckoning

2012-02-28

Barack Obama has called it the worst environmental disaster of American history. In April, 2010, millions of barrels of oil have poured in the sea after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon ocean rig, off the coast of Louisiana. In the accident 11 people lost their lives while, for over 100 days, oil continued to spill polluting the coastlines of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, causing countless damages to the ecological system, to human health and to the local economy. Who will be paying for this? In New Orleans, the trial against BP Oil, the British company responsible for the disaster, is about to start. We have documented the impact that the accident had on daily life: empty beaches with no tourists, long queues for food in front of charities, and jobless fishermen. Now it is time for compensation. How will it end?

Ethiopia - Harenna, the last coffee collectors

2012-02-26

In 2012 Harenna coffee was recognized as one among the five best coffees in the whole of Africa. The Harenna forest is in the Bale National Park at an altitude of 2000 metres. Harenna coffee grows spontaneously and is still collected by a local community - approximately 5000 people that was isolated until a few decades ago, when the first road in the forest was built by Mengistu´s socialist army. Coffee is first carried by donkeys and then by lorries along a 4000-metre high road: this is the highest paved road in Africa. Recent studies show that in 40 years coffee could disappear in Eastern Africa due to climate changes. However, the genetic biodiversity of the Harenna forest could be a solution to the risk of extinction due to diseases or climate changes.

Egypt - Cairo: living with the dead

2012-02-25

Founded in the 7th century A.D, the city of the Dead is the oldest cemetery in the world. Today, as a result of the housing crisis and the famines of the past decades, over 500.000 people made their home here among the funerary shrines and in the small rooms built to host pilgrims and the mausoleums guardians. Cemeteries have always been the balancing area between life and death and here this relationship becomes unique and peculiar. Yet, the metropolis of Cairo and the local authorities act ambigously towards the inhabitants of this area. Living in a graveyard is seen as a taboo and the cemetery is regarded as a dangerous place, the akward shadow of the city which needs to be hidden or washed away. That's why an 'ecological project' would like to replace it with a city park. But behind all that there's just a greedy speculative plan.

Afisha - Russia - Saudi Arabia

2012-02-22

Somalia - Fishermen or pirates?

2012-02-22

Italian soldiers on board cargo ships to protect them from pirates. Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast is today´s worse threat against merchant ships. Damages to world commerce amount to hundreds of millions of dollars every year. To prevent attacks, NATO has deployed an imposing fleet of warships, which constantly patrol the waters of the Gulf of Aden. The operation is called Ocean Shield: a mighty shield, which often turned out to be useless. That´s why for some time now the Italian Marines of the San Marco battalion travel directly on board the cargo ships, with the task of neutralizing the attacks. They are élite troops, highly specialized. Yet, they killed simple Indian fishermen, mistaking them for pirates. With the consequences of a serious diplomatic clash between Italy and India.

Egypt - Revolutionary Street art

2012-02-20

Among its many benefits, the revolution in Tahrir square has also given the Egyptian artists the strongest boost to express their creativity in absolute freedom without being censored or avoiding metaphors to stand up against the glaring cracks within the Egyptian system. Many artists have decided to share their art with the general people, bringing their ideas beyond their studios and working in the streets. Painter Ashraf Rasslen and journalist Osama Abdel Hak, involved the youth of Imbaba a poor area consisting of shabby buildings and dark, intricate streets- in painting and decorating the facades of their houses. This project resulted in a remarkable and unique piece of art where doors, windows, sheets and people blend into the paintings creating a huge oniric canvas.

Italy - The two faces of Milan

2012-02-19

Abandoned skyscrapers, incomplete neighbourhoods, as well as abandoned factories, empty schools, vacant houses and offices, derelict swimming pools and parking lots. Milan is looking forward to Expo 2015 but is ignoring an embarrassing present: almost 1.7 million square metres in the city are occupied by goods yards that are yet to be converted and abandoned industrial areas. An (empty) city within the city that is not productive and does not offer accommodation. An abandoned Milan, choked by the financial crisis, invaded by homeless people sleeping in the streets, where former farmhouses are falling to pieces and thousands of offices have been built despite the lack of a real demand. This is why the rent goes up and young people leave the city. 'Let´s stop building!' architects claim, 'and let´s focus on renovating what already exists.'

Philippines - Seven Billion Baby

2012-02-18

The world population reached seven billion at 11.55 PM on October 30th, 2011: at that time, little Danica May Camacho, daughter of Florante Camacho and Camille Dalura, was born in a Manila hospital. According to the United Nations, she is the seven billionth human being on Earth: her parents, who received a small sum of cash as a reward, live in a slum and form the typical lower-class Filipino family. The mother, unemployed after losing her job in a call center, is 23 and has already given birth four times. The father, also 23, works as a driver three half-days a week. And both, although happy, are now terribly worried about their future: like most of Manila´s 19 million inhabitants.

Egypt - Zabbaleen: the garbage people

2012-02-15

The Zabbaleen, a community of Egyptian Coptic Christians, make a living by recycling up to 80% of the waste - zabala, in the Egyptian language - which they collect and sort in their own town. They work in the most degrading conditions and they even rear pigs (which are fed on their organic waste) to supplement their income. The Egyptian authorities ordered the culling of all pigs in 2009, in response to national fears over the spread of swine flu. As a result of this, the living situation for the Zabbaleen has become even poorer even if they continue to breed pigs, illegaly. Some foreign companies have recently decided to start a recycling business in Cairo, promising to involve the Zabbaleen in their activity: this could either result in an opportunity for the Zabbaleen to become part of the society or in a step closer to isolation.

United States - The catacombs of Las Vegas

2012-02-15

Las Vegas is a mermaid that enchants you with its lights but it is also a living hell for desperate people. Homeless people whose number raised as a result of the economic crisis- that Sin City prefers not to see, forcing them to live in underground tunnels originally designed as gutters. Catacombs run for over 500 miles underneath Las Vegas and host human phantoms, shadow men, homeless people with no work and no family. Often with no identity. There is everything here: lonely elderly people, depressed teenagers, poor young mothers, sick persons, drug addicts, alcoholics, war veterans and compulsive gamblers. It takes little to evict them: a police bust, an argument, a violent rainstorm on the mountains. When it rains we expect a little tzunami Nenad, 33, explains and when it arrives you have only thirty seconds to run away.

Italy - Living barefoot

2012-02-13

There are thousand of them all around the world. They have made a radical decision: living without shoes: at home and outdoors, when it´s sunny and when it snows. These people go barefoot to work and to the supermarket, they take the metro and get on a plain barefoot, they drive and go jogging barefoot. Living barefoot is more than just a temporary trend; it is epidemic and is infecting everyone by word of mouth and through social networks. 'Going barefoot makes you feel the texture, vibrations and temperature of the ground, things that you cannot feel through your eyes, ears and nose' says Giorgio Curreli, one of the first people in Italy going barefoot. 'Walking barefoot he says is healthy for your feet and ankles, you don´t´ feel pain and you don´t get dirty: roads are dirty, of course, but less than banknotes or handles.'

Oggi - Italy - Seven Billion Baby

2012-02-09

Southern Sudan - A new nation is born

2012-02-08

Following the referendum voted on January the 9th, Southern Sudan proclaimed its indipendence on July 9th 2011. The new country was born from the ashes of a long-running war and centuries of oppression. It´s a brand new nation which boasts a great potential but also needs to lay new foundations. Proudness and ferment are in the air, but on the downside both the national situation and the relations with the North are tense and constantly on the verge of a conflict. The two factions contend not only for oil, but also for water and land. Moreover, the Ugandan rebels of the Lord´s Resistance Army destabilize the South-western area of the country. The final walk to freedom, in the words of the hero of the liberation fight John Garang, is not over yet. But an important step was taken. A step that is meant to go down in African history.

Palestine - Surfin' Gaza

2012-02-07

I've arranged to meet the guys on the beach in the afternoon, once they've finished work. There's a baker, a builder, a sardine fisherman and a student from Al-Azhar University. They smile as they stroll with their surfboards underarm, as if they were in Biarritz or California. But we're in Gaza, capital of the World's most tormented strip of land. In any case, the waves are the same here as they are twenty kilometres further north, in Israel explain these young men from the Gaza Surf Club as they pass by with their old surfboards, held together with adhesive tape and shoe glue. The situation in Gaza is desperate, this isolation has cut it off from the rest of the world and the Palestinians in the Strip are prisoners in their own home. This is why surfing is our escape route they explain, the only way we can dream of freedom.

Amnesty International - France - Palestine:The water war

2012-02-06

Motorrad - Germany - Harleys of Cuba

2012-02-04

PHOTOEXHIBITION - THE LIQUID STAGE: STORIES OF MEN AND WATER - MILAN - BIT - FEBRUARY 16th/19th 2012

2012-02-02

After the successful opening at Palazzo delle Esposizioni during the "Festival della Letteratura di Viaggio" held in Rome during last October, our collective photoexhibition about men and water, curated by Gianmarco Maraviglia, will be displayed in Milan during the BIT, the International Tourism Exchange, from February 16th to 19th in the World section, stand F12. Special appointment on Saturday 18th with some of the photographers of our agency for a free portfolio reading! All the photographers that would like to have their work reviewed can come directly to the photoexhibition venue from 10.30 to 13.30 that day. And to promote professional travel photography, Parallelozero is launching 3 new workshops dedicated to outdoor photoreportage to be held in Milan on March and April in our agency's premises. More info on: www.parallelozero.com/workshops.php

Italy - The Hunters of Calabria

2012-02-02

On December 3rd, 2011 a special unit of Carabinieri raided a secret bunker discovering Casalesi clan´s superboss Michele Zagaria, on the run for sixteen years. He was hiding in a sophisticated hideout. The discovery shed light on a new bunker culture: no more improvised 60´s style bunkers but complex facilities designed to welcome and protect criminal bosses. Vibo Valentia, Calabria, is the headquarter of the Hunters: a special branch of Carabinieri trained to seek out bunkers and pinpoint fugitives or kidnapped people. Due to the difficult rocky soil of the Aspromonte massif, the Ndrangheta has the largest number of fugitives in Italy. The Hunters are the only unit properly trained to discover and raid secret bunkers built underneath secret entrances camouflaged on walls, furnaces, floors and troughs.

Moldova - White orphans of Moldova

2012-01-31

In Moldova one citizen out of 4 lives abroad to work. What happens to their children then? Some of these young kids are forced to live in abandonment. Grandparents, relatives or neighbors look after them. Their parents leave in order to find a job and send money back home, in a relatively young nation where unemployment is a massive plague and the only way for adults to survive is to migrate. The number of these abandoned kids is not officially estimated yet, however rumor has it they have been more than 100,000 since 2005. Migration breaks families and modifies lifestyles, especially that of those young children who grew up away from their parents and whose primary values are money and the idea that making a living necessarily means leaving the country and finding fortune abroad.

Mexico - Ciudad Juarez: between violence and hope

2012-01-30

Ciudad Juarez, a bordertown between Mexico and the US, is regarded as one the most violent cities in the world. A pivotal setting in the war among several drug cartels struggling to control the US market, Ciudad Juarez experiences some 4,000 civilian casualties a year. It´s not unusual to stroll on the streets and to come across the police investigating on the scene of a gunfight, or to be stopped at security checkpoints for control. Yet, many decided to fight the fear. Like Javier Sicilia one of the most distinguished poets and intellectuals in Mexico whose son was killed by the narcos who started the Caravan for Peace´, a social movement which continues to travel through Mexico in order to bring back dialogue and hope among its people.

Egypt - One year after the revolution

2012-01-25

January 25th 2011 - January 25th 2012. It´s been one year since the first demonstration in Tahrir square when, all of a sudden, a million people gathered around, united under the same dream of chasing Mubarak and his dictatorship away. Today, the same people met up again in the same square; not everyone with the same celebratory intent though. The Islamist party won the elections, the army showed its true face by using violence and killing people during the demonstrations of the past months. And many young activists, who have been crucial in the development of the revolution, are now feeling betrayed by the present situation. But despite all the difficulties, everyone is optimistic: Egyptian people've finally awoken after decades of lethargy and they won´t allow other dictators to get the power.

Philippines - A dangerous mission

2012-01-23

For decades, in the southern Philippines´ province of Mindanao, Catholic missionaries have been taking the sides of tribal people, helping them to preserve the rights on their ancestral lands, on which agricultural and mining corporations have been trying to set foot to exploit their resources. After the umpteenth killing of a missionary, that of Italian father Fausto Tentorio, on October 17th, 2011, the situation has grown more and more tense. But the missionaries do not fear, as many believe, the radical Islamic groups active in the region: their enemies, as they say themselves, are in the government, or wear the uniform of the regular Army.

Gioia - Italy - Irish Nomads

2012-01-15

Marie Claire - Hong Kong - Beads for life

2012-01-13

Geo International - Maria

2012-01-12

Financial Times - Germany - Equitalia

2012-01-11

Amnesty Journal - Germany - Orissa

2012-01-10

Montenegro - Five years of independance

2012-01-10

A tiny country squeezed between the mountains and the sea. The ex-Jugoslavia years, and a political heritage difficult to wipe away. The years of economic sanctions and commercial embargo. The state´s bankruptcy. The long and ill-fated alliance with Serbia. Finally, in 2006, the declaration of independence. Portrait of a newborn republic, which for the past five years has been struggling to walk on its own legs, and which desperately wants to join the European Union.

Rolling Stone - Italy - Last Supper in Baghdad

2012-01-09

Italy - The mystery of the Terramare

2012-01-09

A 3500 year long mystery enshrouds the Padan plain. It´s the mystery of the Terramare, the Bronze Age villages which have risen along the river Po where pacific pile dwelling men used to live. In the 13th century B.C the inhabitants were between 150.000 and 200.000. Their history is held in the museums of Parma, Reggio, Modena and Poviglio: the ploughs, the swords, the pins, the razors and the amber buttons tell us the story of a rich, class-structured society who produced artefacts and who developed a sophisticated culture. This culture was re-discovered almost by chance in the Seventies by a young archaeologist, Mauro Cremaschi who still today asks himself the question: why all of a sudden did these villages become depopulated and the Terramare people vanish into thin air?

Financial Times Germany - Milano, the strikers' tower

2012-01-05

United States - Miami art districts

2012-01-01

Miami´s former warehouse neighbourhoods like Wynwood and the Design district used to be slums. Recently, they´ve gone with the relentless flow of changes within the Magic City and have reshaped themselves as the ramparts of a whimsical and inspirational melting pot of art trends, rapidly turning into the artistic capitals of the East Coast. Worldwide renowned mural artists have painted the walls of the unconventional Wynwood area whose old warehouses were sold to some of the most important art galleries whereas the Design District has become the perfect location for posh restaurants, haute couture ateliers and art studios. This is not New York yet smiles gallerist Berenice Steinbaum but we´re all working on that.

Nigeria - Stories of ordinary slavery

2011-12-26

Every year, at least 50,000 girls travel from Nigeria (mostly from Benin City, one of the country´s poorest cities) to Europe. A trafficker, with the help of a voodoo, or juju, priest, managed to convince them that a decent job awaits them in the promised land. The journey is often nightmarish, trying to reach the coast of Italy or Spain on a precarious rubber boat. Many of the girls die of fatigue or drown at sea before reaching their destination. Those who make it, soon realize that the promised job does not exist: after their papers are seized by the traffickers, they are sent on the street as prostitutes. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the government and an Ngo run by nuns are fighting to set these 21st Century slaves free: from their masters, as well as from the naivete that makes them so vulnerable

Financial Times Germany -Giuliano The Patriot

2011-12-21

Laos - Tubing in Vang Vieng

2011-12-20

Vang Vieng is a small village halfway between Vientiane the country's current capital -and Luang Prabang, the ancient city, now a Unesco world heritage site. The village has been attracting tourists for over ten years now, since tubing a kind of slow pace rafting made with an old tractor inflated inner tube - has become very popular. With the arrival of hundreds of young thrill-seekers from all over the world, many facilities have been organized: cheap alcohol and drugs have transformed the village in a world mecca for those who look for extreme fun. Here the harsh Laotian drug laws the cultivation and production of opium in Laos is one of the most important worldwide - are ignored or bypassed with bribes and corruption. This mixture of drugs and heavy drinking is now the main reason of many westerners dying in the Nam Song river.

Philippines - A liter of light

2011-12-20

Millions of people in shantytowns all over the world are forced to live in darkness even in broad daylight. The shacks are often windowless, or so crammed that no light can penetrate, while electric power is too expensive or simply nonexistent. But an ingenuous Brazilian has figured out a way of turning a plastic bottle, with a few simple ingredients, into a lamp which, in daylight or on a full moon night, casts a light equivalent to that of a 55-watts bulb. And a Filipino foundation has taken the idea and spread it in Manila´s slums, bringing light into the life of thousands of people.

Vanity Fair - Italy - Hunting the boss

2011-12-19

Saharawi - 35 years of solitude - By Davide Scagliola and Bruno Zanzottera

2011-12-19

The area of Western Sahara which is not under Moroccan occupation celebrated this year the 35th anniversary of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. But it was an unhappy celebration as Morocco is obstructing the referendum that should decide whether the former Spanish colony, where Moroccan army has established since 1976, will proclaim its independence or integration with the occupying country. The United Nations mission, which is in charge of organizing the referendum, seems to make a weak impact on the situation. As a consequence of the neverending waiting – the official cease-fire plan dates back to 1991 – it's getting more and more difficult for the senior staff of the Polisario Front to control the discontent. An increasing number of young people, tired of living in refugee camps in Algeria, are planning to resume hostilities.

Italy - Along the Strait

2011-12-05

The Strait of Messina separates Sicily and Calabria. At its narrowest point, the continental and Sicilian coasts are about 3Kms apart from each other. The water of the Strait joins people and cultures. Journalist Merlo writes: Straits are shortcuts that the seas invented to narrow the times of encounter between different people and continues Messina and Reggio Calabria are just one city divided by a little of water. Some time ago a foreign tourist, who was walking down the Reggio shore and could clearly see the city of Messina on the other side, asked with surprise: What's the name of this lake? . Today, the last feluccas the traditional wooden boats used for swordfish hunting sail the waters of the lake of Messina, anchored at both of the two coasts of a Strait which holds a single soul.

Italy - May God ski with you

2011-12-05

They come down like God a woman beyond the trail remarks ironically. An easy joke for the Italian Religious Ski Championship where priests, missionaries and friars are the partakers- with an ironic title: May God ski with you. Organized in Sestola, Modena, by the Centro Sportivo Italiano, it attracts over seventy priests from all over Italy: the one skiing with the Gospel under the jacket, the ex-dj - and ex womanizer- now redeemed, the 82 year old priest who started skiing with old fashioned ash-wood skis. And along comes Father Franco from the Non Valley, also known as the flying priest: every morning after the mass he goes running and when he can he also goes ski touring, his true passion. All young priests should better practice sports he says competition helps fighting following the rules and becomes a sort of mission.

L'Espresso - Italy - The catacombs of Las Vegas

2011-12-01

Southamerica - Cockfighting in Latin America

2011-12-01

It's early morning at the cockfighting club in Higüey, Dominican Republic, and breeders are ready to go. They weigh their roosters, shave them, tie sharp gaffs on their legs and then wait on the stairs of the small arena for their gamecocks' turn to fight, usually drinking beer and smoking cigars. The show starts in the afternoon and goes on till late night, the audience screaming, gambling and exchanging money. Despite being illegal in many countries and harshly criticized by animal welfare associations, cockfighting is still very popular in South America - especially Perù, Mexico and Dominican Republic - and Asia, where is a regular appointment over the several local festivities. Just like in the famous painting by Johann Zoffany, where an entire Indian community - at the end of the 18th century - used to gather around the cockpit.

Italy - The red gene

2011-11-22

Scientists have calculated that redheads might die out soon. The MCR1 gene, responsible for the red hair, is a recessive one occurring only on 2% of the human population.Their disappearance is very likely to happen despite the fact that in the past they have proved to be very strong: in Northern Europe redheads have been thriving over the centuries despite the scarce sunlight while the rest of the people have been suffering from rickets. Also, redheads react differently to anesthesia and they happen to be stung by bees more often. The subjects in this album are mere acquaintances or strangers who all have the same alert gaze in common as if they were conscious (even when they are really young) of being more and more rare and, as a result of this, more and more special.

Palestine - Gaza surfin' girls

2011-11-21

Surfing in Gaza is difficult. Almost impossible if you are a girl: everybody's eyes are upon you. Plus your jeans are soaked with water. However, four Palestinian girls decided to defy the dictates of Hamas. Every day - with their surfboards clutched under their arms - they head for the beach of the Annadi Al Bahri Marine Club. Sabah, Khouloud, Shorouq and Rwan are cousins to each other and aged between 10 and 14. They love surfing the web, playing with their friends, horse riding or simply visiting the parks in Gaza City. They live along the beach and their parents are fishermen and lifeguards, proud that their daughters play a sport, facing the waves of the Mediterranean sea. But how long will it last? Will they be forced to quit surfing as time goes by? Nobody knows, so far. But today, they are just the Gaza surfin' girls.

Libya - Young traffic officers grow up

2011-11-21

They stand at every crossroads in Benghazi. They look confident as they direct the traffic, give information to bystanders and invite Libyan drivers to obey the rules of the road. They are Mohamed and Ali, ten years old, Islam, 14, Ahmed, 15, and one hundred other baby-traffic officers and they help the few remaining adult policemen to direct the traffic in the city. Not all of them wear a uniform, but their presence amuses drivers. This is our aim Massoud Hazi, 51 years old, explains. He has been living on a wheelchair since he was wounded in a car accident in 1982. I created the young traffic officers force to sensitize the public awareness of the importance of safe driving. We had a great response, so we could teach many young people the rules of the road. And now that we are in wartime they are proving themselves very useful.

Longitude - Italy - Afghanistan: The General

2011-11-17

Benin - Voudou, the oldest religion in the world

2011-11-14

Voudou, which literally means 'spirit', or even more literally 'unconscious sign', is an African religion with a strongly esoteric character. Modern Voudou is the derivation of one of the most ancient religions in the world, present in Africa since the dawn of human civilisation. Some historians believe that the ancient Voudou religion even dates back ten thousand years. Widespread in many areas of the Black Continent, the profound philosophic wisdom of Voudou then spread throughout the Americas, as a consequence of the deportation of black slaves to the new colonies. Today, Voudou is practiced by about sixty million people worldwide, and has recently gained the privilege of being recognised as an official religion in Benin and Togo, where it is organised as a church frequented by the majority of the population.

Italy - Discovering Basilicata, an unknown land.

2011-11-13

Up to fifty years ago, Basilicata was still called the unknown land. The wildest region of Italy, it is the same area depicted by Carlo Levi in his famous book Christ stopped at Eboli: a bit rural , the only region without an aereoport, the most uninhabited (only after the Val d´Aosta) and with the smallest highway in the whole country. Basilicata performs the last pagan rituals in Europe. The so called sylvian weddings (the most famous is the May in Accettura) are the spring ceremonies wherein a beech and a spruce, dragged to the valley by giant Chianina cows, are joint and risen in the centre of the main square of the town. The two trees stand joint for a whole year to symbolize fertility a tourist guide explains.

Palestine - The Israeli-Palestinian water war

2011-11-09

Control over water resources is one of the most fierce and pivotal reasons of conflict between Israel and Palestine. For both countries 2011 has been the worst year since decades. Lake Tiberias is at its lowest level. The Israel water authority fears that at this rate - the point of no return will be soon reached, causing irreversible damages to the water quality. The situation is critical also in Ramallah, Bethlehem and in all those West Bank areas where farming is still an important branch of the economic system regardless the Israeli settlements. Colonies which means to Palestinians - less soils, less olive groves, less fields and, dramatically, less water resources.

Two new photographers have just joined our agency

2011-11-08

Ugo Lucio Borga is an italian photojournalist who lives in Turin. His features from Libya, Somalia, Eritrea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Tanzania, Ruanda, Mali, Indonesia, Sri Lanka have been published on several national and international magazines, radio and television such as The Independent, La Vanguardia, Die Zeit, Die Welt, Die Presse, Haaretz, the Observer, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Sport Week, GQ,La Stampa, Il Corriere della Sera, Il Giornale, Il Manifesto, Il Riformista, Venerdì di Repubblica, Radio 24, Radio RSI, Channel4, Rai News24, Skytg24.

Giorgio Palmera instead is born in Rome in 1968, where he now live and works. He is busy roducing stories about international social issues. With the aid of the European UNion e of some Ongs, he has extensively travelled In the Middle East, Africa and Central America producing reportages for several italian magazines. Between 1996 and 1998 he has lived in Nicaragua where he had the idea of creating photographic workshops for kids living in the streets. Lately he has won the Lucca Book Contest 2011 with MEMORIA, Postcart, Roma 2011, a book on the visual reconstruction of collective and individual memory of the Argentinians.

Welcome guys! For their complete bios and info please go to:
http://www.parallelozero.com/photographers.php

United States - Mississippi delta blues

2011-10-25

Greenville is halfway between Memphis and New Orleans. The "Blues Bar", a stone's throw from the Mississippi river, offers afternoon jam sessions inspired by Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. Greenville is in the heart of the Delta Blues Land, a fertile but depressed land where unemployment rate is high and poor people survive fishing catfishes in the river. That is where, in the Twenties, black workers used to sing Delta Blues songs in sawmills, rail yards and cotton fields. It was the birth of the American popular music. Travelling along the Mississippi River today you´ll find that since then not much has changed, and the tradition of the blues murals, juke-joint, music festivals is more alive than ever. Especially on Saturdays in Clarksdale, where an apparently abandoned warehouse at night comes alive with blues: the Ground Zero.

Liberia - Madam President, Nobel for Peace

2011-10-13

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has been president of Liberia since January 2006 and, at 73, is the first woman in the history of Africa to be elected head of state. They call her the Iron Lady, the black Thatcher: without exaggeration. Sirleaf is a self-made woman, thanks to her tenacity and integrity. She was director of The World Bank, Minister of Finance, president of the African sector of the United Nations development programme, she´s been accused of high treason, imprisoned, forced into exile. Today, on her shoulders lies the responsibility to rebuild a country devastated by 14 years of civil war, from scratch. And to restore hope, not only to Liberia, but the whole of Africa. On Oct 7th, 2011, as a tribute to her first two, extraordinary presidential mandates, she won the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Vanity Fair - Italy - Moldova

2011-10-11

11 Freunde - Germany - Afghanistan

2011-10-11

VSD - France - Fontana di Trevi's jackpot

2011-10-10

MARE - GERMANY - LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS

2011-10-10

Vanity Fair - Italy - Save the Children

2011-10-09

Internazionale - Italy - Various

2011-10-06

Longitude - Italy - Gaza

2011-10-04

ROLLING STONE - ITALY - COUNTER IED IN AFGHANISTAN

2011-09-30

Geolino - Germany - Polizeikinder

2011-09-25

Viaggiando - Italy - Venezuela

2011-09-22

Afghanistan - Herat, Journalistan

2011-09-22

At Herat University, Afghanistan´s second largest after Kabul´s, the brand-new Faculty of Journalism was created in April, 2011, thanks to the effort of the Italian cooperation. Here are being born the professionals who soon will tell stories of the new Afghanistan to their fellow nationals. Actually, many of them, while they´re still studying the fundamentals of the job, are already doing that from the microphones of the new, self-financed private radio stations, or through the freshly-born TV channels. And, surprisingly, one third of this X-generation of journalists are women.

The Liquid Stage - Stories of men and water - Rome 30th September - Palazzo delle Esposizioni

2011-09-19

The photoexhibition "The Liquid Stage - Stories of men and water" opens up on September 30th in Rome at Palazzo delle Esposizioni. Around 40 images shot by our photographers will be presented during the Festival della Letteratura di Viaggio 2011 until October 23rd.

More info on the festival website: www.festivaletteraturadiviaggio.it

Libya - Revolution: part two

2011-09-18

Bombed by NATO forces in March 2011, Qaddafi tanks were left on the outskirts of Benghazi as gruesome trophies. Symbols of a siege that is only a memory, wreckage over which the Libyan families are queuing to be photographed on Friday, the holiday. For sure the fear of attacks and the possible presence of loyalist spies in the city keeps the attention high. But Banghazi is slowly returning to normality, shops reopened, young men gather together in cafés, mothers bring their children to the park. As on the eastern front the fighting has become an exhausting war of position, the core of the conflict has moved to Tripoli where clashes and bombings shake the capital and the besieged city of Misrata.

Afghanistan - Italy at war, ten years later

2011-09-17

Italian troops in Afghanistan amount to almost four thousand. They are basically located in the western and south-western part of the country, and man strongholds such as Bala Murghab, the Zirko Valley and Bala Baluk, in the heart of Taliban land. They work hard to put into practice the new counterinsurgency doctrine. But, on the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the war, they have to work just as hard to defend themselves.

Parallelozero presents: "Baranzate - The world in a district" - A photoexhibition by Bruno Zanzottera

2011-09-14

In a small village few kilometers away from Milan downtown, live many families coming at least from 70 different countries. Baranzate counts no more than 11.000 inhabitants, but has lately become a symbol of multiethnic life in the north of Italy, a place where cultures and traditions meet peacefully in few hundreds square meters.
Photojournalist Bruno Zanzottera has explored those living contexts for more than a year, producing a great impact series of portraits which unveil a very interesting story about cohabitation and respect among different nationalities. The pictures will be presented on Sunday 18th September during the opening of the "Il Mondo nel Quartiere", an event that will take place in Piazza Giovanni Falcone -Baranzate (MI) starting at 6 pm.

United States - Las Vegas Crazy Hair

2011-09-10

Imagine more than 3.000 hair stylists coming from all over the States, plus some hundreds european hair specialists. Gather them under the same roof in one of the most luxurious and kitschy Las Vegas hotel under the creative direction of a scottish man who resembles more like the mad hatter rather than an art director, and blend everything with models, house music, fashion show, workshops, fashion designer, hair dressing stars, and you will have more or less the picture of what happens every year during the Paul Mitchell annual gathering. The company is one of the more active and en-vogue hair beauty products maker in America. Its president and CEO, John Paul deJoria is a philanthropist, a pony-tailed billionaire with a former Playboy playmate as a wife, an incredible talent for business and a unique vision of the world.

Amnesty Magazine - Germany - Gaza: fuck generation

2011-09-08

National Geographic Magazine USA, gives Alessandro Gandolfi best edit award.

2011-09-07

The American magazine awarded the report on the Strait of Messina— which has just been published in the September 2011 issue of the Italian edition— with the Best Edit Award, a prize that the editorial office of National Geographic in Washington assigns every month to the best article published among the several local editions of the magazine. This is the second time a report by Alessandro Gandolfi for National Geographic Italia has received such a prestigious accolade: the first one was awarded for his report devoted to the archeological site of Hierapolis, Turkey, published in the February 2010 issue. "The concept of my report is to describe the Strait as a place where water joins people rather than dividing them” explains Alessandro Gandolfi “and where we are able to recognize traits of continuity between the coast of Sicily and that of Calabria. The text of my report was written by Francesco Merlo, a Sicilian born journalist for La Repubblica." The Parmesan photographer will exhibit his work about the Strait on Wednesday, August 31st during the International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, France, where National Geographic has invited him to give an account of the origin and the actual making of the report.
You can take a look at Alessandro’s story on the National Geographic website. www.nationalgeographic.it/italia/2011/09/05/foto/messina_ponte_sullo_stretto-476354/1

Mare - Germany - Gaza Surf

2011-09-04

South Caucasus - The Limbo Nation - 20 years after

2011-08-02

Nagorno Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur, covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. In 1991 its inhabitants decided for independence, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Although it doesn't exist de jure, Nagorno-Karabakh is, de facto, a community of 140.000 people that are more concerned with their everyday lives than worrying about the legal recognition of a state. This reportage - 20 years after the declaration of indipendence - tries to tell how is life in a non-existent country and shows how the Karabaki, despite the consequences of war and poverty, still manage to live with dignity.

New Zealand - The women in black

2011-07-21

The Black Ferns are thirty-two women that make New Zealand´s national rugby team, the female equivalent of the famous All Blacks. Composed by athletes who are often bulky, heavily muscled, very tattooed and, according to their male counterparts, pretty mean on the field, the team is, as much as the male one, a national institution, around which revolves the crazy, almost hysterical passion of a whole population for this sport, whose international successes or failures are capable of affecting the national economy to a significant extent. Yet the Black Ferns have a budget that is a fraction compared to the male team´s, play almost without pay and train, as many of them say, out of sheer passion. The same passion that led them to win four world cups out of five.

Europe - In a stone tower

2011-07-19

The tower is their home, their life, often their world, in which they seclude themselves, in voluntary isolation from the rest of the planet. The sea is their companion. Sometimes a dog, or a cat. They talk to the rain, the wind and the swell. Some drink, some drink too much, some are abstemious. Some believe in God, some no longer even trust their fellow man. Between their hands, they behold the light. A light which, even in the era of satellite navigation, still warms the heart of those who are at sea. Their job is doomed to die, and some have died because of their job. They are a bunch of men and women, each unique in his or her own way. They are the last lighthouse keepers.

Morocco - Morocco´s first female taxi driver

2011-07-17

She is the first female driver behind the wheel of a grand taxi in Morocco. In Casablanca Fatima Bennadi has become an institution: with colleagues and friends greeting her at every crossroads or at the taxi rank, her white Mercedes is part of the urban landscape. She has been driving it for 20 years, since her husband lost his job, in 1991, and Fatima made up a new life as a taxi driver. Today, aged 66, she is a wife and a mother who spends her time driving her beloved taxicab and shopping at the local markets. She believes in equal rights for men and women. I don´t like bearded men - she states, referring to Islamic fundamentalists - who think women should stay home doing nothing all day. We need to work in order to be free to do the things we like, such as going out and traveling, just like you do in Europe.

Syria - Surviving Bashar

2011-07-13

Who are those people who distribute images of the government terrible offensive? Who does organize peaceful demonstrations and testifies the escalation of violence in the Syrian lawless conflict? They're just normal people, dreamy, engaged, young reporters in their 20s who are trying to picture their own reality. Everyday, with cameras and videocameras, they show the world what's going on in their country, no matter the bombs and the army atrocities. By risking their own lives, they've become the frontline of information, a new desperate voice which is trying to cry out loudly to the world all their pain and sufferings, they're the collective scream of a country where the entrance to journalists and operators is no longer allowed. Assad's regime is trying to shut them up, however they keep fighting for their own freedom.

Myanmar - Why do I fight for my Karen people

2011-07-12

The Karen people live in Eastern Myanmar, an area known as Karen territory, situated along the Thai border. Since 1946 The Karens have been asking for their own independence and for the foundation of their own separate state. Their requests were never accepted. That resulted in the longest civil war in the world. From the 50s onward, many peace resolutions have been presented, yet none of these resulted in a permanent armistice. One of the several Human Right Watch reports states that since 1960, over 1million of refugees have fled from the Karen region and since 2006 over 300 villages have been destroyed.

Syria - Young rebels

2011-07-09

Despite its Arabic roots, Syria is also the homecountry of a generation of young people who are refusing tradition in the search of a more modern lifestyle, which they learned about through movies, tv serials and the web. Ahmad, a 20 year-old boy who renamed himself Fox, and his friend Muhammad Jack, 18, are perfect examples of this generation. Fox refuses anything of his Arabic heritage: he changed his name and hairstyle, and he started working when aged 14. He currently works in a clothes shop in a mall in a suburb of Damascus. I will not stay in Syria forever - he tells -. I will travel to the United Arab Emirates and find a job in a big fashion store. Unlike Fox, Jack does not totally refuse his roots. He spends his time hanging out with his friends and surfing the web in a cybercafe, but he didn´t abandon Muslim practises.

Famiglia Cristiana - Italy - Souther Sudan - The Nuba fight

2011-07-08

United States - New Mexico, along the Camino Real

2011-07-05

An old brochure dating back to the Thirties invited tourists to discover the beauties of the Egypt of America: New Mexico. Here is where North American archaeology was born, following the traces of the Anasazi a native American civilization that existed for thirteen years living in sedentary settlement, farming and building monumental complexes and rediscovering the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the oldest European trade route in the New World, the first one to connect Mexico and regions of the United States. For three centuries traders, adventurers and missionaries traveled its 1.500 miles, walking past volcanos, rivers, salt mines and deserts. Neglected for centuries, the Camino Real has now been partially reopened and its New Mexico portion has been classified as national historic trail. A museum illustrates its history.

Ethiopia - Time to go solar

2011-07-05

Solar energy arrived in Ethiopia. In Addis Ababa, the capital, photovoltaic panels are still rare and expensive, but they're quite common in the poor, drought-stricken Southern areas. Here, the lack of electricity and the high costs of fuel for the generators made the use of solar energy compulsory to recharge lamps and mobile phones, pump the water from the wells and power refrigerators used to preserve the vaccines. These panels arrive here from China, Korea and Germany and they are distributed through international organizations which entrust the village committees with the photovoltaic management. Giving energy has also become a business: in the Somali region those lucky ones who hold a solar panel allow the other people to use it. By paying a fee.

Ethiopia - The great bourgeois awakening

2011-07-05

We've been sleeping over the past 30 year, now we are awakea businessman says sitting in a room at the Nani Building, a skyscraper sponsored by the Saudi billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi. This building is also a symbol for a massive urban expansion that made Addis Ababa one of the most confusing yet vibrant cities of Africa. Ethiopia's awakening resulted in a new feeling of pride blatantly shown by its middle class towards the history of the country which have (almost) never undergone slavery. This bourgeoisie loves luxury, playing golf, taking care of their own body. And it's made of entrepreneurs, businessmen, UN or AU diplomats, whose headquarter is right here in a brand new building opened in 2012. This building was sponsered by China with over $ 200millions.

Francesco Alesi - Documentary project on Nagorno-Karabakh

2011-06-28

Narek is a victim but he doesn’t see himself that way. Narek is a strong and generous man with a face and body shaped by history like the mountains of the Caucasus. Narek lives with his family along the ancient silk road in the forgotten village Zumzur: 72 inhabitants, 12 families, 2 cars and no shops. The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan from 92-94 left destruction and death in Karabakh and a territory filled with mines. Narek lost both his legs because of the war....
"On August 26th his youngest son is getting married - says Franceso. Narek has also invited me and so I’m going to join them for the wedding and will remain a bit longer to finish this documentary. Hopefully". Directed and shot by Francesco Alesi - We are looking for a producer/investor to continue and finish the documentary. See the entire clip at: http://vimeo.com/25668152. Please contact Parallelozero for more info at francesco.alesi@parallelozero.com

"Volti Nuovi" Photoexhibition - Museo Diffuso della Resistenza, della Deportazione, della Guerra, dei Diritti e della Libertà

2011-06-27

Franceso Alesi will be partecipating to the photoexhibition "Volti Nuovi" that will premiere in Turin on Friday July the 1st at Museo Diffuso della Resistenza, della Deportazione, della Guerra, dei Diritti e della Libertà, Corso Valdocco 4/a, 18 p.m. The exhibition will remain open until September the 11st. More info on www.museodiffusotorino.it .

Libya - War fishing boats

2011-06-25

Misratah has been under the siege of Qaddafi´s troops for five months, and its only channel of communication with free Libya is the sea. The population of Benghazi, with the creativity that characterizes the revolution, has organized a boat line to supply the country´s third city with food, medicines, and the weaponry and ammunitions that the revolutionary militias need to keep on pushing towards Tripoli. Despite the constant shelling on Misratah port, dozens of Benghazi fishing boats, converted into warships armed with rocket launchers and heavy-caliber machine guns, and commanded by volunteer captains, connect the two cities, bringing help in and hundreds of refugees on their way out.

The Interpreter

2011-06-22

How many times can you die? How many can you be reborn? And how many can you change, to the point of being unrecognizable even to your family? Mohaned, a young Iraqi, has been everything from a DJ to a small businessman, to a soldier in the Iraqi Army, to a an armed man whom at some point would have been identified as an insurgent, to an employee of the Italian embassy in Baghdad, to an interpreter wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army, to a refugee in Italy, to a father and a divorced husband, and, finally, back to an interpreter with the U.S. forces. In 2003, he was a solar young boy. Seven years later, he is an alcoholic, whose hair went grey too soon and who sleeps every night with a Kalashnikov by his side, terrified by the possibility of being executed as a traitor. This is the story of the last seven years of his life.

The Hurt Lockers

2011-06-22

They are few, selected and extraordinarily well trained. They chose a life of risk, but, unlike the Oscar-winning movie’s main character, do not feel like joking about death, which took away many of their colleagues. Their code name is IEDD, an acronym that stands for “improvised explosive device disposal”: they are the bomb specialists of the Italian Army, based all over Western Afghanistan. Considered among the world’s best, they use the most advanced technologies, and are forced to update almost daily against an insurgency using explosive devices that day after day turn out to be more sophisticated, creative, and lethal.

UAE - Kuwait can't wait

2011-06-22

One of the Gulf´s richest countries, with a most troubled recent history. Invaded in 1990 by Saddam Hussein´s Iraqi troops, it was literally razed to the ground. Oil wells were burned. A curtain of thick black smoke filled the sky, and for a year the sun did not rise over the country. To date, many Kuwaitis have still not completely overcome the shock of witnessing their homeland being reduced to ashes. The rebuilding effort has been slow and painful. But today Kuwait is racing: with the latest quinquennial plan which was launched in 2012, on the 50 th anniversary of the first Constitution, and which proposes to invest billions of dollars, it aims to become the new beacon of the Gulf, filling a gap that left it twenty years behind the other emirates in the area.

Vietnam - On the road

2011-06-22

Vietnam is a mesmerizing country, a true lively nation. Its history is bound to the dramatic events of foreign occupation which left a permanent mark on its soil. The genuine kindness of its people and an unusual geography, turn every trip to this land into a unique experience. From Hanoi to the China border there are over 2.000 kilometers of extraordinary roads which cross the mountains and the northern woods. A green, peaceful Asian road trip snakes along the Ba Be National Park, through impassable streets, suspended bridges and small villages where mountain people still live, isolated in a harsh environment. Driving a Minsk - an old, light, easy to fix Russian-made motorbike from the 50s used by the Vietnamese people to thwart the Americans, turns a brand new experience into a trip down memory lane.

Italy - Metaphysics of the 45th parallel

2011-06-22

Dozens of Northern Italian villages and small towns are halfway between the North Pole and the Equator, along the 45th parallel. Something not really worth noticing, if not for the fact that in a not too distant past the separatist party Northern League has proposed to use the parallel as the new border which would have separated Northern Italy from the allegedly backwards and useless South. One year after the Unity of Italy´s 150th anniversary, we drove along the whole Italian leg of the parallel, East to West. Nothing about aesthetics: when you follow the parallel, forcing yourself to leave it as little as possible, you end up in the hidden corners of an unexplored Italy. Places where you would probably never have set foot, suspended, between the past and the future, in a bucolic and vaguely metaphysical space-time limbo.

Peru - The princess of the Andes

2011-06-20

Vicuña´s wool is the fiber of the rich. It is worn by the wealthiest men on Earth, the only ones who can afford a coat worth thirty thousand dollars. Five centuries ago, one man in the world had the right to wear it: it was the Inca king, the ruler of the immense Andean empire. The fiber of vicuña the princess of the Andes is soft, glossy and light as no other. Yet, in spite of being so light, it provided a warmth nowhere to be found. In the times of the Incas, the vicuñas used to number as many as one million animals but the conquistadores exterminated them. For fifteen years now selling vicuña wool has been legal, but only if the shearing is performed on animals that are alive. The main beneficiaries of this business are the local communities, the only ones allowed to shear the animals and sell the wool.

Latvia - Celebrating Midsummer with the pagan gods

2011-06-20

Latvia was the last European country to be Christianized, in the XIII century by Teutonians Knights, and nowadays the old Latvian religion, based on natural deities, is still deep rooted in their culture through ancient legends, popular songs and rituals such as Janis festival. On summer solstice, the most important celebration of the year, families gather in wild sites. They weave wreath of flowers and leaves against the evil spirits, prepare specials beers, cheeses and cakes, and sing old songs (ligo) around a sacred fire. At night they wait for Laima, the goddess of luck, while young couples venture into the forests in search of the fern flower, a plant that according to the legend blossoms only once a year. For many Latvians, this is not only folklore, but a religious ceremony related to the old deities of the northern pantheon.

Albania - I love Chameria. A new exodus

2011-06-18

On June the 27th 1944 around 1,000 Chams were killed by the Greek army in the region at the border with Albania, while the survivors of the genocide managed to flee to the nearby partially Muslim country. As a consequence of the exodus, Islam substantially disappeared in Greece, while the ethnic composition of Albania shifted and nowadays around the 22% of the population is of Cham descend. After sixty years of silence, Shpetim Idrizi, a Cham Albanian politician and leader of the PDIU party, is promoting a campaign in the attempt to increase the awareness on this episode forgotten by history. Besides the stencils spreading all over the country as a part of his campaign, vintage photographs and a cemetery built along the border between Greek and Albania are concrete evidences of the genocide.

Palestine - Gaza: Fuck Generation

2011-06-17

A few months ago a Manifesto was published on the web by a group of young people from Gaza: "Fuck Hamas, fuck Israel, fuck Fatah, fuck the UN, fuck the UNWRA, fuck the USA! We, the youth of Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community! We want to scream and break this wall of silence". The message put the bloggers´ lives at risk, as it angered Hamas, but it also shocked the audience and finally shed light on the frustration experimented by the young residents of Gaza. A generation of creative and dynamic boys and girls who are tired of being regarded as terrorists or religious fanatics, and openly defy Hamas laws. Directors who have filmed the protest, girls who smoke shisha in public, rappers, skaters, breakdancers and graffiti artists.

The last survivor of Tibhirine

2011-06-14

Father Jean-Pierre was the custodian monk of the monastery during the kidnapping and killing of the seven monks of Tibhirine, in Algeria, on March 1996. Together with father Amédée, they were the only survivors of the slaughter which, after 15 years, is still shrouded in mystery. But the memory of Tibhirine and the killed monks goes well beyond the political matters of the civil war and the Islamic terrorism. It survives thanks to books and movies, but especially through the direct words of Jean-Pierre, the last living monk. Father Jean-Pierre, together with Amedée – who died two years ago –, has left Algeria in order to continue his monastic life on the highlands of the Atlas in Morocco, where Trappists have moved their “Notre Dame of the Atlas” new monastery. Jean-Pierre is nowadays the last connection between these two places.

Forgetting Chad - Photoexhibition by Alessandro Gandolfi - From June 17th to 19th 2011 - Milano - Circolo Arci Bellezza.

2011-06-14

Pictures from one of the most forgotten countries of Africa. In cooperation with COOPI and Indian Nation. After years of civil wars, Chad suffers infantile malnutrition, it is stricken by drought and desertification and it is invaded by hundreds of thousands refugees from Central Africa and Sudan. The international community which is always focusing on nearby Darfur, has forgotten Chad and in 2011 the United Nations military forces are going to abandon the country. “A premature move out – they say from the UNHCR – because the risk that Al-Qaida will infiltrate the country is real”. Chad nevertheless remains a politically stable country, with reinforced power coming from the proceeds of oil extraction. This wealth however does not get redistributed and, while 80% of the population lives under the poverty line. The italian Ong COOPI, working in Chad since 1976, is one of the few international organization which still tries to carry on humanitarian projects in this country.

Southern Sudan - Arrow Boys

2011-06-13

In the Southern area of Southern Sudan, the Western Equatoria region, villages bordering with Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central African Republic are often attacked by the rebels of Lord´s Resistance Army (LRA). In the remotest villages frightened inhabitants are leaving their homes to find shelter in more populated towns, which have better means of defence. The military presence is not enough to keep them safe, and that´s why many young men have formed self-defense forces. They decided to call themselves Arrow Boy after the arrows dip in poison which they use as weapons, besides some old guns. Thanks to their familiarity with the forests surrounding the area, ArrowBoys have proved themselves a vital defense for the villages; very often they cooperate with the army as they guide soldiers across the territory.

Cook Islands - Tropical chic

2011-06-13

15 islands scattered over an area of 2 millions square kilometers in the Pacific Ocean. Two groups of atolls separated by 1.200 kms of sea, half way between New Zealand and Hawai. Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Atiu, Mitiaro, Manihiki, are names evoking the quintessential of the Tropics. Voulcanic and coral islands, perfect lagoons, gentle mountains, reefs, beaches and palm teres, ukuleles and black pearls. The archipelago hosts a fierce people of navigators, singers, dancers and ex-warriors who are now living out of tourism, agricolture and fishing under the shadow of the Commonwealth, with an eye to Europe and another one to their Newzealanders cousins.

Libya - Revolution!

2011-06-08

On February 17th, the Libyan revolution has started. Parallelozero photojournalist Alessandro Gandolfi has covered the event shooting a series of reportages in the country. Beyond the subjects depicted in these photos, we have other available text-and-pics stories on the women of the revolution, the new Libyan media, the destroyed villa of Qaddafi, the exodus of the alien workers from the country and on the Ras Lanuf refinery, being bombed these days by the government army, which never before had been photographed inside.

PHOTO EXHIBITION - No Frills Sport by Alessandro Gandolfi e Sergio Ramazzotti - Milan - 10 June 2011

2011-05-24

Thecnology, fashion, self-marketing. Those factors have become essential in the western countries' approach to different sports. Very often the "physyical" and "emotional" values stay well behind the economic and public relation strategies. But the young surfers of Gaza or the female Kabul's soccer team for example, strongly remind us how sports should be lived. Against all odds, passion is the only thing that really counts. Edited by Gianmarco Maraviglia in cooperaion with Mad and Four Roses Gallery.

Libya - Women of the revolution

2011-05-19

They have been appointed as the revolutionary sisters. Salwa and Iman Bugaighis are the female face of an interim government. One is a lawyer, the other one a doctor. One has joined the council that is leading Benghazi, the other one is in charge for the logistics and the relations with the media. They are two independent women who studied abroad and chose not to wear the veil. They aren´t afraid to be on the front line. As the government seems to be lacking a proper leader, they have become the symbol of a protest that in Benghazi is mainly represented by women. Women are the most active side of demonstrations and the authors of articles on the new free media. We were desperate and thought nothing would change Imam says , but now we have a dream. And we are all committed to make it happen.

India - The hospital-boats of the Ganges delta

2011-05-19

Enclosed by a mangrove forest on the Ganges delta, the Sundarbans archipelago is a remote corner of India in the West Bengal region. Inhabitants of the archipelago which is listed by Unesco as a World Heritage site and includes over 50 islands mostly live in poverty. If it weren´t for boat connections, they would be completely marooned. With a fleet of four fully equipped ferries and some smaller speed crafts, hospital-boats of the Southern Health Improvement Samity (Shis, a welfare organization established in 1979) are the only medical facility provided to these people. Since the christening of the first ferry in 1997, Shis volunteer doctors have been providing medical aids, first aid services and free medicines. Hospital-boats are the only medical facilities provided to the inhabitants of the Sundarbans.

India - Dongria´s fight against the bauxite mine

2011-05-17

Dongria and other Kondh tribal groups are fighting against multinational Vedanta´s mining plans which would turn the Niyamgiri Hills into a giant bauxite mine. Dongria and Kondh people are already experimenting the consequences of a bauxite refinery build by Vedanta at the foot of the Niyamgiri Hills. With a population of 8,000 people, Dongria Kondh is one of the remotest tribes in India. They live in small villages on the Niyamgiri Hills, a very green land where they also grow vegetables. Dongria have been preserving their land for centuries and that´s why they call themselves Jharnia, meaning protectors of streams. If Vedanta was to build an open-cast mine, Niyamgiri forests and rivers would be destroyed. Moreover, this would annihilate Dongria Kondh as a population, depriving them of their culture and identity.

MAX - AFGHANISTAN, SKATER IN KABUL

2011-05-16

PARALLELOZERO - Portfolios reading - May and June

2011-05-10

During the Festival della Fotografia Etica that will take place in Lodi (Mi) from 19 to 22 of May, Gianmarco Maraviglia, director of our agency, will give portfolio readings to the photographers who will register through the festival website. More info writing to portfolio@festivaldellafotografiaetica.it .

On the 17th, 18th and 19th of June instead, inside the Reggia di Colorno (PR) premises, the second edition of the COLORNOPHOTOLIFE Photography Festival will be held. Our photojournalist Alessandro Gandolfi will be giving portfolio readings to photographers that will book through the website www.colornophotolife.it. The meeting will start on sunday 19th from 10.30 AM onward.

Great Britain - Tomb Riders

2011-05-10

In the United Kingdom, reverend Paul Sinclair, a Scottish-born ex-Pentecostal minister, ex-motorcycle stuntman, created a funeral entrerprise with no rivals in the world: a fleet of motorcycle hearses that guarantee the departed a last voyage definitely out of the ordinary. The idea was successful beyond all the best expectations: Sinclair´s business, Motorcycle Funerals, with headquarters in the Birmingham area, takes to the grave over 350 people a year all over the UK, and registers several well in advance reservations. Many are (or rather, were) bikers, but there are also those who simply express the will to depart in a jolly fashion and make some noise.

Tunisia - In the traffickers' web

2011-05-09

After the fall of the Ben Ali regime, Tunisia is almost out of control. The police and the coast guard no longer patrol ports and territorial waters, and many Tunisians, as well as refugees coming from Libya, have taken and still take the chance to reach Italy by boat. The situation has been largely exploited by some mob-style organizations of human traffickers based in the Tunisian port city of Zarzis, which send to Europe tens of thousands of desperate people every month, at the price of 1,200 Euros each for a highly dangerous crossing to Lampedusa, a tiny island and Italy´s southernmost point. We have infiltrated one of those organizations, headed by a trafficker named Osama who, until late 2010, used to work as an entertainer in a tourist village.

Southern Sudan - My life in a cattle camp

2011-05-08

We have not been fighting for 40 years to keep on living amongst the cows: this seems to be the motto of many Sudanese people. But then, just a short distance from the few main inhabited centers, there´s a totally different planet where people share their habitat with cows and lead a lifestyle that has not changed with the passing of time. For the nomadic shepherds living in Southern Sudan, a population of Nilotic descend, cows are like four- legged wallets, besides being a prestige factor. Because of their economic and symbolic value, cows are looked after for many hours a day by shepherds in the attempt to make their own herd look healthier than the other ones´. Livestock raids have become a routine which frequently leads to tribal clashes and occasionally to political tensions.

Nigeria - Stories of ordinary slavery - TV Series

2011-05-07

Every year, at least 50,000 girls travel from Nigeria (mostly from Benin City, one of the country’s poorest cities) to Europe. A trafficker, with the help of a voodoo, or juju, priest, managed to convince them that a decent job awaits them in the promised land. The journey is often nightmarish, trying to reach the coast of Italy or Spain on a precarious rubber boat. Many of the girls die of fatigue or drown at sea before reaching their destination. Those who make it, soon realize that the promised job does not exist: after their papers are seized by the traffickers, they are sent on the street as prostitutes. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the government and an Ngo run by nuns are fighting to set these 21st Century slaves free: from their masters, as well as from the naivete that makes them so vulnerable.

Southern Sudan - The Citizen, the one and only newspaper in Southern Sudan

2011-05-06

The point is not freedom of information, it´s that they don´t like to be criticized. Most of them used to be in the army and they haven´t developed a proper idea of government yet. We all are tied to our traditional tribal schemes, but nowadays this system is collapsing and there´s no real alternative on the horizon. Nihal Bol is one of the most prominent journalists in Juba, a scathing voices against those who are in power in Southern Sudan. Because of his articles about Southern Sudan´s emerging leadership, he was imprisoned for three times with no specific charges. He directs the Citizen, which is not only the first free newspaper to be printed in Southern Sudan, but also the only publication in the new nation so far: an indispensable voice for a country that aspires to be defined as a democracy.

Southern Sudan - Christians in Southern Sudan

2011-05-01

An Arab and Islamic society in the north of the country, a black and Christian one in the south: with this scheme the Sudanese civil war used to be described abroad. Reality, however, is much more complex and rich in nuances, although during the civil war (1982-2005) the Catholic Church, its medical facilities and schools were undoubtedly a vital reference point for the people living in the south. The Church played as well a crucial role in the awareness process towards the secession referendum on January 9th. Despite the skepticism of politicians, diplomats and social analysts, clergymen did their best to make the referendum come true and to explain the importance of the vote as a means of freedom and justice. Today, the Church is determined to continue playing a crucial role in the birth of the new nation.

Niger - Food crisis in Niger

2011-04-23

The unmerciful Nigerien food crisis could turn into a severe humanitarian emergency. Those in need are over 6 million. Considering all of the Sahel area, this number dramatically rises up to 13 million, half of them children. The present drought affecting the area results in a quite expected food shortage, in the rising of the prices of primary food necessities and in a relentless impoverishment of the already poor families from the villages along the Niger river. Over 80% of the harvest -the only mean to survive for these families went lost and several people had to sell their lands and animals to get enough money to pay for food. The infant mortality rate is 35%: malnutrition, lack of medical care and potable water and degrading sanitary conditions are the major causes of death.

Die Zeit - Germany - Libya: Secret Mission

2011-04-20

Niger - My child is hungry

2011-04-17

Nana, Zuera, Jamila, Harira, Amina, Harisa: these are some of the countless mothers from Niger who struggle every day to feed their children, here where one child out of six dies before turning five because of poor nutrition. Alone, desperate and armed with the power that only a mother can find, they fight for life seeking for food and pure water. Their husbands, immigrants to the North, often vanish into thin air leaving their families for good. Every year the famine hammers away at these villages in Sahel the deepest part of the savannah and destroys the crops. The mud strawed villages where people try to harvest the fields to grow mile are just mirages in the dust. Mirages, just like food self-sufficiency. As an old Nigerin saying tells "gazelle stay in its country feast or famine. But currently it's not like that anymore here.

Libya - New rebel media

2011-04-16

The original spark of the Libyan revolution in Cyrenaica ― just like in Egypt and Tunisia ― can mainly be found in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. In Benghazi young people were the ones to give the starting signal of the protest and now it´s up to them to run the new media system: an independent voice that has emerged after decades of censorship. Libyan first free newspaper, called Libya Al Horreya (Free Libya), was founded a few weeks ago: its editorial unit is in Mahkama Square, in a building where a new web tv is also based. The new free radio airs the most negative criticism towards Gaddafi's regime, while his image has become the main target of satirical graffiti painted on every city wall.

The Vision - Agency Showreel 2011

2011-04-13

Parallelozero stands out in the international market with reportages shot by our experienced photojournalists all over the world. In photojournalism documenting areas of crisis, as well as in geographical and anthropological photography, the narration of places is deeply linked to the people who live there, to urban dwellings, social communities, and the private lives of individuals: in one world, to stories. Parallelozero was also among the first editorial companies producing multimedia reportages. “The medium is the message” wrote Marshall McLuhan. A concept that fits perfectly into Parallelozero’s multitasking vision. Our in-depth, documentary-style reportages are made with texts, pictures, video footage and soundtracks. They are communication products in which our core business, the photographs, maintain all their visual and expressive force, that of an instant frozen in time, but are immensely enriched by the fluidity of video and the emotional power of sound.

Libya - Revolution

2011-04-11

Internazionale - Italy - Lampedusa

2011-04-07

Avvenire - Italy - Sergio Ramazzotti and Sky - Sos Lampedusa

2011-04-06

Sos Lampedusa: Parallelozero and Sky Italy team up to tell the migrants plight

2011-04-05

After the 2010 documentary series on Afghanistan, Parallelozero photojournalist Sergio Ramazzotti and Sky TV Italy correspondent Fabio Caressa teamed up again to tell the plight of the migrants on Lampedusa, the southern Italian islet invaded by thousands of boat people coming from north African coasts. While Caressa, on Lampedusa, describes the chaos that reigns on the island since the beginning of the uprising in Tunisia, Ramazzotti, at the border between Libya and Tunisia, manages to infiltrate the network of human traffickers and tells the whole story of the migrants’ exploiters. An exceptional documentary, on the air Thursday April 7th at 22.05 on Sky Uno. Click here for the preview.

Italy - Youn-g-uns, young and politics 2.0

2011-04-02

It's clear that, presently, the gap between society and politics in the Italian landmark, where a technical government has just overturned the rules of the Italian political game of the last 50 years, is a wide one and the hyper engagement of the Seventies seems like a world apart. The Berlusconi era left deep cracks in the Italian scenario and getting politicians and common people back together looks like an impossible task. Luckily something new is moving through a new generation of young people concerned about politics and the world around them. There are new scenarios, new rules, new ways of communicating, and something is happening in the new think tanks´: parties´ headquarters, schools, blogs, social networks, and new real as well as virtual squares are being used to unite and gather to protest and argue current issues.

India - E-Waste, the illegal computer recycling in Delhi

2011-04-02

India is one of the most electronic waste-polluted countries worldwide, with a huge amount of e-waste, both locally produced and imported from abroad, and a recycling system which is far from being well-regulated. In spite of recent regulations on this issue, almost all the waste is processed with no protective measures and no central organization. Although Indian government banned the import of hazardous waste, tons of e-waste enter the country every week. Most of the computers and electronic devices are dismantled by family businesses, usually illegal, that lack any security awareness. Electronic devices are materially dismantled in some neighborhoods in Delhi, while in the outskirts of the city is where single components are chemically processed with acids and other chemical substances.

L'Europeo - Italy - The daily adventure - Special issue on Ettore Mo and Luigi Baldelli

2011-04-01

YACHT CAPITAL - SOMALIA ANTIPIRACY

2011-03-31

Brazil - Two wheels, one ambulance

2011-03-29

São Paolo, one of the most chaotic cities in Brazil: 11 million inhabitants, seven million vehicles, hundreds of accidents and episodes of violent criminality which leave casualties on the streets every day. The terribly congested traffic makes it impossible for a conventional ambulance to reach an emergency scene within an acceptable time lapse. Thus, the fire brigade, which also runs the mobile accident unit service, has found an ingenious solution: it has transformed motorbikes into ambulances. Their ability to get on an emergency site within ten minutes is a vital support to police medevac helicopters and ordinary ambulances on four wheels.

Italy - Between the sky and the earth: the monks of Camaldoli

2011-03-27

The Camaldolese order turns 1000. It was the Benedictine monk San Romualdo to make it in the attempt of harmonizing the Western monastic tradition with the Eastern one and, ever since then, the Camaldolese monks have been developing a unique Christian experience, marked by a useful interaction between eternity and history, sky and earth. Their Christian path is made of radical choices and a progressive expansion. Home based in the woods of Tuscany, still a vibrant headquarter of the order, these monks and hermits have spread all over the world: their mission being of giving a strong boost to spiritual renewal and peace in a globalized, multiethnic context, where different religions coexist, often resulting in violent clashes.

Cameroon - Nobles and slaves

2011-03-27

Four hours and some centuries separate North Cameroon from the Lamidat of Rey Bouba. 36.000 km² of savannah where the Lamido is the absolute monarch, holding the right of life and death on his subjects. A state within the state, where the central power is both timid and accomplice at the same time. Until the beginning of the 21st century, in Rey Bouba, the traditional and religious capital, there was no sign of modernity and people used to go to jail even for opening a gas station. After the old Lamido´s death and the accession of Aboubakary Abdoulaye the son who gave up the position of minister at Yaoundé parliament- to the throne, it is possible to perceive some signs of modernity. But the palace - with its harem, the slaves and the eunuchs- is still there invisible to prying eyes, but absolutely real as everyone swear.

Afghanistan - The double life of the General

2011-03-21

General Khatool Mohammadzai is 45, is a parachutist with 572 jumps, and has been wearing the Afghan Army´s uniform for 30 years. And, most of all, she is a woman. During her career, she has faced death more than once, she had to spend years confined at home during the Taliban regime, she had to bury her husband, killed during the Soviet war. Yet, she managed to become the country´s only woman general. Today, she has a desk job at the Ministry of Defense in Kabul. When she goes home every night, she changes in civilian clothes, buys rice and groceries at the local bazaar, and she cooks dinner for her son and her nephews, who sometimes spend the night at her place. She made her last parachute jump in 2006, during a military parade in Kabul, and ever since she´s been longing for the time when I will be able to jump again in security.

BRIGITTE GERMANY - AFGHANISTAN, THE DOUBLE LIFE OF THE GENERAL

2011-03-13

PARALLELOZERO PRESENTS ITS NEW PHOTOGRAPHERS - Tuesday 22nd of March, 7.00 pm

2011-03-10

MiCamera, via Medardo Rosso 19, Milan - From 7.00 pm

Parallelozero is proud to present the five new photographers who joined the agency in 2010. Francesco Alesi, Luigi Baldelli, Simone Cerio, Adelaide Di Nunzio and Marco Gualazzini have all been chosen for their style, their journalistic attention and their storytelling skills, characterized by the power and sensibility that have always been Parallelozero's peculiarities.
We invite you to check out their latest works and to meet them in person in Milano on Tuesday, March 22nd, at MiCamera Gallery, Via Medardo Rosso 19, from 7.00 pm. The event will also be hosted by Gianmarco Maraviglia, Parallelozero General Manager, and Sergio Ramazzotti, one of the founders of the agency, that will explain - among other things - the guidelines to submit a candidature for the 2011 selection of new photographers.

Die Zeit - Germany - Libya revolution

2011-03-08

Famiglia Cristiana - Italy - Libya: if the wall comes down

2011-03-08

Ireland - God bless ya

2011-03-03

The Irish Travellers are one of the strongest Catholic communities in the world. Irish Travellers were a nomadic family-based group trading horses and tools with farmers in rural areas of Ireland. Since the country became more and more mechanized, they lost their economic role and travelling became less convenient. Hence they became more settled and their lifestyle began to adapt to the new condition. Among Travelling people religion has always played a vital role and nowadays their adherence to Catholic morals is still one of the most stringent worldwide. The way Travellers experience faith is far from being intimate and discreet, as the Christian moderation does not hinder their vitality and exuberance. This photo-reportage is a result of a whole summer spent in Ireland moving from campsites to churches, to holy wells, to shrines.

Ecuador - Lago Agrio, where oil kills the Amazon

2011-02-28

Lago Agrio, in the Ecuadorian Amazon forest, is the capital city of the northern province of Sucumbíos. An ancestral land of the Cofan and Siona Secoya indians, where, in the mid Sixties, large oil reserves have been discovered and soon exploited by oil companies such as Chevron and, later on, Texaco. Since the 1970´s, the impact of oil wells and extensive drilling has been devastating: heavy pollution of rivers and land, a strong increase of cancer rate, natives uprooted from their villages. Following a long class action, on February 15th, 2011, Texaco was obliged to compensate 30 thousand inhabitants of the Sucumbíos province who called themselves Los Afectados, the Sick Ones - with 8.6 billion U.S. dollars. Pablo Fajardo, thier attorney, estimates that more than 2,000 people have died of tumors caused by oil waste-related pollution.

Afghanistan - Italian Army in Afghanistan

2011-02-28

Italian troops in Afghanistan amount to almost four thousand. They are basically located in the western and south-western part of the country, and man strongholds such as Bala Murghab, the Zirko Valley and Bala Baluk, in the heart of Taliban land. They work hard to put into practice the new counterinsurgency doctrine. But they have to work just as hard to defend themselves.

SPORTWEEK-AFGHANISTAN: WATER POLO IN HELMAND

2011-02-25

Morocco - The last survivor of Tibhirine

2011-02-21

Father Jean-Pierre was the custodian monk of the monastery during the kidnapping and killing of the seven monks of Tibhirine, in Algeria, on March 1996. Together with father Amédée, they were the only survivors of the slaughter which, after 15 years, is still shrouded in mystery. But the memory of Tibhirine and the killed monks goes well beyond the political matters of the civil war and the Islamic terrorism. It survives thanks to books and movies, but especially through the direct words of Jean-Pierre, the last living monk. Father Jean-Pierre, together with Amedée who died two years ago , has left Algeria in order to continue his monastic life on the highlands of the Atlas in Morocco, where Trappists have moved their Notre Dame of the Atlas new monastery. Jean-Pierre is nowadays the last connection between these two places.

Italy - Campania d´Africa

2011-02-16

Castel Volturno is a city of 25,000 inhabitants 40kms north of Naples. It is a unique town: it has the highest percentage of Africans in Europe. According to official statistics, 10 per cent of its population comes from Africa. But according to the Caritas Centre at least 10,000 (or even 15,000) Africans live in the city. Mostly young, male, poor and paperless sub-Saharians, who live in the degraded suburbs of the town. They usually wake up at 4,30 am to get the first bus to the roundabouts of Naples where they might get a job for 25 euros a day. For the Italian Government they are just illegal to be repatriated, while best-selling Italian writer Roberto Saviano defines them as an asset for Italy. In 2008 the South African singer Miriam Makeba died in Castel Volturno after her last concert. She died in Africa commented her relatives

France - Francesco Alesi is one of the 3 photographers chosen for Visas de l'ANI 2010

2011-02-13

Francesco Alesi, one of our new photographers, is one of the three authors chosen for the Visas de l'ANI 2010 prize, an award given by the French Iconographic National Association. The board (Frédérique Babin : LE MONDE MAGAZINE Mathieu Charon : FNAC Dominique Deschavannes : CONTACT PRESS Ferit Duzyol : SIPA PRESS Agnès Grégoire : PHOTO Elizabeth Hering : PICTO Barbara Herrmann : STERN Karine Larue : RSF), will announce the final winner on August 31st in Perpignan during the 23rd Visa pour l’Image festival. Francesco Alesi's work “Campania d’Africa” will be also exhibited in September in Paris at Bar Floreal.

For more images and info: www.ani-asso.fr/les-laureats-des-visas-de-lani-2010/#more-956 – Paris Gallery: www.bar-floreal.com

Alessandro Gandolfi's picture participating at National Geographic photoexhibition in Rome.

2011-02-08

A picture taken by Alessandro Gandolfi in Brasil, along the Sertao coast, will be showing at "I colori del mondo", a photoexhibition that National Geographic Magazine , Italian edition, is organizing in Rome, at Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Spazio Fontana), from February 12th to May 1st. 95 images shot by 48 photographers, 4 of wich are italians.

Free entrance. Info line 06.39967500. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 10 - 20; Friday, Saturday: 10 - 22.30; Sunday: 10 - 20; Monday: closed

India - Vrindavan, the City of Widows

2011-02-08

Vrindavan, in the district of Uttar Pradesh, is a center of Krishna worship. Traditionally, is it considered as an idle place for elder people to live, but it is also known as the City of Widows, as over 5.000 widows live here in extreme poverty. Hindu society rejects women when their husbands die, which means widows are forced to leave their homes by their own family. Vrindavan widows live in makeshift shelters or in ashrams (Hindu spiritural hermitages), where they worship Krishna through singing and dancing and they are given charity, a dish of rice or a few rupees. The white clothes of these hundreds of women dominate the city view, mixing with Indian or foreign pilgrims visiting the place where Krishna spent his childhood.

Figaro Magazine - France - The last survivor of Thiberine

2011-02-06

Colombia - The travelling school

2011-02-03

Luis Humberto Soriano is a 38 years old primary school teacher who lives in La Gloria, a small town in northeastern Colombia. From Monday to Friday, Soriano teaches in the rural school of La Gloria. But on weekends he loads his two donkeys, Alfa and Beto, with mathematics, history, geography and grammar books and heads out for the countryside. There he gives lessons to the kids living on the farms scattered on the hills surrounding La Gloria, who do not have the chance to go to normal school because of long distance and poor economic conditions. This is the Biblioburro, the travelling school. After 10 years this has become an extarordinary institution in this part of Colombia.

Bolivia - Urubichà, the baroque orchestra of the Guarayos

2011-02-03

Urubichà is a small village located in the North East of Bolivia where about 6000 Guarayos people still live peacefully. This region has always been considered the land of music, and that's why right here lives and plays the locally famous Baroque Orchestra of Urubichà, a band of over 50 young boys and firls who usually play Bach and Vivaldi. The orchestra and its chorus were officially born in 1996 thanks to a Franciscan priest, Walter Neuwirth, but rather than a birth this was a return, because already in the 1700 the Jesuits had easily discovered the passion of the Guarayos for baroque music. Now-a-days during the classrooms, young Urubichà kids learn how to play baroque and sacred music, meanwhile walking down the dusty streets of the village, hand-crafted string instruments can be found at every corner.

China - China Skiing

2011-02-02

Want to enjoy skiing in China? First of all forget everything you might know abou ski in France´s Chamonix or Italy´s Cortina d´Ampezzo. This is another world. The resorts that have grown around Beijing have slow lifts and icy slopes, usually covered with artificial snow. And while resort planners try to convince you that you are in the Alps, the results are miles away from european standards. Here the local scene is made of bumpy nursery slopes crowded with first-time skiers and lousy ski lifts. Researchs show that chinese skiers are extremely parsimonious and that the massive boom expected by local and foreign developers, has still a long way to go.

Libya - Journey to Misrata

2011-01-09

We leave Benghazi on a small ship heading west, few miles away from the Cirenaica coastline. Few hours later we manage to land at Misrata harbour: despite the port has been heavily damaged by Gaddafi´s tanks, we find a safe spot to anchor. It´s nightime. We are visiting the third largest city in Libya - which has been under siege and isolated for about six weeks now trying to give support to the rebels who are still fighting against Gaddafi´s army. We unload dozens of wooden boxes containing no weapons nor food, but money. Tons of money. The ship is loaded with dozens of millions of euros. It´s been weeks since people got their last salary - minister Tarhouni explained - Gaddafi wants to cripple this city. We want to bring our city back to its daily life: and for that, we don´t just need weapons, but money as well.

GENTE - AFGHANISTAN'S GENERAL MOHAMMADZAI

2011-01-02

Sette/Corriere della Sera - Italy - Chad

2010-12-21

ZENITH GERMANY - ICRC KABUL

2010-12-19

Israel - The rebirth of Jerusalem

2010-12-19

Jerusalem is not only the Me'a She'arim, the Jewish quarter frozen in the nineteenth century. Like many of the international tourism capitals, Jerusalem welcomes visitors with its new look: the Calatrava bridge, which recalls the harp of King David, for example, is just one of the symbols of the unstoppable modernization. If Tel Aviv has remained a provincial town, a cynical, sometimes exaggerated, Jerusalem - with its 700 thousands inhabitants, one third of which are Arabs - tries to be more mature and cosmopolitan. After the end of the second intifada, the lively city is more and more vivacious. Young people liven up the streets and night spots in the new trendy fashion neighborhoods, while even among the Orthodox, many young men party until late. With their stylish side-folded Borsalino

Italy - Fighting the Mafia

2010-12-16

Today the violence and terrorism spread by the Sicilian Mafia over the 90´s which allowed the Calabrian organized crime to reach the heights of the national power later on seem nothing but a distant memory. Yet, the latest news let us imply that organized crime is still very active in the deep Calabrian South. Today, the Ndrangheta is regarded as the most influential criminal organization in Italy and day by day it dramatically creeps into our social and economic system, getting benefit from a series of strong family ties. Crime the most important antimafia investigation of the last decade, shed light on the real nature of the Ndrangheta. In this investigation the help of the Calabrian people was crucial. They have never given up fighting against crime, thwarting fear and intimidation with the simple gestures of the everyday life.

Italy - Ciro and his brothers, dinosaurs

2010-12-13

Zoic is a worldwide leader company (and one of the few in the world) in the creation of dinosaur models. Founded by Flavio Bacchia and directed by his daughter Giorgia, some of the Zoic creations are exhibited at the British Museum in London, at the National Museum in Tokyo as well as at Museum of Science in Boston. Zoic has also restored the skeleton of Antonio the oldest and most complete skeleton of an Hadrosaurid in Europe now exhibited at the Civic Museum of Natural History in Trieste. During the early Jurassic, Italy was just a small sea where dinosaurs used to pass through: it´s proven by the marks found in Trentino, Friuli, Lazio and Puglia. Ciro was the first Italian dinosaur and the best conserved in the world. It was discovered by chance in a rock dump in Pietraroja.

Djibouti - Sailing with the whale sharks

2010-12-10

The Gulf of Tadjoura is a geographic funnel, a boiling water stretch flowing in the Ghoubbet, an internal sea framed by Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. A liquid world where whale sharks come to mate every winter surrounded by lava rocks, tons of plancton, deserted beaches and hot temperatures. The republic of Djibouti is a dusty and windy land which still survives between the end of the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa. A mythical place, forgotten by the world, in which the colonial epopee, the maritime trade and the wild frontiers feeling still rexist. Amongst military bases, carovane of trucks coming from Ethiopia and anti pirates protection units, it is possible to travel by land and sea discovering salted lakes, rocky islands, canyons (here begins the Rift Valley) and fiords. In a perfect and quite sea world.

Chad - The Refugees Hotel

2010-12-08

Eastern Chad, on the border with Darfur. In the past few years, thousands of refugees and displaced people have turned up here fleeing from the war. They're jobless, and have no food for their children. The few reference points are the therapeutic centres run by Coopi - an Italian NGO - in the villages of Goz Beida and Koukou. The Sudanese refugees and the displaced Chadians bring their undernourished children here to be examined by the doctors. However, many camps full of desperate people who have nowhere to go, have sprung up around these areas. Every man, kid or woman who requires some kind of treatment, will remain here. Despite all, they sleep outside, they cook whatever they manage to find and they hope for a better life; they wash their clothes and sweep the empty courtyards. The Coopi centres have become their new home.

Qui Touring - Italy - Dominican Republic

2010-12-07

United States - Austin, live music capital of the world

2010-12-06

Austin, Texas, is the capital of live music. Nowhere else a city has such a high number of live music clubs. And you realize it as soon as you land by plane: bands playing blues and country music in three different areas of the airport. In Austin live music is played in almost every bar: punk, folk, jazz, indie rock. So in an arid, conservative and a bit plastered Texas, this small town with one of the largest universities in the U.S. is a beacon of the American eclectic liberalism. Some years ago, Money Magazine named Austin the "best place to live": the city has only three murders every 100.000 inhabitants. "Austin?" a boy tells me, "after California and the East Coast is America's third coast...".

Io Donna - Italy - Lao Pop Culture

2010-12-05

China - Ordos, a Ghost Town

2010-12-03

The Kangbashi district began as a public-works project in Ordos, a wealthy coal-mining town in Inner Mongolia. The area is filled with office towers, administrative centers, government buildings, museums, theaters, middle-class duplexes and bungalows. Meant as home for one million people, the Kangbashi district remains nearly empty five years after the construction began. All built by local developers in the hope that Ordos' recently riches will buy the places to be near the new center of power, the residents are supposed to move to the brand new modern Ordos, but they can't really move to a city where there is no economy. Despite all this, the Ordos government is still planning to expand Kangbashi: thousands of villas and apartment towers stretch into the distance.

Afghanistan - Italy at war

2010-12-01

Three thousand men from the Italian Army garrison one of the most dangerous areas in Afghanistan: the valleys of Musahi, Farah, Bala Baluk and Bala Murghab, strongholds of the Taliban movement. Officially they're on a peace mission: but the truth is that, in order to keep the peace, or just simply to support the Afghan army busy with the distribution of humanitarian aid, it's often necessary to shoot in order defend oneself.

Focus - Italy - Ray Bouba - Cameroun

2010-11-30

National Geographic Italy - Terramare

2010-11-30

Albania - The Kanun Code

2010-11-25

The Kanun is a set of traditional Albanian laws which can be traced back to the middle of the 15th century, developed by Alexander Dukagjini, hero of the Albanian resistance against the Turks. The Kanun is an extremely brutal code, used to rule many aspects of the public and private life of the Albanians. Article 125 of the Kanun says: All the male members of the murderer's family, including babies, cousins and nephews, even if separated, may be targeted by the revenge. If a member of one's family has been murdered, it is necessary to take revenge on the murderer or on the male members of his family. The murderer may go out at night, but must always hide himself during the day. Today, more than 300 families of the country are affected by the Kanun.They all have one way only to survive: remain at home for the rest of their life.

The Enzo Baldoni Prize goes to Sergio Ramazzotti

2010-11-21

Prallelozero photojournalist Sergio Ramazzotti won for the second time one of Italy's most prestigious photojournalism awards, the Enzo Baldoni Prize, created by the Province of Milano in memory of Italian journalists killed in war zones. The prize was awarded to Ramazzotti's latest photographic book, Afghanistan 2.0, published in Italy by Leonardo International. The jury was composed by Natalia Aspesi (of the daily La Repubblica), Maurizio Belpietro (editor in chief of the daily Libero), Ferruccio De Bortoli (editor in chief of Corriere della Sera), Paolo Ruffini(editor in chief of national TV channel Rai3), Giovanni Morandi (editor in chief of the daily Il Giorno), Giorgio Mulè (editor in chief of the weekly Panorama), Enrico Mentana (editor in chief of national news channel TGLA7) e Gianni Riotta (editor in chief of the daily Il Sole 24 ore). www.provincia.milano.it/news/premio_baldoni/index.html

Israel - Mediterranean style

2010-11-19

The symbol is Tel Aviv, a hundred year old city that has made fun its mission. But overlooking the Mediterranean ports, there are also ports which have united Europe with the Middle East. Like Caesarus, which was built by Herod the Great. Like Akko, the antique San Giovanni of Acri, with its underground city which during the centuries has hosted merchants and Crusaders. Or like Haifa, one of the economic capitals of Israel, where today you can dine in the restaurants of the German colony just two steps away from the gardens of the Baha'i faith. Buses unload tourists, attracted by the mild climate from all over the world onto these beaches. And after the wild nights in the former Tel Aviv warehouses which have been converted into nightclubs, the only one way to rest is to head for the most famous natural spa in the world: the Dead Sea.

Famiglia Cristiana - Italy - Le Erbe di Fra' Fiorenzo

2010-11-16

Slow Food Magazine - Italy - Colombia

2010-11-15

Chad - Forgetting Chad

2010-11-04

After years of civil wars, Chad suffers infantile malnutrition, it is stricken by drought and desertification and it is invaded by hundreds of thousands refugees from Central Africa and Sudan. The international community which is always focusing on nearby Darfur, has forgotten Chad and in 2011 the United Nations military forces are going to abandon the country. A premature move out they say from the UNHCR because the risk that Al-Qaida will infiltrate the country is real. Chad nevertheless remains a politically stable country, with reinforced power coming from the proceeds of oil extraction. This wealth however does not get redistributed and, while 80% of the population lives under the poverty line. We often feel abandoned in Chad once said the Chadian film director Mahamat Saleh Haroun.

Slow Food Magazine - Italy - USA: on the footsteps of the Anasazi

2010-11-02

South Korea - Trendy Seoul

2010-10-29

Seoul, a city synonymous with unchecked urban development is growing 'green'. Besides the restored Cheonggyecheon, the city has recently developed Seoul Forest, and a clean-running transit system is taking Seoulites off their cars. New museums including the Leeum, which houses Samsung's corporate art collection are opening. "Now we try to achieve a balance between function and environment" Mayor Lee says. Such forward thinking transformed South Korea from one of the poorest countries in Asia to an advanced high-tech economy that's home to major tech firms like Samsung and LG, as well as the most wired population on the planet..Bars at a junction in Myeongdong district.

France - Superstars, the next Formula One

2010-10-25

The overtaking, door bashing, extreme cornering, ten cars in less than a second. And those close-call finishes which aren't seen in Formula One any more.... With these words, the manager, Vincenzo Lamaro, sums up the appeal of Superstars, the car race which is winning more and more fans from around the world. What's the difference with Formula One racing? Well, in Superstars, the vehicles are just modified series cars, sold in car showrooms everywhere, the same which our fans drive. But this isn't the only reason. For a more spectacular effect, the Superstars races, which host Formula One pilots and have nine different car models competing, only last twenty minutes.

Afghanistan 2.0 by Sergio Ramazzotti arrives in the bookstores

2010-10-21

Afghanistan 2.0 is the title of Parallelozero photojournalist Sergio Ramazzotti’s latest photographic book, published in Italy by Leonardo International and available in all Italian bookstores. In 144 pages of images and words, the author, who’s been regularly covering Afghanistan for the past ten years, has collected ten exceptional stories which, with incredibile depth and narrative force, depict a surprising country, extremely different from the way we’ve been accustomed to imagine it. The volume features a series of glimpses of hope which powerfully dismantle the Western stereotypes about Afghanistan, and show a country where not everything is lost yet, where hopes for a normal future are still possible, and whose population desperately calls for help so that they may become real one day.

Sergio Ramazzotti and Fabio Caressa together in Afghanistan for a Sky documentary on the Italian mission

2010-10-21

Parallelozero photojournalist Sergio Ramazzotti and Sky correspondant Fabio Caressa are the protagonists of an exceptional documentary on the Italian mission in Afghanistan produced by Sky TV Italy. The two journalists spent several weeks embedded with the Italian forces, visiting all the FOB’s, from Herat to Farah, Shindand, Bala Murghab and Bala Baluk, to document the daily life of Italian soldiers operating in the country. The result is an 8-episode documentary, never before produced in Italy, which, alternating moments of extraordinary intimacy and great tension, goes deep into the reality of the difficult, and often tragic, Italian mission in Afghanistan. On the air every Thursday on Sky Uno, starting October 28, 2010.

Afghanistan - Soccer in Afghanistan

2010-10-20

Soccer is one of the most popular sports in Afghanistan. Yet, as for any other discipline, until recently the country hasn´t had neither the time nor the strenght to build up a generation of athletes: during the last three decades, the activity more intensely pursued or endured by the population has been war. But things have changed: in Kabul's Ghazi stadium, on the very field that was used by the Taliban for public executions, the soon-to-come national soccer team is slowly selecting its champions.

Espresso - Italy - War in Afghanistan

2010-10-14

Togo - Nana Benz, an African epopee

2010-10-07

They started off from nothing in the Fifties and became amongst the richest in their homeland, Togo. They're the Nana Benz, the women who sell traditional African fabrics. Particularly the sought-after wax which is printed in Holland. They've made a fortune, they've travelled the world over, becoming a reference point for the fabric trade in Western and Central Africa. They were the first to purchase what, at the time, was a real status symbol: the Mercedes Benz. Hence their name. Today their fame has waned a little. And the economic crisis has affected them too. Turnover has dropped, but they're still here, together with their daughters the Nanette, - to whom they've entrusted their work. You can find them in the Grand Marché in Lomé or in the boutiques around the city. Keeping always an eye on their businesses.

Uganda - The King of the Rains

2010-10-05

At 5,109 meters, the Rwenzori is the third highest mountain in Africa, but forms part of the most complex and intricate African mountain chain. It has six different peaks, each with its own glacier, which represent an enormous fresh water reserve, also able to nourish the Nile basin as Ptolemy asserted more than 2,000 years ago. Its name means rain maker and its peaks are perennially surrounded by mists which enhance its beauty and mystery. The massif was linked with the legendary Mountains of the Moon, which explorers went in search of, hoping to find the source of the Nile. Because of its unique ecosystem, it has been included as a UNESCO world heritage. It was conquered on the 18th June, 1906, by Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of the Abruzzi. Photos and text by Bruno Zanzottera

Thailand - The Bangkok Attraction

2010-10-05

In Bangkok prostitution it´s a thriving industry. One estimate published in 2003 placed the sex trade in Thailand at US$ 4.3 billion per year or about three percent of the Thai economy and the number of sex workers from 80.000 to two million women and men. The people who benefit from their services, the foreign tourists, has grown from 80.000 in 1960 to a staggering 3 million people 25 years later. It all started with the Vietnam war, when suddendly the demand for young women skyrocketed. After the war was over, somebody figured that the same infrastructure of hotels, restaurants, bars, and brothels that made things so comfortable in Thailand for American servicemen could accommodate scores of restless Western travelers eager for sun and sex

Parallelozero at Rome Photography Festival - September 23rd/October 24th

2010-09-29

Parallelozero will be present at FotoGrafia, Rome's international photography festival that will be held at the Macro Testaccio museum from September 23rd to October 24th, 2010, with two major agency projects. The first is a delicate feature by Alessandro Gandolfi, who photographed Gaza's Palestinians athletes (disabled by landmines and the Israelo-Palestinian conflict) training in different disciplines for the 2012 London Paralympic games. The second is a photographic book which, with an innovative graphic project conceived by Parallelozero's designers, depicts in 300 large-format pages a quasi-metaphysical journey made by our photojournalist Sergio Ramazzotti, who traveled undercover in North Korea. Other info on: www.fotografiafestival.it

Algeria - Tibhirine monastery, Life after Terror

2010-09-26

May, 1996. Near Medea (Algeria) the discovery of the severed heads of seven Trappist monks, kidnapped from the nearby monastery of Tibhirine by the GIA three months earlier. A massacre which is still shrouded in mystery, notwithstanding the fact that the French government has recently decided to declassify important documents. In spite of the weight of such a tragedy, the monastery still exists the only one in a country like Algeria which is exclusively Muslim thanks to the work of a French priest, Jean Marie Lassausse, who continues to toil the land with the help of the same people who worked with the monks. A sign of loyalty to that place and that which it symbolises: the possibility of contact and dialogue with the Muslim world, which occurs via simple, everyday gestures, such as work and prayer.

Western Sahara - Women on the front line

2010-09-09

The Sahrawi are a totally Arab, Sunni Muslim peoples. However, their way of practising religion is more lax with respect to other populations. Perhaps because it has a more feminine´ contour. The camp organisation is mainly down to the women such as Nuena, who fled from Western Sahara in 1976, under the Moroccan bombs. Her husband was killed and she arrived in the camp with nothing to her name. The other women and I had to tear our veils in order to cover our children´ she explains. Nuena also lost her second husband in war and a third was injured. But, notwithstanding this, she is still an extremely dynamic woman. We women have accepted the challenge to take on important responsibilities in the State's new facilities, to create a future for our children and to transmit the pride of belonging to this peoples´.

Gulf of Guinea - The slave coast

2010-09-07

In the four centuries after the discovery of the Americas, between 10 and 15 million human beings were wrenched away from Africa and loaded like animals on slave ships, to be sold in the New World. The commerce along the coasts of the Gulf of Guinea was of such dimensions so as to earn the name of Slave Coast. Here, the Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, English and Brandenburg colonists constructed an incredible series of forts and castles, which for centuries were the only permanent European structures in the continent. These fortifications are unique in the world due to their concentration, and which today represent the historical memory of that period, when the civilized´ European nations carried out one of the most barbaric crimes against humanity with regards to the African populations.

Turkey - Hierapolis, the Roman spa

2010-09-06

Straddled between the Anatolian and Mediterranean worlds, Hierapolis the Holy was a sight to behold with its marble temples and white travertine flows resembling waterfalls of snow. They are actually formed by the outflow of warm water which is rich in calcium carbonate. Because here, in the centre of Turkey, the territory is seismic and unstable, and the ancients were attracted by these phenomena. They considered them divine, worshipping the poisonous fumes and building temples for the oracles. Today it's the destination of hundreds of pilgrims (it is said that Philip the Apostle is buried here) as well as receiving one and a half million visitors a year. Who can't wait to dive into its warm water pools and swim amongst columns and capitals dating back two thousand years.

Western Sahara - A marathon in the Sahara

2010-09-05

The odyssey of the Saharawi peoples dates back to 1976, when Spain moved out of Western Sahara and Morocco occupied it. As they wait for a twenty-year-old referendum to take place, the situation is so surreal and stagnant that it's almost impossible to see a way out. The Saharawis proudly pursue the road of negotiation and peaceful action. And it's probably due to the lack of bloody terrorist actions that the international community doesn't seem too worried in finding a solution to the problem. Therefore, the only people who have any interest in the Saharawis are the humanitarian associations, which besides providing food aid, also organise cultural and sporting events. The Sahara Marathon is one of these, an annual event which sees athletes from the world over take part in a real marathon between refugee camps in the Algerian desert.

Kenya - African Cape Canaveral

2010-08-21

The African Cape Canaveral? It's in Malindi, Kenya, a few degrees south of the Equator, amongst sandy white beaches and coconut palms. Here, in the Sixties, the first European satellites were launched into orbit and for more than twenty years, Italy continued launching rockets into space. Then the Europeans moved to French Guiana and the African base was closed. Until a couple of years ago, when Malindi was reopened. The base is destined to expand in the future. Because Kenya is strategically important, even fundamental, for the land control of European, Chinese and Russian satellites and expendable launch systems. Not only: Kenya is within Africa the ideal location for space rocket launches, and there's talk of Malindi becoming the future launch site for the rockets belonging to the emerging African powers.

Italy - Turin, little capital

2010-08-10

A deforming vision of a city that, during the past ten years, has been able to change completely its public image, the perception of its metropolitan rhythms and its urban dimensions. A space interpretation that tries to emphasize the city geography, the social and architectonic contrasts, the historical influences, through misproportioned pictures that transform the usual relations between the man and the metropolis into a metaphysical work-in-progress. All photos has been shot with defocus and tilt shifting techniques, with post-production effects chosen to attract attention on details and significant subjects. A good way to put the city on a stage. A lively town that will celebrates, with a series of events for the whole 2011, its 150 years of being Italy´s little capital.

Sportweek - Italy - Surfing Gaza

2010-07-27

Il Venerdì di Repubblica - Kenya: space center

2010-07-20

IO Donna - Italy - Kenya fishermen

2010-07-18

Iraq - Baghdad - The last supper

2010-07-16

I recently developed photographs of people I never met, all shot in the same place in Baghdad, in 2003. The place was a panoramic restaurant on top of Saddam International Tower. I went there a few days after the war started. The tower was intact, but the building at the base had been torn apart by bombs. In a room that must have been the restaurant´s official photographer´s, I found many undeveloped photographic rolls. I took a bunch of them and stuffed them in my pockets. In the photographs you could see all the good Iraqi upper-middle class. Judging by their smiles, the perspective of war was still far away. Yet, if the photographer had not had the time to develop the rolls, the first bombs had to have begun falling soon. Who knows for how many of them, that merry moment might have been the last supper out.

Sette - Corriere della Sera - Gaza daily life

2010-07-12

Parallelozero at the Savignano Immagini photo festival 10/12 September - Portfolios reading

2010-07-12

Parallelozero will attend the Savignano Immagini photography festival, that will open on September 10th in this beautiful village in east Romagna, with an event dedicated to young photographers. During the festival our agency will organize infact portoflios' readings in order to search for new talented pofessionals for its new Nominees section. The readings will take place in the village main square on the September 11th and 12th. For info and subcripitons please visit: www.savignanoimmagini.it

Palestine - Gaza daily life

2010-07-12

They want to turn us into victims. But after the bombings I rebuild, clean and put things back in place. I want life to go on in Gaza, always. Maamon Khozendar, 56, an industrialist, is the symbol of a wealthy Gaza which doesn't believe in suffering. A Gaza which doesn't feel sorry for itself and which notwithstanding the embargo and the injustices carries on enjoying itself, playing sports, and leading a good life. Passing each day in the most normal way possible is our way of escaping the despair explains Ahmed Ferwana, 20: I'm angry, this is certain, but here in Gaza I have everything I need to live well. During the 2009 bombings, Ammar Al Yazegi, 27, lost part of his business: I'm lucky, some people lost everything. But from my studies in London I've learnt one thing: behind every crisis there's an opportunity."

Parallelozero's photographers at the Vsa Pour l'Image festival in Perpignan

2010-07-11

From August 28th to September 5th, the photographers of our agency will attend the Visa pour l'Image 2010 edition, the famous photojournalism festival that is held every year in Perpignan, France. They will meet up with partner agencies, international photoeditors and will show their latest reportages. For appointments please write in advance to: info@parallelozero.com

Parallelozero at the Open Wound Festival of Santo Stefano al Mare (Imperia)

2010-07-11

Parallelozero will be present at the Open Wound international photography festival, which will be officially opened on July 27th, 2010, in the Italian seaside town of Santo Stefano al Mare (Imperia), with the premiere of The Interpreter, Sergio Ramazzotti's latest multimedia reportage. The movie, set in Iraq, tells in 33 adrenaline-packed minutes the story of the last seven years of a young Iraqi's life, forced to survive and reinvent his existance every day in a country destroyed by the coalition forces' takeover. The multimedia will be shown in piazza Scovazzi, in the heart of town, at 9.30 PM on July 30th.

D/La Repubblica delle Done - Travel special issue

2010-07-02

Parallelozero selects submissions for its new nominees photographers section

2010-06-27

Photojournalism agency Parallelozero will select portfolios for its Nominees Photographers new branch.The selected photojournalists will obtain a one-year contract with our agency. During this period, they will be fully syndicated by Parallelozero and its partner agencies worldwide. After 12 months, Parallelozero will reserve the right to admit the candidates in its roster of official photographers. You can submit your candidature for the Nominees Photographers branch by writing to: submission@parallelozero.com.

Please attach portfolio, bio, website URL, publications and ongoing projects description (if any).

Nigeria - Africa International Film Festival

2010-06-21

In December, 2009, the ION film festival, an itinerant film festival, landed in Port Harcourt, capital of Nigeria's oil industry. The idea of the festival was to unite the World's three largest film producers: Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood, besides the aim to renew the image of the tormented Niger Delta region, infamous for the environmental deterioration caused by its oil activity and the presence of guerrilla groups demanding a fairer share of the oil wealth. Riding the wave of the festival's success, the governor of the Rivers State has decided to promote the Africa International Film Festival in Port Harcourt, an annual event which will be the showcase for Africa's film production.

Tanzania - The African Queen turns 100 years old on Lake Tanganyika

2010-06-21

Lake Tanganyika is Africa's second largest lake and also the deepest in the heart of the Great Rift Valley. Burton and Speeke travelled its banks while searching for the source of the Nile River. The encounter between Livingstone and Stanley also took place here, where the famous phrase Doctor Livingstone I presume´ was uttered. However, the waters of this lake hold another part of Africa's history. The MV Liemba, built in Germany in 1913, disassembled in Dar Es Salaam and transported by rail to Kigoma, reassembled and put back to work on the lake, is celebrating its 100th birthday. Today it is still the only means of transportation which guarantees a ferry service for people and goods on the lake. It's probably the oldest boat still in service in the whole world.

Palestine - Paralympic dream

2010-06-18

Wahed discus throw lost a leg during the Cast Lead Operation. Omar 100 meters lost his sight during the explosion of a landmine a couple of years ago. Abdul swimming - lost his leg in a car accident. Mohamed javelin is a paraplegic from birth.s. Wahed, Omar, Abdul, Mohamed and ten other Palestinian athletes are getting ready for the next Paralympic games to be held in London in 2012. However, they don't know if they'll ever be able to take part. Because they live in the Gaza Strip, one of the world's most tormented territories, under embargo for the past three years and literally isolated from the rest of humanity. Like all those who live in Gaza, even the athletes can't leave. They can hope to get an (impossible) permission from Israel. Or to go illegally through the Egyptian tunnels...

North Korea - Maternity in North Korea

2010-06-11

In North Korea the child death rate is between 60 and 90 per thousand, ten times higher than in Europe. Hospitals have no heating during the winter and no cooling in summer, when the temperature reaches over 40 degrees celsius. Windows and doors can hardly be closed. Worse still, there are no medicines. After the devastating famine of the mid-nineties the population is chronically undernourished, and is an easy prey for any kind of disease. According to official figures, 17 percent of women giving birth weigh less than 45 kgs, a condition labeled dangerous by the World Health Organization. Independent sources claim the percentage could be three times higher. A situation much worse than in Sub-Saharian Africa.

GEOLINO GERMANY - MUSIC IN AFGHANISTAN

2010-06-04

United States - An Italian teacher in the Bronx

2010-06-03

Luca Avellini was once a broker in the City of London. Luxury journeys, cars and hotels were part of his daily routine. Then, one day he had a Damascus Road conversion. He left his job and moved to New York to start a new life as a teacher in an elementary school in the Bronx, with 74% of Hispanic and 24% of Afro-American children. I figured that after the 11th of September, the only way to create a better and more tolerant world was through the children recounts Luca, who is now the fully-fledged teacher of a group of angelic-looking devils who are convinced that their city is divided into 5 districts: The Bronx, New York, New Jersey, Miami and South America´.

Ghana - The glass beads game

2010-06-03

For centuries, the glass beads made in Murano and other European cities where brought into Africa by the merchants who used them as an exchange of goods for gold, ivory and slaves. Today, mosaic glass can be found all over Africa, but one peoples in particular, the Krobo of Ghana, have turned it into a real cult. Every Krobo clan jealously guards its oldest beads which are only worn for ritual occasions. The main ritual is the Dipo festival, the initiation rite which marks the passage of the girls into adulthood. The climax of the festival is when the girls, adorned with the glass beads which represent the total wealth of their families, dance around the city, showing off their beauty and that of their glass treasures.

Dominican Republic - The South-West at Haiti´s door

2010-06-03

Faraway from the beaches turned into a concrete jungle and from the noise of the all-inclusive vacationers, there is a pristine and spontaneous land made of forests, lakes, waterfalls and stretches of beaches never touched by tourists. The nearness to Haiti is palpable: the powerful Afro-American traditions of the other half of the island permeate the culture of the Dominican South-West part, Haitians work in the salt fields and mines of Iarimar, trade with cross border villages is thriving. The Dominican Republic shows a hidden face.

VSD FRANCE - THE MARTYRS OF TIBHIRINE

2010-06-01

A photograph from Parallelozero story "Footballing Africa" chosen for the cover of Sports Illustrated

2010-05-24

Sports Illustrated, United States' most prestigious sports weekly newsmagazine, has chosen a photograph from Parallelozero's story "Footballing Africa" for its end-of-May cover. The story, which describes with an extremely delicate language the passion of African people for soccer, and is syndicated in the U.S. by our partner agency Aurora, is one of our several collective works, shot by five of our photojournalists all over the African continent during various assigments.

Parallelozero at the third edition of Artèfoto festival

2010-05-23

Parallelozero is proud to be a significant presence at the third edition of Artèfoto Festival, one of the most prominent international photojournalism festivals in Italy, held from May 28th to June 6th in the stunning Castelli di Jesi, the countryside of Marche region. Our photojournalists will be hosting three events: Sergio Ramazzotti will present Afghanistan 2.0, his new photographic book out in September, 2010 published by Leonardo International. A video projection will be dedicated to Indian agency Trikaya, exclusively syndicated by Parallelozero in Italy. And our photojournalist Bruno Zanzottera will exhibit - and, on May 30th, personally guide visitors through - "Saharawi: the wall of shame", one of his latest works. For info on event schedule and location, www.artefotofestival.org.

VSD France - Surfing Gaza

2010-05-23

2010-05-11

Ramallah rebirth - TV Series

2010-05-02

Ramallah is changing. In the West Bank's main city, money, invested by the Palestinian diaspora, is flowing. Shopping centres, restaurants and buildings, where an apartment can cost up to 12 thousand dollars per square meter, are springing up everywhere. Luxury cars have appeared on the roads. The artistic side of things is also in ferment, thanks to new bands, dance schools and the most avant-garde disc jockeys and graffiti artists. And all this in spite of the wall built by Israel, which surrounds the city and makes it, as its inhabitants call it, “an open-air prison”. Run by a very special mayor. A Roman Catholic. And a woman.

Saudi Arabia - Wind of change from the Oil Empire

2010-04-29

Slight signs of change are beginning to be noticed in this traditionalist oil empire. Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, the Saudi king who came to power in 2005, is attempting to open the Nation to outside, 'infidel' eyes. Aware of the fact that a wealth based solely on oil extraction will not last forever, the enlightened ruler is steering his subjects towards a greater economic dynamism in order to make Saudi Arabia a modern state, modelled on the small, yet extremely active, Arab Emirates. As a result, even the princes, who up until now were only interested in squandering the oil proceeds, are turning into entrepreneurs, investing in different areas, amongst which the flourishing tourist industry. At the same time, a few unique reforms are slowly taking shape, such as the appointment of the first female minister.

Brazil - The forgotten Sertão

2010-04-28

It's the other Brazil, the anti-Amazon, the poorest and most arid region in Latin America. The Sertão, the Brazilian outback, is twice the size of England: part sea, part desert and part steppe, where life is hard and poverty is rife in the streets. Half of South America's poorest inhabitants live here, in the Sertão, a forgotten corner of Brazil. A land of toil, of farmers and breeders who cross their fingers each year, praying for the absence of two natural phenomena: the drought, then the deluge of rain. Fifteen million sertanejos live in this humble and underdeveloped land, but this has done nothing to dampen their spirits. Over the years, Sertão has become an epic metaphor, in literature as in real life. A metaphor of battle against death, of resistance against isolation, of an obstinate wish to build a future.

Great Britain - Liverpool 1960. The birth of the Beatles

2010-04-27

50 years on, the tale of the four lads from Liverpool has no intention of dying out. Every year, at the end of August, tens of tribute bands copying these famous Liverpudlians, assemble in their home town. In the city's many clubs, amongst which the renowned Cavern Club (demolished and rebuilt under public pressure) which was the stage for the Beatles first performances, we can meet numerous Johns, Pauls, Georges and Ringos from all around the globe, as they endlessly repeat their idols' repertoire. Some bring their fans from as far as Japan, complete with kimono, others take along their parents who launch themselves into frenzied rock 'n rolls, reliving their Beatles era. All mixed up with gigantic drinking sessions and vintage ambience.

West Papua - A Babel on the edge of the world

2010-04-27

Over the past 500 years, about half of the world´s languages have disappeared without us even noticing. 4% of the population speaks 60% of the World´s languages and these small linguistic islands are mainly clustered in tropical regions. Within this scenario, the large island of New Guinea stands out as a real Babel, with about 860 languages spoken by just 4 million inhabitants, a ratio of 1:5,000 between languages and people. If this ratio were to be reproduced in the United States, it would mean 50,000 languages being spoken. Every inhabitant of New Guinea speaks an average of 5 different languages and this is a guarantee of survival for a linguistic biodiversity which, under many aspects, is in danger. This reportage studies the Asmat, Dani and Yali tribes.

India - Sufi, the Mystics of Islam

2010-04-26

Between India and Pakistan, in the forgotten region of Kashmir, the sufi sect keeps alive some of the most fascinating traditions in the Islamic world, dating back to the Muslim conquer of the region, in 14th century. Before and after prayer, the sufis, devout Muslims, have the habit of reciting endless mantras based on the Qu´ran´s suras, entering a state of semi-trance that should help the communion with Allah. This mystical practice, derived from the Hinduist mantra recitation, is regarded with suspicion by the orthodox Muslim community. Yet in Kashmir, where the population pays the high price of a crisis which has been going on for almost sixty years, it seems to be the most effective way to heal the spirits.

2010-03-14

YACHT CAPITAL - CHILE SEAWEED HUNTERS

2010-03-09

India - Shadipur Depot, the circus neighborhood

2010-03-04

On the edge of Delhi, between an highway and a railroad, is where the settlement of Shadipur Depot lies. About 30 years ago, a community of Indian conjurers, puppet masters, jugglers and acrobats settled here. Nowadays this place is home to 3,400 family units, including 700 families which are made up of artists: sword swallowers, singers, drummers, dancers and bear trainers who gathered here from all over India in the hope of a better life. These street artists used to be the main attraction in wedding parties, private and religious celebrations, but today their performances have lost importance. As cinema became more and more popular, traditional artists ended up living on the fringes of society.

Brazil - Pantanal, the sponge of South America

2010-03-01

The Pantanal is a tropical wetland and one of the world's largest wetland of any kind. Most of it lies within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso sprawling over an area estimated at 200.000 square meters. The floodplains are submerged during the rainy seasons for six months a year, nurturing an astonishing biologically diverse collection of aquatic plants and helping support a dense array of animal species.

Lufthansa Magazine - Italy - Cremona

2010-02-28

CHRISMON GERMANY - SKATING IN KABUL

2010-02-28

China - Three shift construction workers

2010-02-27

Most are semi-legal, many are illegal, all of them are underpaid: they are the millions of migrant workers coming from the desperately poor countryside to build the new Beijing, the city that in 2008 has hosted the Olympic Games. They are working day and night in the 8.000 construction sites of the capital. When the construction frenzy will be over, they are bound to go back to their villages - and to poverty.

Argentina - A funny faith

2010-02-22

Tierra Santa is a theme park not far from downtown Buenos Aires. A family favorite, it is unique in the world: its' theme is faith. For 30 pesos, you get to live a comprehensive experience that includes assisting to the Creation, witnessing the Apostles sharing the Last Supper with the Messiah, praying at a real scale reproduction of Jerusalem's Wailing Wall and watching five daily resurrections of a giant Jesus Christ ascending to the sky. And that's just a fraction of Tierra Santa's wide range of attractions, in front of which Argentinians behave as if they were in an actual holy site, lighting candles and praying on their knees.

Chile - Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego by boat

2010-02-20

The waters of Magellan Strait and of Tierra del Fuego, off Cape Horn, are considered to be among the most tracherous in the world. Yet landscapes, fauna and lights are fantastic, and sometimes almost unnatural. While until not long ago these places were exclusively accessible to skilled seamen and navigators, today everybody can enjoy their magic on board a comfortable cruise ship. Here's the chronicle of a very special voyage on board the Chilean M/V Stella Australis.

Afghanistan - Kabulpedia

2010-02-20

Afghanistan has a long tradition of culture and passion for book reading. Before the Taliban went to power, Kabul was famous for its numerous bookstores, and Joishir Ketabfrushi, the bookstores' street, was a veritable treasure trove of rare books where university students and the city's intellighenzia gathered to read, hunt for hard-to-find titles and chat the day away sipping tea among the shelves. During the Taliban regime the bookstores were closed down, but many of their owners risked their life hiding the books to save them from destruction. Today they're finally back, in (almost) full glory.

Spain - Pilgrimage along the great Andalusian river

2010-02-20

In the sixteenth century, the Guadalquivir river was the centre of the World and Seville was the stopping point for hundreds of ships loaded with gold from the New World. The Arabs named it such, Guadalquivir, wadi al-Kabir, the great river. The backbone of Andalusia, at Seville the Guadalquivir turns sharply south and from here, down to the Ocean, there is 80 km of navigable river. By following its course, in this flat, metaphysical land, amongst brackish swamps, paddy fields and large estates still in the hands of the local nobility, one is given an insight into Spain's stall and cellar, the region south of Seville, inhabited by fishermen, vintners, and anarchical Andalusians who breed the finest bullfighting bulls. And by the faithful who take part in Spain's most famous pilgrimage: that of the white Virgin of El Rocío.

Tunisia - Africa's Roman heart

2010-02-19

Travelling on the train from Sousse to Sfax, the Colosseum suddenly appears between palms and sand dunes. The El Djem amphitheatre is just one of a number of Roman sites which can be found in Tunisia, the ancient imperial granary, the location in Proconsular Africa where war veterans came to spend the winter and where caravans from the heart of the Dark Continent would meet. After having annihilated the menace of Carthage, the Romans founded majestic cities all over Tunisia, such as Bulla Regia, Sbeitla, Dougga, Utica and Bizerte. Surrounded by large estates, embellished by underground villas decorated with breathtaking mosaics, today housed in the Bardo National Museum in Tunis.

Libya - Fezzan ski club

2010-02-15

'Sure, this is not snow. But skiing on the sand is unforgettable'. Mark has just taken off his boots and he walks back to the top of the dune: he wants to try again. We are in the heart of the Fezzan, in southern Libya, near the border with Algeria. But here at the Lake Gebraoun, visitors not only can drink tea or purchase souvenirs. They can even sand skiing. Sheikh - the tuareg who runs the campground - had a brilliant idea: rent skis or snowboard to travellers, transforming Gebraoun in the Courmayeur of the Sahara. The rent is 5 euros and you can keep the skis the whole day. But there is only one-way car-service included in the price. You load skis and boots on the 4x4 and then you can drive up to the dune. The descent will last only few minutes and, at the end of the day, a swim in the lake is a must.

China - China Islamic Frontier

2010-02-15

Stretching from Taklamakan desert to the peaks of Pamir, Xinjiang is the biggest and the most diverse of China's provinces. Inhabited by the Uighurs, a Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethinc group, its vast natural resources include oil, coal, gas and uranium. From the other provinces, millions of migrants came to China "wild west" and in many areas Han Chinese are today the majority, while the nine millions Uighurs are a minority in their own land. They are concentrated in west Xinjiang around Kashgar, a border town that once was a major oasis on the Silk Road. Many complain that they have been marginalized and are unable to benefit from the rapid development of the province. Despite the region's wealth of natural resources, Uighurs are some of the poorest in China.

Dem. Rep. of the Congo - Kivu, the war continues

2010-02-13

Fifteen years of war, violence, tension, instability. Four million, three hundred thousand dead. And an endless list of abuses, injustices, hypocrisies. Today, Kivu continues to be a land of death and exploitation. Never-ending misery and vast resources. Poor because it's rich. It's just one of the many contradictions which characterise this eastern region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the fate of a large slice of Africa is being decided (and many world interests are concentrated here, including the West and China). A reportage from the heart of tortured Africa, amongst miners and exorcists, traffickers or jailbirds, and shanty-town inhabitants who, with courage and obstinacy, still find the strength to go on. And survive. Despite and against everything.

China - Nanjie, Communism is back

2010-02-12

As the rest of China struggles with mounting social problems brought on by two decades of economic reforms, Najie, a village of 3.000 in central Henan province, has chosen to go back to the old times. In the era of market and privatiziation, it has found its fortune in restoring the stern rules of maoism. Fancy restaurants, karaoke bars, music clubs, and mahjongg are all forbidden, but the real secret to its collective well-being is capitalist: two dozen village enterprises manufacture all sorts of things - noodles, beer, pharmaceuticals - and a local tour operator is succesfully promoting 'red tourism'.The workers of the locals factories are guaranteed a lifelong healthcare and a small house but their salaries do not reach 30 dollars a month. Communism is the official ideology and an onnipresent Chairman Mao remains the presiding deity.

Palestine - Ramallah rebirth

2010-02-09

Ramallah is changing. In the West Bank's main city, money, invested by the Palestinian diaspora, is flowing. Shopping centres, restaurants and buildings, where an apartment can cost up to 12 thousand dollars per square meter, are springing up everywhere. Luxury cars have appeared on the roads. The artistic side of things is also in ferment, thanks to new bands, dance schools and the most avant-garde disc jockeys and graffiti artists. And all this in spite of the wall built by Israel, which surrounds the city and makes it, as its inhabitants call it, an open-air prison. Run by a very special mayor. A Roman Catholic. And a woman.

Northern Europe - The Amber Road

2010-02-09

About 50 million years ago, gigantic conifers covering the area around today's Baltic Sea, began a slow fossilization process. Huge quantities of resin were fossilized along with the wood, giving rise to a semi-transparent glassy material with particularly warm tones. This fossil resin was given the name of amber and immediately began to fascinate man, who attributed supernatural powers to it, even from the Pleistocene era. The mesmerising influence of amber continued over time, and amber jewellery was worn by the Assyrians, Egyptians, Etruscans, Greeks and Romans. It was precisely due to the importance of this fossil resin in history that the trade routes crossing the Baltic countries, where the amber was collected by dredging the shallow lagoon beds or combing the beaches after sea storms, acquired the name of Amber Road.

Middle East - The incense route

2010-02-08

From Tutankhamun's mummification, to the rites honouring the god Baal in the Assyrian tombs, from Sheba's offerings to Solomon, to Poppaea's funeral, where Nero burnt more than Arabia could produce in a year, incense has always been favoured as a means of communicating with the gods. Frankincense resin, extracted from the Boswellia sacra, a bush which once grew wild in the Dhofar region of Oman, was then transported over the 2,000 km of caravan routes. The control of these commercial routes and the monopoly of the traffic, made a series of South Arabian kingdoms very rich, and whose wealth was exalted by the historians of the era, such as Pliny the Elder. Today we can follow this ancient Route, led by the aroma of that incense which once made the ancients dream, so much so that it was one of the most important gifts presented to Jesus.

Libya - Fezzan Art Gallery

2010-02-03

A rebellious people in the heart of the Sahara. Twenty thousand Roman soldiers marching in the desert of Fezzan. And the surprise conquest of Garama, the mythical capital of the Garamantes, masters of the transaharan trade. An episode forgotten from the history books which reappears after walking through the archaeological sites of Germa, the starting point to explore one of the most remote and fascinating parts of Libya. Amongst the blue lakes which emerge from the dunes, caravans of camels and ancient galleries of rock art. Protected by UNESCO, studied by the Italian Fabrizio Mori, engravings and rock paintings tell us of ancient times, when ostriches, elephants, buffalo, giraffes and a population who used horse-drawn chariots to travel around, was living here. These were the Garamantes, the ancestors of the Tuareg.

Eritrea - Train of desires

2010-02-02

In 1897 the Italians began building the railway to connect the Red Sea city of Massawa with Asmara, located at an altitude of 2,400 m. To overcome the steep gradients, 20 viaducts, 65 bridges and 30 tunnels had to be built. In the Seventies the railway was dismantled and rails and sleepers were used to build bunkers and trenches. After the liberation, the old railwaymen tried to reopen their beloved railway, which had become a symbol of national pride. Thanks to a huge collective effort, the tracks were repositioned and 4 vintage steam locomotives made serviceable, as well as the famous 1935 Fiat Littorina. As a result, it's now possible to travel on board the old train, but the government is planning to reuse the railway for the transport of goods from the port of Massawa to the capital.

Brazil - Orishaswe're waiting for you

2010-02-02

During the celebrations for Black Awareness Day in north-eastern Brazil, rites and possessions by spirits flourish. In the Quilombo de los Palmares, the epic deeds of Zumbi are honoured, a former slave who led the resistance against the Portuguese in the 17th century, creating a great state of freed people, a Promised Land for the many slaves fleeing from the sugar cane plantations. Zumbi was finally captured and beheaded in Recife in 1655, but became a symbol for all the inhabitants of African origin, especially for the followers of Umbanda and Candomblé. During this time of year, the worshippers of these faiths, born from the syncretism of African religions and Catholicism which were vetoed by the land owners in order to annihilate the slaves, even at a cultural level, gather in Zumbi's historical locations for great celebrations.

Afghanistan - The seven thousand legs man

2010-02-01

Since 1990, Alberto Cairo, an Italian, has been running the International Red Cross orthopaedic rehabilitation centre. A team of 320 people who produce seven thousand artificial limbs each year, who distribute them to just as many war invalids, teaching them how they should be used and thus, offering a new lease of life. Not only: recently, the centre has also started a microcredit programme, which has transformed six thousand invalid beggars into independent workers. His patients, practically forgotten by the state, worship him. He's an angel they say. But he's got one defect: he's not Muslim.

China - Beijing Empty Icons

2010-02-01

In the months before the 2008 Olympics, Beijing went through a building boom that filled a once gray communist capital with architectural icons good for the covers of glossy design magazines. In August 2008, while the all world was watching, Husain Bolt run and Michael Phelps swam. Unfortunately, when the Big Party was over, most of the new venues turned into commercial disasters. Unlike cities such as Sydney, which used Olympic structures and publicity to create a longer-term flow of tourists and business traffic, Chinese leaders adopted a "build it and they will come" attitude, not giving much thought to what to with the venues after the Games. The government spent $43 billion for the Olympics but many of the venues proved too big and more photogenic than practical.

Geographical UK - Zanskar

2010-01-31

GEO Germany - Zanskar

2010-01-31

2010-01-20

The islands still embody the ideal tropical island dream, with perfect beaches, palm groves, lagoons and postcard sunsets. However, landing in Male today, waiting to migrate onto one of the 90 islands set up as tourist villages, or before setting off on one of the cruises which now offer countless itineraries between the island's 26 atolls and 1,200 islands, also means coming to terms with the huge transformation it's undergoing. The capital is at collapsing point: it's a crowded, frenzied urban-marine entanglement which hosts more than 80 thousand people. So much so that works are underway to build Male 2 and Male 3, whilst some are already talking about moving to other parts of the globe. It's much better then, to quickly set sail for more peaceful shores, in order to enjoy the bliss of the equatorial silence. Until it lasts

Aids in Malawi - Our Images on exhibition in Rome with the National Geographic Magazine

2010-01-19

Alessandro Gandolfi is one of four Italian photographers who have been chosen to display their work at the National Geographic Italia exhibition “Il nostro mondo” (our world), at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, from the 6th February to the 4th May, 2010 (free entrance; open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 10 am to 8 pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 am to 10.30 pm). Gandolfi's photos were taken in a hospital in the Malawian capital during a reportage on AIDS problems which afflict this African country and which portray babies suffering from the virus. The exhibition “Il nostro mondo” wants to narrate the life of human beings via unpublished images by the best National Geographic photographers, highlighting situations which characterise their existence: the human family, city life, man and nature, work. “These 48 photos – explains Guglielmo Pepe, director of National Geographic Italia and curator of the exhibition – besides letting us observe, also help us to understand, share, participate and show our solidarity. These photographs open our eyes to the world and make us feel nearer to others, in good times and bad”.

2009-12-31

Dubai - The fall and rise

2009-12-20

Egypt - In the desert of lost Whales

2009-11-18

West of the Nile opens an ocean of sand and rock called the Egyptian Western Desert. It is one of the most arid regions on Earth, a place where it rains once every four years. Where never ending dunes and white chalky rocks hide incredible golden mummies, discovered in Bahariyya in 1996. Millions of years ago, the Western Desert was really an ocean: its sea bed has now become depressions that conserve the biggest repository of fossil whales in the whole world. The ones who adventure in this mysterious land have always done so with fear and respect: pharaohs considered it the home of Seth, god of evil, while explorer László Almásy looked for the mythic Zerzura oasis here for years. It was he, earl Almásy, to inspire the character for the the English patient.

Germany - The Wall's voices 20 years after

2009-11-15

For years, Berlin was the nucleus of the Cold War between the West and the Communist world. The Wall, which divided the city from 1961 to 1989, became the symbol of the drama suffered by the German population after Nazism and the tragedy of the Second World War. The year 2009 sees the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall. We went to meet those who lived the history of the Wall first hand: from the artists who painted kilometres of it, creating one of the most extensive collective works of arts, to the 'mauerspechte' (wall woodpeckers) who rushed to knock down parts of it after the fall, the radio presenters who commented the day of the opening, and East Berliners, victims of political persecution or those who had rented houses near the Wall. Each of them with a story to tell

Focus - Italy - Historians with drum

2009-10-31

Dem. Rep. of the Congo - Cops and Robbers

2009-10-20

The prison of Bukavu, capital of the province of southern Kivu, suffers the evils of many African prisons, and not only, overcrowding, horrific hygienic conditions, practically no food (if not provided by the prisoner's families) and so on. But that which makes the situation in Bukavu so strange, is the prison guards' living conditions. Conditions which are practically identical to those of the prisoners. Measly wages which often never arrive. Dwellings made from rags and plastic sheets, hoisted by ropes under the roofing of a barn which often floods during the rainy season. The guards live here with their families amongst the wrecks of military vehicles, waiting for the charity of a few nuns. In fact, one could ask oneself what it's better to be in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a cop or a robber?

Italy - Cremona and the Po violins

2009-10-19

Every morning, Andrea Mosconi walks up the steps of the city hall, opens the window overlooking the cathedral and plays a violin. Any one, it doesn't matter which, either Stradivari's 'Cremonese', Nicolò Amati's 'Hammerle' or Giuseppe Guarnieri's 'Quarestani'. He plays it for seven minutes and the notes float around the sleepy square. This is how Cremona wakes up, with the music from these ancient string instruments for which this Lombardic city is a refined production centre. Yet Cremona founded by the Romans two centuries before Christ - is, and remains, a busy, active agricultural town. Populated by farmers who resemble those depicted a thousand years ago in the cathedral's friezes, and by able violin craftsmen who come here even from afar, to study as apprentices and who then remain.

Afghanistan - NAK: Narcotics Anonymous Kabul

2009-10-13

According to the Health Ministry, in Afghanistan there are at least 180,000 drug addicts. Until not long ago, nobody took care of them: left to their own devices, they awaited death on the streets. But today they are no longer doomed. For the first time in the country´s history, Kabul has a disintoxication centre, set inside a partially bombed ex factory building and managed by a staff of social workers, psychologists and medics. The doctors limit themselves to treat the patients with methadone, adding the occasional lesson of Islamic doctrine, and explaining how the Koran condemns the use of drugs. At a glance, not much of an initiative: the center can treat only 50 patients at a time. Yet, as doctor Walid Ullah says, compared to the complete indifference the government has shown until not long ago, this is really a giant leap

Afghanistan - Thank God it's friday

2009-10-13

As in every Muslim country, Friday is a holiday in Afghanistan. And, if there´s a single place in the country where people feel like celebrating it, this is Kabul. Despite the suicide attacks, which hit the city at a depressingly frequent rate, and the perennial state of tension that looms all over town, citizens of the capital, especially the young, come Friday do not deny themselves some fun. From golfing to snooker, to body building practiced in an almost obsessive fashion, to swimming pools, to hashish, here´s how Afghans spend their week-end

Courrier Japan - Masai ecochic

2009-09-30

2009-08-29

There's a lot to be learnt whilst navigating in the Persian Gulf, amongst emirs, air conditioning, shopping malls, refineries, sand banks, ancient kingdoms, petrol platforms and routes. And if this experience unfolds on-board a floating, 300 metre long funfair, together with three thousand people (between cruise passengers and crew), then everything becomes more interesting. Almost a social phenomenon, amongst tight bikinis, suntan oils, futuristic skylines, kilometres of pizza and overcrowded Jacuzzis. A half-serious logbook of a cruise between the Hormuz strait and the Arabian peninsula, together with local holidaymakers, amateur sailors and shopping addicts.

Afghanistan - Death costs 30 cents

2009-08-17

The building near Kabul University was once the seat of the Soviet Cultural Centre. Today, half-destroyed by thirty years of bombings, it's the residence of nearly two thousand drug addicts, who live in the most appalling conditions. In this country it's easy to get caught in the drug spiral: a dose of heroin only costs a third of a dollar. For some time now, the government has been making empty promises to close the building and help its desperate inhabitants. Yet, the only tangible action has been taken by the United Nations, who has launched the pilot project of a drug rehabilitation centre in the capital. In the meanwhile, the cultural centre still hosts its spectres, practically inhuman, who await their next fix and death.

Mozambique - Gorongosa, dot-com nature

2009-08-16

Gorongosa, in central Mozambique, was one of the first nature reserves to be created in Africa. In the Sixties, the variety of its fauna was such, that the Portuguese called it the place where Noah landed the ark. The civil war, fiercely fought right within its boundaries, wiped out the animals: the soldiers killing them for food. Today Gorongosa, with its incredible biodiversity (there are 50 different ecosystems), returns to life, thanks to nature's amazing regeneration abilities, but thanks also to the 40 million dollars invested by a former American dot-com entrepreneur, who has decided to restore the park to its original splendour.

Mexico - The navel of Baja California

2009-08-06

'So, is the story about the song true?'. The woman in the Hotel California maintains that the Eagles never even passed through this area, but why ruin the myth? Todos Santos, a sleepy village cut in two by the Tropic of Cancer, enjoys an exceptional microclimate, but its success is also due to this fascinating hotel. Not only, okay: the laidback lifestyle, the colonial houses, the dusty roads and the deserted beaches all helped transform Todos Santos into the new San Diego South: the (discreet) residence of artists, idea men, producers and musicians who come here, in the extreme south of Baja California, to relax as often as they can. Living side-by-side with decrepit American hippies, surly Mexican taqueros and artists from the world over who have transformed the straight roads of Todos Santos into their privileged ateliers.

Abu Dhabi - Arabian miracle

2009-08-06

Before the discovery of oil in the Seventies, Abu Dhabi was a modest fishing village surrounded by desert dunes. In just over forty years, the Emirate boasts one of the most modern cities on the Arabian peninsula, and overall, the highest percentage of public open spaces, obtained thanks to the desalination of frightening quantities of seawater and the slave labour of thousands of immigrants, especially Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis. However, the dynasty of Sheikh Zayed, the visionary emir who planned and built the city as it is today, wasn't tempted to build useless cathedrals in the desert.

D/La Repubblica - Bangladesh flash

2009-07-31

Yacht Capital - Il popolo dei gommoni

2009-07-31

Afghanistan - The skate runner

2009-07-17

Kabul, five in the afternoon. A group of children wait for Mister Olly. When his van arrives, they greet him joyfully: their daily skateboard lesson is about to begin. Mister Olly, real name, Oliver Percovich, born in Australia and here in Afghanistan by chance, unloads a dozen skateboards which the children eagerly grab. Astonished passers-by stop to watch this sport, totally unknown to them. Skateistan, the open-air skate school founded by Percovich for fun, in just a few months has become a roaring success which the whole city is talking about. It's also a terribly important activity, which has recently turned into a NGO, helping to save more than one child from a future of beggary on the capital's streets.

Mozambique - Quirimbas Time Machine

2009-07-06

Forgotten islands off the northern coast of Mozambique, once flourishing and crowded, the nerve centres of the Swahili kingdom, the province of the Islamic empire, then of the slave trade and the Portuguese colonial administration. Today they're abandoned to themselves, the colonial architecture slowly succumbing to the attacks by sea-salt and ficus roots. And they're suffering with a backwardness which, to our eyes, could seem poetic, veiled by a gentle sadness which a Portuguese would define as saudade, crystallised in time like a clock without hands.

Turkey - Istanbul, Prince's Island

2009-07-06

Inhabited since ancient times, due to their strategic position at the mouth of the Bosphorus, the Princes' Islands owe their name to the Byzantines, who exiled here the troublesome members of the imperial families. A custom which was perpetrated by the Ottoman sultans. In the XIX century, the islands were chosen by the Istanbul bourgeoisie to build palaces and holiday homes, but their tradition as a place of exile continued with the arrival, in February 1929, of Trotsky, who had just been banished from the Soviet Union. Today, the Greek-Orthodox monasteries, the ancient wooden buildings, and especially the use of carriages as the only form of transportation, give the island a romantically retro atmosphere, perfect for a nostalgic seaside holiday.

GENTE - WOMEN AGAINST AL QAEDA

2009-06-30

Seychelles - Maia Resort

2009-06-18

An emerald peninsula nestled between two enchanted beaches. A woody hill covered in flowers and palms. Thirty enormous villas, hidden amongst the bougainvillea and the sea, enveloped by the scent of lemon grass and frangipani. The residences all have a private swimming pool, panoramic jacuzzi and a butler available 24 hours a day. A Balinese style spa and two yachts are also at the guests' disposal, in order to relax and escape to the neighbouring islands in total solitude. Maia is one of the world's most exclusive resorts, frequented by sheiks and actors, Middle Eastern royal families and sports stars. All services are 5-stars. Every wish is fulfilled in style. Overlooking Anse Louise and less than thirty minutes from the capital, Victoria, Maia Resort, on the island of Mahè, is the quintessence of luxury, privacy and relax.

Italy - Apulia, Ostuni kasbah

2009-06-18

Ostuni is a dazzling oasis of traditional architectures which stands out white against the spring sky. It resembles an Arab casbah: cobbled streets, dry stone walls, washing hanging from the balconies, dialects spoken from house to house, the scent of freshly cut grass and spotless plaster which covers the walls of palaces and dwellings surrounded by age-old walls which protect the historic centre. Try to imagine Greece's Santorini without mules or fishing boats. The old city is an island, an Apulian hill with Saracenic reflections. Walking through it, in the first light of summer, becomes a journey into Mediterranean chromatism. Alongside the terraces decorated with bougainvillea, roses and succulent plants, there are stretches of green olive groves and tidy lands which gradually slope down to the beaches of Pilone, Villanova and Marina.

Italy - Capri glocal

2009-06-14

Dancers amongst the archaeological ruins of Damecuta. Teams of sculptors, painters and artists in a walk-about amongst the island's schools and woods. Trendwatchers sitting in the Piazzetta to study the foreign holidaymakers as they walk by and choreographers in search of inspiration on the rocky promontories overlooking the Mediterranean. Contemporary music. Festivals and the jet-set. Italy's most famous island transforms itself this summer, turning into an open-air art and culture laboratory for the first time. The newly founded Fondazione Capri, a cultural and artistic brainchild which finally reunites local entrepreneurs (but with an international air), regional institutions, Capri's art exponents (but of global inspiration), and the mayors of the two municipalities, will attempt to relaunch the island's glory once for all.

Focus Italy - Africa: Hadza hunters

2009-05-31

Cuba - El Che vive

2009-05-29

The Cuban revolution maybe trickling to a halt and the regime is becoming less popular each day that passes, but the Cubans finally have the permission (but often not the money) to buy a mobile phone or a computer with an Internet connection: Cuba is changing. Yet there's a icon, symbol of the revolution, which remains immutable, omnipresent and, notwithstanding everything, sincerely loved by the majority of Cubans: it's the image, or rather, the querida presencia of Ernesto Guevara, known as the Che.

Peru - Chaccu, the day of the Vicuňa

2009-05-28

An entire day on the Andes at an altitude of 4.500 meters. A complicated rite that involves hundreds of campesinos and dozens of villages scattered around the plateaus of the Pampa Galeras, on the road to Cuzco, 90 kilometres up from Nazca. Guitars and drums, hot soups and early morning treks, masks and costumes: everyone joins in for the vicuňa shearing. A traditional gathering which takes place in various Andean areas of South America, in order to obtain the world's finest fibre. In particular, there's a entire private reserve here, just outside the Reserva Nacional de Pampa Galeras, managed by Loropiana, one of the leading companies on the international scene in the production of high quality fabrics, in collaboration with local communities. A successful glocal experiment.

India - Rajasthan, Land of Kings

2009-05-22

Rajasthan has always represented the most symbolic and emblematic idea we have of India. Every traveller has this stereotype of the Indian subcontinent fixed in his head. Deserts and elephants, sumptuous palaces and maharajahs, sounds, colours, sacred yet profane atmospheres. Lakes, temples, saris and turbans, poverty, destitution and exaggerated luxury: extreme socio-economic groups who share the same dust, the same crystalline sky. Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpuir, Udaipur and Pushkar evoke literature, history and legend, in other words, the quintessence of textbook India. Yet, the Land of Kings preserves the country's true romantic soul. And today, even if the country is rife with political passions and diverging ideas, Rajasthan remains India's calm essence, nestled between the Thar desert and the verdant south-eastern hills.

Indonesia - Flores, wonder island

2009-05-21

An hour and a half by plane east of Bali, in the archipelago of Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda Islands), two thousand kilometres from Java, Flores is an enormous tongue of volcanic sand which smells of vanilla and chocolate. Endless bamboo forests, lava plateaus, emerald green paddy fields, mountain lakes, uneven roads and timeless atmospheres blend with ancestral traditions, turbulent waters, smoky volcanoes and silent banana plantations. Practically no-one comes here on holiday. Yet Flores is enchanting. It has a choreography of natural wonders and an important cultural identity. It has crescents of white sand to offer, crystalline lagoons, fleets of wooden fishing boats, dragons, thermal springs, scented coffee and spice plantations, coasts indented by inlets and solitary bays, and mountain villages inhabited by ancient ethnic groups.

Italy - Falcons against the mob

2009-05-19

Naples, the city with the highest level of criminal activity in Italy, counts seventy homicides, four thousand armed robberies, mostly with tourists as victims, and thousands of thefts a year. In order to combat the criminal elements, who are often secreted in the intricate lanes which don´t allow vehicles easy passage, the police force has created the Hawks (Falcons), a squadron which is practically unique: plain clothes agents who patrol the street in powerful off road motorbikes, their mission: to control and where possible prevent criminality. This is a risky mission which not occasionally brings them encounters with the Camorra and which makes them as they as they define themselves moving targets on two wheels.

Russia - Moscow war and peace

2009-05-09

On one side the rich, on the other, the poor. The former, the oligarchs, spend bucket loads of money without depleting their resources, and it's not always clear how these immense fortunes are made. The poor struggle along as best they can, and often haven't access to two square meals a day. Surprisingly however, it's the oligarchs who need a psychoanalyst at ten thousand dollars per hour to cure their depression. The poor, on the other hand, seem to accept their destiny with a totally Zen serenity, and with the proverbial Russian patience. Moscow: a chaotic, frenetic, repulsive city. 20 million inhabitants: who, amongst these, is at war, and who at peace?

Jordan - Little Ranias grow up

2009-05-06

They're women between 20 and 40 years of age, who live in the cities and don't wear the veil, those who visit coffee shops and shopping centres. They call them the Rania Generation, because they'll go to any lengths to resemble the queen, copying her clothes and her hairstyle, her natural make-up and those refined manners which have guaranteed her long-standing position in the list of the world's most glamorous women. You can find them in the restaurants of the progressive Amman districts, where a mixed clientele is more common. Such as the Blue Fig Café during the weekends, when the tables are full, and groups of girls gossip amongst themselves. We admire her emancipated image above all, that of a free and independent woman explains one of them as she sips a cocktail

National Geographic Italy - Cinque Terre

2009-04-30

Tanzania - The true Kilimanjaro heroes

2009-04-20

Each year, thousands of excursionists put themselves to the test in an attempt to reach the peak of the Kilimanjaro, the highest African summit, and have their photo taken under the sign which indicates Uhuru Peak at 5895m, as if they were heroes. Each excursionist takes along at least two porters to satisfy his every need: from food to tents, from luggage to... lavatories. Each porter carries up to 20kg on his back, with a gradient of 1000m per day. These are the true heroes of this mountain, young men who, for a small wage and an occasional tip, continually climb and descend from 1500m to 4600m where the last camp is located, with inadequate equipment, forcing their body in a continual acclimatization

Liberia - Equatorial Ground Zero

2009-04-14

Bulletin of one of the most devastated African countries. The American freed slaves founded it in 1847, in a territory which the US government had bought to distance them and to take up an option on the gold, iron, natural rubber and diamonds of which the country is extremely rich. Today, Liberia is a republic which has been razed to the ground by 14 years of civil war, with 4 billion dollars of foreign debt, with no running water nor electricity, an economy at rock-bottom, and 90% unemployment. It´s protected by 15 thousand peacekeepers from the United Nations, appointed to complete the disarmament of the militia and to guarantee public order. And yet, under the presidency of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the country seems on the slow road to recovery.

Australia - Tropical North Queensland

2009-04-03

ueensland is one of the most forgotten states inside the nation. Within its borders, the Tropical North is one of the most forgotten regions inside the state. In the collective imagery of the rest of Australia, it's an underdeveloped territory populated by snakes, crocodiles and uncouth farmers. The locals, with a discreet sense of humour, say exactly the same thing. And in the meantime, one after another, they're transforming the sugarcane plantations into resorts. And, thanks to the money brought in by the tourists, they can face the cyclone season on board a Rolls-Royce.

Bangladesh - Bangladesh Flash

2009-04-01

In Dhaka a man sums up his life story: I was born in India in 1944, at three I became an East Pakistani, today I'm a Bangladeshi. I'm a practising Muslim, but once, and just once, I got blind drunk. It was in 1971, when the country declared its independence and became Bangladesh. That evening, out of sheer elation, I drank a whole bottle of whisky. Yet, today, I don't know if it was worth it. This is Bangladesh: a young country, a troubled past, a present like the past (many regions resemble the East Pakistan of fifty years ago), a future which few feel like betting on.

D/La Repubblica - Jamaica: One Love, No Love

2009-03-31

Tunisia - Tabarka's red gold

2009-03-31

Moktar's seven girls work the coral in complete silence. Hands on drill, gaze fixed on the small red branches. Lots of water is needed explains the jeweller otherwise the coral turns yellow.... Moktar's shop is a kiosk in Rue Bourguiba, which can be reached by following the narrow Tabarka streets, leaving the fisherman's hangout, the Café des Andalous, to your right. Raw Tunisian coral is transacted each week, in front of a hookah. We call it the red gold coast he explains, it stretches from the Algerian border to Bizerte; here one can still harvest the best coral in the world. For a couple of centuries, even a colony of Ligurians fished coral in Tabarka, becoming the first Christian enclave in North African territory. And today, as a reminder of those years, it's still the solid Genoese fort which dominates the port.

Israel - Israeli daily life

2009-03-30

"They water the plants, bring up their children, and dream of buying a new car or house writes Amos Oz. They argue with the bank, gossip about their neighbours and go to the dentist. The everyday life of the Israelis five million Jews and a million and a half Arabs, Muslims for the most part often rolls by normally, in spite of the tensions and the wars. In the Kibbutz gardens, young mothers cradle their children, girls from the North go to the Dead Sea to have fun, in Haifa, one works hard in the docks and in Jerusalem, Arabs and Jews try to live together peacefully in the capital of religious monotheism. In the hope that one day, they really can live in a Middle East made up of sovereign states and a normal, pleasant everyday life.

Turkey - Istanbul, memories by Orhan Pamuk

2009-03-23

'Istanbul', the latest book by Orhan Pamuk, the noble-featured novelist from a good family, has become a must-have on the counter of every bookshop around the world. 'Istanbul' is an autobiographical novel, it talks about his life, but it's also a trip into ancient Constantinople. Istanbul is the city where he was born and grew up, which mapped out his future, in a continual game of superimpositions. The Istanbul which emerges from his pages is nostalgic, far from the lights and the desire for modernity which pervades Turkey today. A city of old districts with wooden houses and paved alleyways. An intimist city, like a night time vision in front of the Blue Mosque during a snowstorm. A city of soft hues, or better still, as he himself writes I experienced the Istanbul of my childhood as a place with two colours: black and white.

Morocco - Trendy Marrakech

2009-03-23

Today, Morocco is testimony to a series of investments without precedents in the tourism market. Building yards are changing the appearance of both the Atlantic coasts and the surrounding areas of the Marrakech medina. Large groups of tour operators and hotel chains are building resorts, spas, residential areas and shopping malls all over the place. And Marrakech is experiencing a veritable boom. This city, which aims to host three and a half million visitors within the year 2010, is organising itself to satisfy every sort of style and taste in terms of hospitality. The fusion between traditional elements and modern design, is everywhere. Bold combinations appear via colours, forms and materials in the restructured riads, the kasbah hotels and fashionable restaurants. For a really trendy city.

Belgium - Comic-strip Brussels

2009-03-21

In recent decades, the house façades in Brussels have been the canvas for stories harking back to our infancy and adolescence. Blow-ups of comic-strip sagas blend with the urban scenery, creating amusing images between real and painted people (today there are more than 40). Belgium has a great tradition of comic-strip artists, Hergé, the creator of Tin Tin above all, and the year 2009 will be totally dedicated to them. The city is setting up exhibitions in various locations, and opened the display with a grand parade of huge helium balloons in the shape of famous cartoon heroes. A parade which will be put on every year.

Mali - Recycling wizards

2009-03-13

In Bamako, the capital of Mali, there's a very special district, a place where hundreds of people are busy in a sort of percussion concert with a perfectly synchronised, insistent rhythm. This isn't a music school however, but the district of blacksmiths and tinkers. African blacksmiths are a scorned caste, yet feared at the same time, a caste of magicians who are able to tame fire in order to make weapons and utensils. From their hands and under the heavy blows of a hammer, car wrecks, old oil drums, food cans and tins find new life in the shape of ploughs, charcoal stoves, trunks, pails or ladles. In the Western world, where waste recycling is much discussed, we don't realise that in nations such as Africa, people do this everyday out of necessity. Organic waste is the animals' prey, the inorganic takes on a new lease of life.

India - Zanskar - Walking on the frozen river

2009-03-12

Zanskar is a remote valley in northern India, wedged between Ladakh and Kashmir, through which runs the Indus river tributary of the same name. In winter, the numerous villages in the valley would be totally isolated from the rest of the world, if it wasn't for the river, which, freezing over in the coldest months, permits the inhabitants to walk on it. It's a fascinating journey which winds amongst seventy kilometres of gorges, where, at night, one has to shelter from temperatures of -30° inside caves created by the erosion of the soft sandstone. The inhabitants of Zanskar still use the frozen river to transport butter, which is particularly fragrant and appreciated, to Leh market (the capital of Ladakh)

Italy - Milan on water

2009-03-05

I'm the Jack Sparrow of the canals. I can pass through the lock in via Torricelli with just three centimetres to spare. Do you want to see?. Roberto drives the Navigli Lombardi boat which carries tourists every day along the waterways. The toponym, Milan, derives from mid-land, middle-earth, the same as the Lord of the Rings... blares the loudspeaker, whilst a young woman captures everything on her camcorder. It's true, one can navigate in Milan as on the Tevere, the Grand Canal, or on the gracht in Amsterdam. Because Milan is a paradox, far from large rivers, yet extremely water rich. The city rises between the Adda and the Ticino, which delimit a damp territory, drenched with water, rich in springs and irrigation ditches

Riders Italy - Kabul

2009-03-03

Croatia - Sailing the archipelago

2009-03-03

Circumnavigating the island of Bievo towards the east, it's possible that one may sail into peaceful Porat bay, where the silence is broken only by the squawking of the seagulls, right around lunchtime. Thus, under the spring sun, one can find oneself sitting in the shade of an olive tree, eating bread, cheese and sardines with a group of fishermen, drinking white wine and munching on black olives, observing the Adriatic from the east. There isn't even the hint of a breeze, but the air still carries the scent of wild fennel, rosemary and myrtle. The water is as crystalline as the Maldives and the surrounding hills are ablaze with yellow flowers and prickly pears. Dalmatia has more than a thousand islands. There are no roads or cars down here. Only 'gozzi' and fishing nets to be mended

Vietnam - In uncle Ho's North

2009-03-02

In the Sixties, American soldiers had the following engraved on their Zippo's: when I die I'll go to heaven because I've spent my time in hell: Vietnam. The war ended in 1975. Twenty years later, the United States lifted the trade embargo against Vietnam and today, the country which defeated the White House, is invaded by dollars, internet and Coca Cola. Our fathers freed us from the Americans, but now it's time to forget this story that making money is a crime, say the teenagers outside a disco in Hanoi, in the north of the country. The North is the true cradle of Vietnam. It's here that one can meet men with three live pigs tied to a bicycle, or women who emerge from the fields with their conical hats, or students who salute the bust of Bac Ho with a bow, Uncle Ho, as the Vietnamese affectionately call Ho Chi Minh

National Geographic Italy - Milan on water

2009-02-28

Italy - Occitania, the invisible country

2009-02-26

Does Occitania really exist? A country with this name isn't recognised by world diplomacies, yet its flag (the Cathar cross) hangs in various European town halls, its history goes back thousands of years and its provinces run from the Spanish Pyrenees across Gascony, Languedoc and the Camargue, down to the Piedmontese valleys. An invisible country, where thirteen million people speak (or understand) an ancient and noble language: Occitan or the Langue d'oc, the ancient Provençal which basically was the equivalent of the English language in the 13th century. In Italy, they number two hundred thousand, scattered in a dozen valleys between Imperia, Cuneo and Turin; it's the vast area of the Maritime Alps, a curious name which is almost an oxymoron, the place where sea and mountains meet and smile at each other.

United States - Elvis lives!

2009-02-03

Legend has it that Elvis is still alive. That he didn't die on the 16th of August, 1977, in a bathroom in Graceland, his Memphis residence, but that he voluntarily chose exile. No matter how things went, from that day on, Graceland became the true temple of rock, a destination still visited today by hoards of fans and the curious, who with their visits (paid exorbitantly) fuel a booming business. Elvis's home has become a lay sanctuary, preserved exactly as it was thirty years ago, embellished with memorabilia and common objects, stage costumes, gold discs, posters and original guitars, cars and even planes. To visit Graceland is to pay homage to a contemporary music legend, but it's also a trip into the iconographic exploitation of Elvis, who can find his face stamped on socks, medallions and even thimbles

Czech Republic - Kutna hora, bone Architecture

2009-02-01

The Kutná Hora ossuary is the only monument of its type in the world: its interior is entirely embellished with human bones. The chapel, which dates back to the 14th Century, has uncertain origins: it's known that the cemetery which surrounds it was already a coveted burial place in the 13th Century, due to the fact that a local abbot, on his return from a trip in the Holy Land, scattered here a handful of earth taken from Christ´s tomb in Jerusalem. The first information regarding the overcrowding of the cemetery dates to 1318. In 1870, the chapel's owner commissioned the carver Frantisek Rint to create the present decoration. Which, somehow, gives a second life to many of those who, over the centuries, sought eternal life in this modest country necropolis.

Revu Magazine - Falcons against the mob

2009-01-31

Sweden - Lapland, the Big Chill

2009-01-20

This corner of northern Sweden, still virgin for the most part, has recently become the paradise of accessible and alternative adventure tourism. From an inhospitable, wild, barren land, the home of reindeer and icy hills, it has transformed itself into a vast recreation ground, where travellers arrive, attracted by the boundless spaces and extreme nature. They're all looking for the big chill, but don't want to tackle the lack of comforts, costs and dangers of an expedition. On the contrary, they want to travel, even in these secluded lands, with all the possible luxuries: fast snowmobiles, polar equipment, helicopters for alpine skiing or ice fishing, 5 star refuges, natural reserves full of wild animals. And the Sami, the Lapps, have prepared themselves, evolving from semi-nomadic herders into perfect tourist guides

Bulgaria - Gypsy rhythm

2009-01-20

After the interlude of true Socialism, the younger generations in the Bulgarian capital have gone wild, thirsty for the West and eager for fun. They move from free climbing competitions under the stern gaze of the soldiers on the Red Army monument, to breakdance contests, in the austere building which was once a military base. However, in the nightclubs, modern beats and fashion shows often blend with frenzied Balkan melodies, along with belly dancers and gypsy singers. Not forgetting the old Soviet songs sung in unison by the patrons in full nostalgic revival. In short, it's not possible to get bored in the capital of a State which was once one of the most faithful supporters of Socialist austerity

Bangladesh - Ship eaters

2009-01-09

Chittagong, Bhatiary seafront, south-eastern Bangladesh: a laid-up ship arrives on a beach in the Gulf of Bengal to be dismantled. Like ants, hundreds of men, often adolescents, attack it to take it to pieces: a supertanker, weighing 20 thousand tons, literally disappears in four months. It produces iron, but also asbestos, mercury, hydrocarbon residues, acids and poisons, which devastate the coastal ecosystem and cripple the fishing activities. This business, however, is one of the country's main earners, and the Government turns a blind eye to environmental catastrophes, the illegal asbestos trade and the conditions of near slavery in which the ship eaters are forced to work

Dominican Republic - Los Dominicanos

2009-01-02

We know little about the Dominicans. We frequent their beaches, amongst fields of sugar cane and Spanish castles: we try their specialities at the restaurant, we awkwardly attempt to follow the rhythm of the merengue. At Cabeza de Toro, south of Bàvaro, we can have small plaits done like theirs for 60 dollars. But who are the Dominicans and what do they really want? Marcelo is a street barber, Romano lives in the gallera and bets money on the strongest cockerel, and Magdalena, who comes from El Bonao, is little more than a child: her father glares as she practices the movements of the bachata with her friends, too many obscene movements in this dance he mutters. But not all Dominican girls have had such an attentive father: in the brothels of Bàvaro and Punta Cana, girls just a little older than her wait night and day for clients

Venezuela - Llanos, the flooded world

2008-12-11

The Llanos are vast alluvial plains which stretch for more than 300,000 square kilometres between Sierra Nevada de Mérida and the course of the Orinoco river, in the heart of Venezuela. They represent a geographical, cultural and historical frontier, epic and terrifying at the same time. They occupy no less than a third of the country's entire surface, but are inhabited by less than five people per square kilometre, for the most part herdsmen, landowners and indigenous survivors from the wars of conquest. A cross between the western American prairies and Argentinian pampas, a seasonal liquid universe which resembles the Brazilian Pantanal, with the same herding saga (the Llaneros are expert and melodramatic cowboys, more than the 'Pantaneiros' or their American cousins), perhaps with just a slightly more modest naturalistic profile.

Libya - Acacous, the painted desert

2008-12-11

Southern Libya is an enchantment of volcanoes, rock arches, dunes and geological rarities. One of the most extraordinary locations in Africa. In these parts, geography and prehistory blend amongst canyons, dune piles, uplands, valleys, oases, graffiti and spectacular rock formations. The entire Acacous archaeological park is accessible in off-road vehicles. One moves in small, well-equipped convoys and sleeps in fixed and mobile tents, exploring the entire protected area. The Ghat oasis is the entrance to a parallel world which survives off small nomad villages inhabited by Tuareg and herding communities, camel transhumances, groups of adventure tourists and open-air museums which hide priceless petroglyphs.

United States - Is there just oil in Texas?

2008-12-09

Cowboy hats and oil. But also guitars and Cadillacs, canoes and Formula One, and why not, works of art and symphony orchestras. Because the Texas we imagine intolerant, ultraconservative and a little bigoted, the place where the greatest number of death penalties are carried out in the USA- doesn't just mean oil wells and J.R. from the old TV series, Dallas. In this vast state, twice the size of Italy, the only one to have annexed to the Union when it was already an independent state (in 1846), life is good and ever more people are settling down here. Taxes are low and job opportunities high, the climate is usually pleasant and houses don't cost much. Because, belying what people think, Texas is a multicultural state. And above all, because it's beautiful. A special, unique beauty

Colombia - Providencia, treasure island

2008-12-08

You arrive here either by chance or by word of mouth. Recently, the island has turned into a sort of 'buen retiro' for artists, writers and unemployed adventurers, where time goes by divergently. A strange land. A stone's throw away from Nicaragua, but lying more than 800 kilometres off the Colombian coasts (to which it belongs politically). It's a transverse universe made up of volcanic sand, primary forests, emerald green lagoons and coral reefs. It's uncomparable. Populated by dark, morphologically Caribbean, short-tempered, surly half-castes, the descendants of buccaneers and smugglers. These offspring of English and Dutch pirates, puritan colonists and African slaves, now take it easy, as they watch life roll by along with the clouds. They play dominoes and bet on the horses. Today the residents are less than five thousands.

Nicaragua - Fish'em before they eat you

2008-12-04

When you are born son of a fisherman on Nicaragua´s Atlantic coast, the future gives you one possibility and three different roadmaps. The possibility is to become a fisherman. About the roadmaps, you can choose to risk little and earn close to nothing, risk your life and earn a bit more, or risk between 30 years and a life sentence in jail and (maybe) get rich. In the first case you fish lobster, in the second sharks, in the third floating packs of cocaine (the ones abandoned by the traffickers intercepted at sea by U.S. antinarcotics patrols). Whatever your choice, the life awaiting you is one of resignation and hopes thrown at sea like fishing nets. Those who chose to fish sharks have, at least, the pride of doing a very macho job, which is exatcly what is expected of a men at these latitudes

Brazil - Nordeste easy chic

2008-12-02

It was a clear afternoon with oceanic sky-blue hues and ochre-coloured cliffs: there were dozens of 'jangadas' sailing along the horizon. We drove the dune-buggies like madmen through wind and waves up to Morro Branco and its labyrinth of cliffs, 70 kilometres further down. At times we could only see dunes and it really felt like being in the middle of the Sahara. Only the camels were missing. We spent entire days amongst the beaches of Lagoinha, Fleixeiras and Mandù before heading back to the capital. Today Fortaleza looks like Miami, with skyscrapers balanced alongside the ocean, music on the beach and pretty girls jogging along the seafront. Cearà is a land of sand and Atlantic, colonial architecture and grand hotels

French Polynesia - Marquesas - Tropical fiords

2008-11-20

The southern seas that you don't expect. The violent ocean and the tangled forests. A metaphysical paradise, amongst low clouds, stone effigies and epic voyages. The Marquesas, six main islands plus a bunch of reefs for a total of one thousand square kilometres of land above sea level, inhabited by less than ten thousand people, are the antithesis of the common idea we have of Polynesia: there are no marvellous lagoons, nor coral reefs. The beaches are black, due to the volcanic sand and the climate is unpredictable. The earth stagnates, decays and regenerates with the rains, the seasonal waterfalls and the huge oceanic tides. The people, with regards to the future, for the most part just shrug their shoulders and stare at the ocean.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available on commission)

India - Pench National Park

2008-11-20

A magnificent teak forest. A calm river. Watering holes and decaying savannahs. Elephants, Jeeps and safaris, just like Africa. India's green heart is a rich land in full evolution. Mowgli's forest 300 square kilometres of protected land is located within one of the most beautiful Indian natural reserve, the Pench National Park in the state of Madhya Pradesh, where it's been possible over the last few months to stay in a luxurious 5 star lodge built and run by Taj Hotels in collaboration with CC Africa, one of the most famous adventure and environmental conservation organisations in Africa, determined to export its know-how even in Asia. On the back of an elephant or on a 4WD in the search for tigers, leopards, antelope and monkeys, under the protection of Krishna and Vishnu.

Great Britain - Manchester, radical chic

2008-11-20

Above suspicion. As colourful and lively as a Latin-blooded city, Manchester today is a cauldron of ideas, fashions and festive atmospheres, even more than its big sister, London. Great Britain's second most important city has restyled its look over the last few years. Many industrial areas have been transformed into art galleries, restaurants and shopping centres, whilst musicians, artists and entrepreneurs have ridden the wave of the city's cultural revival, investing, together with the City Council, in the redevelopment of abandoned and degraded urban areas. Warehouses, foundries, old railway stations, textile factories and dormitory districts have been turned into museums, music halls, lofts, studios, bars and night clubs, where the Mancunians experiment with stylistic evolutions and where, above all, they have fun

Uganda - The green heart of Africa

2008-11-13

Emerald-green hills, scorched savannahs and sky-blue lakes surrounded by volcanic chains and rain forests as dense as honey. Endless tea and banana plantations, audacious agriculture and sleepy villages suspended on the equator, poised between the dramatic historical vicissitudes of twenty years of dictatorship and a possible prosperous future as tourist destination, organised and safe at last. Natural parks, mountain gorillas, friendly, musical peoples. Expanses of bamboo, lodges overlooking lagoons and canals: a way of life nestled in the centre of the continent, in Africa's greenest heart

South Korea - Yin-Yang Land

2008-11-05

A double-sided country: on side A, the modernity of the metropolises, the frenzy of the third millennium, technological development, an obsession for fitness which counterbalances the ever-present junk food with which an ever more westernised society nourishes itself. On side B, the refinement of Confucian traditions, the meditation in the Buddhist temples, the indelible imprint of ancient Asia. United by the feeling of ambivalence towards North Korea, sister nation, yet enemy at the same time. Side A and B live side-by-side within the same boundaries, like Yin and Yang who endlessly pursue each other on the country's flag

Angola - A sand tiger between the desert and sea

2008-10-22

Having emerged from a long war which for many years made it off limits to foreigners apart from mercenaries and traffickers, Angola is ready to reveal its treasures to the rest of the world. A tiger's coat of tall, yellow dunes streaked with violet mineral dust, overlooking an Atlantic Ocean so violent as to submerge the isthmus of the Baia dos Tigres, condemning the ancient Portuguese city to ruin. This is the southern part of the country with the continuation of the Namib desert, which from the Kunene river valley descends towards the sea. A territory which has maintained intact all its wild beauty and an extraordinary ethnographic patrimony.

Italy - Apulia, Daunia Mountains Hills of wind

2008-10-17

Halfway along the coast between the Tavoliere delle Puglie (Apulian Table) and the Campania Apennines, flow woody crests, hill chains and quiet villages: an extraordinary agricultural and Medieval enclave. Here, farmers and herdsmen live amongst tradition and technology. They discovered the clean energy business a while back and practically every landform exposed to the wind hosts ultramodern wind turbines and electric lines scattered amongst high pasture grounds and faith paths. Today, Daunia is a geographic mystery, an underrated sub-region on the border of well-trodden tourist routes, made up of 29 foothill municipalities in the western province of Foggia. A real spacetime frontier, a no-man's land suspended between Roman history and the near future.

China - Canton the red and the black

2008-10-14

It's a modern, bustling city in continual growth: one of the most representative examples of New China. However, in the shadow of the crystal skyscrapers, where the financial institutions are based, can be found another Canton which seems immune to change: that of the alleyways where people play mahjong, the markets which sell scorpions, snakes and tiger bones, the people's parks, where the afternoons are spent reading the tazebao and practising the ancient art of tai-qi. Canton is the city of the red and black, where Imperial China and that of the future live together side by side, the one ignoring the other

El Salvador - Surfing El Salvador

2008-10-09

It's a surfer's paradise in Central America and offers some of the best breaks in the world. El Tunco, Palmarcito and El Zonte are beaches well known to anyone who loves riding the waves, locations revered not only by Salvadorians, but also by Europeans and Americans who follow the coast down from the capital, San Salvador. To surf, to have fun and follow a bohemian lifestyle which still exists here. With little money, between beach bars and parties held to the rhythm of cumbia and reggaeton, hostels available for a few dollars and getting up at ungodly hours to catch the best waves. Here, in La Libertad, everything revolves around surfing, from those who repair surfboards to those who offer paying lessons, from the champion who exploits his image to the worker who surfs in the early morning before going to work. For pure passion

Spain - Extremadura conquers the world

2008-10-08

A frontier region, Extremadura (which means land beyond the Douro river) is one of the most depressed areas in Spain. However, it's also one of the most attractive, with its vine and tobacco cultivations, the rivers which flow towards the Atlantic, the arid sierras and the grasslands used for pasture. Today, many snob it and cross it quickly on their way to Andalusia or Portugal. But those who stop are seduced by its history. That of the Romans, who left behind roads, bridges, aqueducts and amphitheatres (the Mérida Roman Museum is one of the most important outside of Rome). And that of the Extremaduran conquistadores, pig breeders who left to conquer the New World. They came from Plasencia, from Cáceres, from Trujillo. Their names? Hernan Cortés, the Pizarro brothers, Francisco de Orellana, Nuñez de Balboa and Pedro de Valdivia

Italy - The Matera labyrinth

2008-10-08

A Unesco World Heritage Site since 1993, Matera is a wonder of underground passages and caverns dug into the rock. Its two famous districts, the Sassi, practically uninhabited until the Seventies, have slowly been restored to their former splendour. Today the city has lost a little of that neglected look and has become a tourist centre of primary importance. Museums have been opened, various films shot (not just Mel Gibson's The Passion) and many others are in the pipeline. Matera attracts directors with is archaic and legendary beauty, but it is also that which surrounds it which seduces the visitor: breathtaking ravines, crevices and gorges in a calcarenite land which is 800 thousand years old, terribly brittle and for this reason reconverted, in ancient times, into some of the most beautiful places of worship: the rupestrian churches

Japan - Tokyo, manga city

2008-10-08

Ancient capital of a shogunate, in 400 years Tokyo has become the largest urban conglomeration in the world. The capital of a country which in 50 years notwithstanding the scanty resources has managed to pass from a humiliated empire to the largest creditor on the world scene. Tokyo alone has a GDP equal to that of Spain; a growth which isn't hindered by the imperceptible seismic tremors which are registered each day. Rebuilt after the 1923 earthquake and the Second World War bombings, Tokyo has grown pragmatically, paying little attention to design and following the new railway system. A Manga city, as it's been called: highly competitive, efficient and of brief duration, rapidly built and rapidly demolished when necessary. Throwaway, just like Manga comics

France - French Basque Country, the other side of the South

2008-10-06

It's the city which mocks Pamplona by letting cows loose in the street. It's the city which gave shelter to Spanish Basques fleeing Francoism and Jewish chocolate makers running from the Inquisition. This is Bayonne, the capital of a different Southern France, harsh and Atlantic, which has nothing in common with the refinement of Provence or the Cote d'Azur. It's the France of the Basque Country, a slice of Aquitaine which from the Ocean rises up to the Pyrénées, homeland of a mysterious people called the Euskaldunak, but whom everyone knows as Basques. The Parisians love passing their summer months here, in this French California, amongst the wild beaches of Anglet, or in the sophisticated and exclusive Biarritz

Angola - Ethnic mix

2008-10-05

The southern area of Angola is inhabited by a range of peoples who were isolated for a long while. They are small ethnic groups who, for the most part, live off stock farming in a semi-nomadic state, moving their kraal across a vast territory north of the Cunene river, which marks the boundary with Namibia. Many are grouped into exogamous tribal societies based on matrilineal descent. The women's role is very important, as the transfer of livestock property (fundamental for herding societies) passes through the mother's brother. The women are also responsible for the magical rites which communicate with the ancestral world

D/La Repubblica - Lima Lifestyle

2008-09-30

D/La Repubblica - Australia West Coast

2008-09-30

Spain - Percebes or death

2008-09-27

The percebe (gooseneck barnacle) is a highly prized mollusc much appreciated by gourmets: it grows along the rocky coast of north-western Spain, near Fisterra, and only in the precise point where the Atlantic waves break against the cliffs. In one of the most treacherous stretches of sea on the planet, a few hundred professional harvesters risk their lives each day in order to supply the market with percebes. They lower themselves down the rocks like mountaineers, with makeshift equipment, and toil to snatch this treasure away from the coast, with one eye always pointed towards the sea: because in any given moment, that wave, which for many of them in the past has signified death, could wash them away

France - Between surf and pelota

2008-09-26

It's midday in Espelette and two children are throwing a ball against the town fronton: they're playing pelota, a Basque sport which loses its origins in the labyrinth of time. Not far from Espelette, along the river Nive, huge yellow dinghies descend from the Pyrénées, defying the rapids at a breathtaking speed: on board are tourists with crash helmet, experiencing real rafting for the first time. The Nive nearly flows into the Atlantic, where every day, hundreds of teenagers arrive to catch the best waves in Europe. The long stretch of beach between Anglet and Saint-Jean de Luz is France's California, with thirty excellent locations, and where in 1957 Peter Viertel, the American scriptwriter, introduced surf into the Old Continent for the first time. In a region, that of the French Basque Country, which is decidedly sports oriented

Italy - Valtellina, heroic wine-growing

2008-09-24

Valtellina hosts the largest terraced area in Europe. Along the valley from Ardengo to Tirano, 2,500 kilometres of dry stone walls can be found: they hold up small plots of land where masterpieces such as the Sassella, Inferno and Sfurzàt wines grow and imagine what an effort is needed! Everything is still done by hand, walking up the slopes and pruning a few rows of vines at a time; some still descend with a pannier on their back, others have spent a lifetime keeping the walls intact. However, since the beginning of the century, the terraced land has diminished by three quarters. Here in Valtellina say the experts vines no longer represent a viable economic sustenance. That's why we've decided to propose the terracing as a Unesco Heritage Site. An attempt to save the last heroic wine-growers who still hold out on these hills

Belize - It's a country for old men

2008-09-23

As vast as Sardinia but with less than 300 thousand inhabitants, Belize abounds in pensioners who alone, in small groups or in communities come to live here more or less definitively. They are snowbirds, those who migrate south when it's cold in the north. Thanks to the white beaches and the constant warm climate, but thanks also to the government, which has decided to gamble on this type of enduring and profitable tourism. They call it the the retirement industry. Those who are chosen by the Belize Tourism Board (you must be over 45 and have a minimum pension of 2,000 dollars) become qualified retired persons and from that moment on, their privileges are covered by the 1999 Retired Persons (Incentives) Act, a law which, amongst other things, grants the possibility to transfer family, cars, boats and even aeroplanes into Belize.

Russia - Swimming, Kamasutra style

2008-09-21

It's strange enough for one person to throw himself into an icy river with a blow-up doll. For 600 to do the same thing is frankly worrying. Yet, this is what happens each year at the end of August in Lesovo, a rural village near Saint Petersburg. It's a competition called the Bubble Baba Challenge. The rules: to swim for nearly a kilometre along the Vuoksa river rapids, to come out alive and most importantly, not to lose your companion, a blow-up doll. This is the testimony of one of the craziest, yet extremely demanding, sports competitions in the world

Italy - Naples, coral capital

2008-09-18

Many call it the coral coast. Amalfi was already exporting it to Syria in the IX century. Naples handled the markets for centuries and Torre del Greco, whose fishermen would venture up to the African coasts, has today become the coral capital: the best craftsmen in the world can be found here, who work ninety percent of the coral harvested in the Mediterranean. Naples has always been associated with coral because here it is collected and, above all, here it has been worked for centuries. This red gold can be found in the city's churches and museums, in fashionable boutiques, worn by a greengrocer under form of a crucifix, or around a lady's neck as she walks down via Toledo. These small branches of calcium carbonate haven't lost their charm and many still believe in their special powers. One above all? The business.

Italy - Those bluesmen along the Po river

2008-09-17

The Po river like the Mississippi, Brescello and Correggio like a Po valley Memphis. Concerts held on barges which resemble Clarksdale juke joints or the Louisiana dives. Because, between Parma and Modena, in that flat stretch of land which lies between the via Emilia and the great river, lives the largest community of Italian bluesmen. Musicians who have embraced a philosophy, a style, a sound of the soul sums up Luciano Ligabue not caring about fashions, trends or the road to success. There are those who have created strange nicknames for themselves and others who go to concerts on horseback, those who cradled an acoustic guitar once and never let it go, and those who teach the harmonica whilst navigating along the Po. The bluesman? He plays that which he is declares Oracle King and he doesn't try to resemble anybody else

Italy - Sulcis, Sardinian eco-chic

2008-09-15

From the sensational dunes of Porto Pino up to the limestone hills of the Iglesiente pitted with dozens of old mining sites can be found a little frequented and somewhat wild Sardinia. A territory which is aiming for a strong international relaunch both at a tourist and environmental level, thanks to various upgrading and transformation plans for the vast sites once dedicated to the working and extraction of its minerals. An ambitious plan to transform a wild and scenically extraordinary part of the island into a sort of new Emerald Coast, surely less snob, but with an eco-chic style. For now, it remains a relatively downscale holiday resort, almost homely. A province rich in history, nature, gastronomy and traditions, to be explored by bike, perhaps, or on foot

Japan - The art of thanking a cashpoint

2008-09-15

A man walks through Akihabara, the largest hi-tech market on earth. Suddenly, he enters an alleyway, opens a door, moves the curtains, undresses and lowers himself into a tub of boiling water. Yude-dako! he exclaims smiling, I'm a boiled octopus. There are two types of Japan. There's the computer-based, efficient, frenetic one. That, which as some would say, modernized itself without becoming Westernised. And there's the traditional Japan, unchanged over the centuries. The one which wears a kimono and is moved by a cherry tree in flower, or thanks a cashpoint with a bow. The Japan of he who passes with naturalness from total chaos to the tranquillity of a warm public bath, the sentō, or goes in search of perfect hospitality with a tea ceremony. A Japan which exists, one just has to look for it

Canada - Red Autumn

2008-09-10

Every autumn, a phantasmagoric show of foliage goes on display throughout the woods of Quebec. The maple trees, like victims of the whims of a flamboyant painter, begin to take on colours which turn from yellow to orange up to the more intense tones of red. But if the poets worship this season 'bittersweet...perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter' (Carol Bishop Hipps), the scientists make us come back down to earth, explaining that it's only chemistry and that the plants don't turn red just to make us happy, but due to a modified relationship between soil, leaves and daylight, thus producing useful anthocyanins in order to get through the winter

Mauritania - Sand and caravan crossroads

2008-09-09

Ouadâne is decrepit and proud, once the crossroads of Western Africa. Here gold is bartered for Granada silks wrote Alvise da Ca' da Mosto in the middle of the 15th century, and many other articles from Sudan, the Niger, Sicily and Portugal are traded. In six centuries Mauritania hasn't changed. Today, as in the past, notwithstanding the colonialisms, the droughts and the coup d'ètats, a wonderful crossroads of cultures remains. The meeting point between the Berber Africa of the Maghreb and the black Africa of the vast Sudanese empires. Of course, the commercial caravans no longer exist. The country is underdeveloped, it has few internal connections and the unforgiving sand erodes ten kilometres of grazing land a year. But its rugged beauty, its fishermen, its libraries in the desert, are still able to enchant the traveller

Canada - The Sea River

2008-09-06

The Saint Lawrence River, which measures 1,200 km from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic, with an average discharge of 10,400 m3 per second and a drainage basin covering 1 million km2, is at the centre of the life and the history of Quebec. The first European to adventure here was the Frenchman, Jacques Cartier, who in 1535, ventured as far as the present day Montreal, where he came up against insuperable rapids. 50 years ago, a system of locks and canals made it possible to navigate into the heart of America. But the river's history is that of its inhabitants: sailors, fishermen and lighthouse keepers, not forgetting the huge cetaceans who come to replenish themselves with plankton and the snow geese who follow them during their annual migration

Nepal - New year dance in the Tibetan refuge

2008-09-05

They call it little Lhasa but it's the Buddhist's Vatican above all. In February, Bodhnath, suburb of Kathmandu, celebrates the Losar, the Tibetan new year. One of the few places on earth where, after the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959, one can still come into contact with a Tibetan culture which is free to express itself. At new year, the pilgrims arrive from all corners of Nepal and descend from the Himalayan regions to take part in the lama's masked dances, the ceremonies, the purifications. For the merchants who cross the Himalayas, Bodhnath has always been considered a point of arrival, the door to Kathmandu. At the end of the trip, they have always gathered around its stupa to thank the divinities. And even today, those who prepare to climb the mountain, still stop here to light a candle, in the warm Kathmandu plains

United States - Birthplace of the elitist guitar

2008-09-03

What do B.B. King, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton, Slash and Keith Richards have in common? They´ve all played a Gibson. The wildest guitar in the world. It´s the most esteemed, for its first-class handcrafted quality (they´re all handmade), the exclusive use of fine woods such as mahogany and maple for the legendary Les Paul model and a decidedly high price. A legend, that of the Gibson, born over a hundred years ago, when Orville Gibson, a lute-maker, began to make mandolins in Michigan. His company was the first to market electric guitars in 1936, but found market contention at the beginning of the fifties with the arrival of its greatest rival, the more economic Fender. Which has never managed, however, to equal the Gibson´s quality. And its myth, which still permeates the company offices in Memphis, Tennessee

Canada - Québec, eight dogs and a sledge

2008-08-20

Saguenay is rural Quebec´s heart of independence , a cold royaume, where in winter the thermometer drops to minus forty degrees and the snow covers everything. Ever done dog sledding? smiles Dirk when I arrive in Chicoutimi. It´ll be easy, wait and see. A couple of hours later and my six dogs are running like mad behind the sledge of David, the guide. They brush the edges of paths which resemble bob runs, passing under tree trunks bent over like arches by the snow, and, after having jumped a couple of ditches, we find ourselves on a flat, whitened table. It´s one of the many frozen lakes which can be found in this area: Study the map, you´ll see that we´re on the edge of nothing. The road ends here and for 3,000 km north, there´s not a living soul....

Yemen - 7th Commandment: thou shalt not steal (in God's garden)

2008-08-13

Like a garden of Eden or a land of Avila, Socotra is a hidden secret not to be gathered, with its trees of knowledge and life, unique species which here have mythical names such as Dragon's Blood or Desert Rose. Socotra is a botanical jewel south of Yemen, isolated for thousands of years in the middle of the Indian Ocean, whose powerful monsoons makes it inaccessible for six months a year. Virgin and unexplored, it is slowing opening up to tourism and investments from the Arab Emirates will soon arrive. For now, Yemen is doing its best to preserve its uniqueness: botanists on a recent international mission, for example, were subject to rigorous controls, in the fear that they could export the fabulous seeds of the Socotra plants along with the specimens. God's garden is here, and here it must remain!

Peru - Arequipa, the city of white tuff

2008-07-24

Manuel, 35, is down in the canyon breaking up rocks at 6 in the morning. Casimiro, 63, rolls up a wad of ash and coca and pops it into his mouth, in order to better support the fatigue. It's a job which is handed down from father to son explains the man. If all goes well, at the end of the day he will have earned 15 sol, a little more than 3 euros. Manuel, Casimiro and all the other miners excavate sillar from the volcanic quarries north of Arequipa, the spectacular white city in the south of the country, which owes its name to the colour of the tuffaceous rock which has shaped its churches and buildings. At an altitude of 2,000 meters, surrounded by volcanoes (such the famous El Misti), Arequipa has often been destroyed by earthquakes and eruptions, but has always risen again from the ashes. Thanks to the white stone in its mines

Afghanistan - Mozart vs. Taliban

2008-07-20

A little while ago, the Afghan National Institute of Music opened in Kabul, in a half-destroyed building which is currently being restored. Its founder, Ahmad Sarmast, a famous Afghan musician (and son of the national anthem's composer) returned from exile in Australia with the precise intention to make his ambitious initiative come to life, backed by the government and the World Bank: to create a school which will shape a new generation of Afghan musicians, who no longer exist, ever since the Taliban wiped them out or sent them fleeing. Many of the students are street children who Sarmast has saved from a life of beggary and taken out of orphanages. Giving them a future in music, he says, means giving a glimmer of hope to the country.

Afghanistan - Misplaced paradise

2008-07-20

Band-e-Amir is a mountainous region 170 km west of Kabul and about 50 km west of the Bamyan valley, where the colossal Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban mortars in 2001 could be found. Here, a series of natural travertine dams have given origin to crystal-blue lakes, creating one of the country's most spectacular landscapes. Since the fall of the Taliban, Band-e-Amir is one of the most popular weekend retreats for the few Afghans who can afford the uncomfortable and costly ride from the capital. And, as from May 2009, it's officially become the first Afghan national park. A paradise which, unfortunately, is still surrounded by hell.

Italy - The long voyage of the glass beads

2008-07-18

The Venetian glass production has roots in antique traditions tied to roman glass production. In 1764 the Muranese glass production produced 19.00 kgs. Of beads a week, almost exclusively reserved for exportation, in particular to the African market where the glass beads became an important merchandise of exchange which many African populations used as a currency. Every factory had its own antique recipes which constituted the cultural patrimony of the glass works, where the secret of the mixes to obtain coloured transparent and opaque glass were jealously guarded. Recipes which even today are still securely conserved and utilized by today´s master glass makers, to render their glass unique and inimitable

Afghanistan - The Last Kabul Jew

2008-07-17

His name is Zabolon Simantov. He lives in poverty in a two-roomed flat not far from Chicken Street, with its antiques shops. Every week he turns on the lights of the synagogue next door: its a ritual he wants to keep alive, even if in vain, because there are no more Jews in Kabul for whom to conduct the Shabbat service. Simantov is the last remaining Jew in Kabul, and probably the whole of Afghanistan too. He mourns for the Najibullah era, when the Jewish community was welcome in the country. Miraculously, he has survived the Taliban and has never given in to the temptation to emigrate to Israel: Here I was born he says and here I want to die.

Peru - Natural Style

2008-07-11

Forget Cusco, the buses packed with tourists and multicoloured markets. Instead, the heart of Peru is a green universe, silent, made up of unexplored jungles, isolated villages, meandering rivers, imposing volcanoes and stunning agricultural plateaus. Peru boasts 8 national parks, 11 reserved zones, 8 protected reserves, 6 natural sanctuaries and 10 national forests. About 10% of the state-controlled territory is today safeguarded. A wealth which makes Peru one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world. Equatorial forests, coastal deserts, semi-Antarctic islands, mountain lakes, steppes and savannahs make up no less than 84 different ecosystems. A record, considering that those classified on our planet at the present time are only 104. A world to be explored on foot, with a 4x4, by boat or on a mule. For a journey, natural style

Iran - On the shopping island, where Iran has fun

2008-07-01

Kish is a flat island twenty kilometres from Iran. It has five mosques, a hospital and a prestigious university. But these numbers don't convey the full picture. Kish and the nearby Qeshm are the two pearls of the Persian Gulf, and for the Iranians they represent what Hawaii is for the Americans or Sardinia for the Italians. A paradise just a stone's throw away from home, offering white beaches and a clean sea all year round. With a difference: Kish is a free trade zone. A huge duty-free where everything costs less; where one can pay indifferently in euros, dollars, rial or dirham. And where anyone can get in without a visa, obtaining a two week permit on-the-spot. Kish is a laboratory for the new Iran to come; a moral free trade zone where the veils worn are less heavy than in Teheran and shopping borders on western excesses

Tuvalu - Welcome to Atlantis

2008-06-17

Tuvalu: nine atolls, 26 square kilometres, 11,000 inhabitants. The fourth smallest state in the world, lost in the middle of the Pacific, almost on top of the date line. In 2050, according to the UN report on climatic change, it will have completely disappeared, engulfed by the ocean, whose level is relentlessly rising due to global warming: and the Tuvaluans, suddenly frightened by the sea on whose shores they have always lived and in the desperate search for a new homeland, will become the first climatic refugees in history

Nigeria - The black Hollywood

2008-06-01

In Nigeria, the cinema is an industry worthy of the highest respect, not least for the fact that it lies in fourth place in the economy of the world´s eighth largest oil exporter. Some figures: about two thousand films produced each year, two hundred million DVDs sold in Africa, Europe and America, twenty thousand actors, a turnover estimated by defect of half a billion euros. And a name: Nollywood. After Hollywood and Bollywood, it´s the third largest film colossus in the world, specialised in impossible love stories, the gangster genre, and a touch of neorealism. There´s also the night of the stars, the unmissable, self-congratulatory moment of a money machine which produces ten percent of the country´s gross domestic product

Peru - Iquitos on the verge of a nervous breakdown

2008-05-29

Iquitos is the capital of the Loreto region, in the Peruvian Amazon, and is considered unanimously to be the noisiest, most chaotic and unbearable city in the country. The reason for this record is a diabolical machine known as the motokar. It's just a simple three-wheeled motor-taxi, but what makes it lethal is its numbers: in Iquitos, a city of 300 thousand inhabitants, there are more than thirty thousand motor-taxis in circulation. In 2008, not knowing what other measures to take against the din, the municipal committee of Iquitos turned to the children: high school children were asked to paint murals regarding this theme on the house façades. The result is a city covered with bewildered, suffering faces, hands covering ears, mouths twisted into a shout of: Enough!

Iran - Zurkaneh, holy wrestling

2008-05-29

The Zurkhaneh, a typical Iranian discipline, is a sport, but also a dance, a public display of physical ability and a collective religious rite, born with the cult of Mitra and today revisited in favour of Shiite Islam. The athletes respond to the master's exhortations, who beats time with a drum and recites verses from the Koran. Moving in time to the rhythm, the men launch themselves into wild pirouettes. Next, they grab the large wooden clubs, throwing them up into the air and catching them as they fall. The drumbeat changes, it becomes faster, and the men dance, swinging the heavy chains. The spectators don't pay to watch. Everything is for our own benefit say those who practice the Zurkhaneh, and that of God.

Jordan - A river in pain

2008-05-29

The most sacred river in the world is in danger: throttled by dams which draw from its bed in Syrian and Israeli territory, downstream from Lake Tiberias, the Jordan, which marks the border between Israel and the Kingdom of Jordan, is a pathetic muddy trickle, the waters heavily polluted by sewerage and industrial systems. Yet, along its entire course down to the Dead Sea (also in danger of drying up), it's the main water source for the Jordanian farmers, as well as a place of pilgrimage for Christians the world over, who come to Bethany, Christ's baptism site, unaware that they are immersing themselves in a river which is filthier than the Ganges.

Australia - Along the Murray River, Australia's Mississippi

2008-05-25

The Murray is the greatest Australian river, rising from the Snowy Mountains and flowing for 2,600 kilometres down to Adelaid. But it's not just a mere watercourse: in these regions, in a dry land unlike few others in the world, the Murray represents life. For years it was the continent's only highway: when Mark Twain visited it at the end of the nineteenth century, the American writer compared it with "his" Mississippi, struck by the number of paddle steamers navigating in its waters. A world made up of sabotages, ruthless competition and great riches which was the fortune of river ports such as Echuca, Wentworth and Mildura. Today the barges no longer transport vegetables, wool bales and lumber, yet they are still visible: carrying tourists who want to relive the adventure of navigating the river which made Australia.

Yemen - 13 Women against Al-Qaeda

2008-05-22

In Yemen, thirteen veiled women, dangerous and armed to the teeth, have chosen a life of battles. The enemies are two, terrorism and prejudice, the weapons to combat them, different: for the first, an assault light machine gun, for the second, to exist is enough. For the Yemeni society, chronically chauvinist, the thirteen women (or rather, girls: they are no older than twenty) in question are the equivalent of a revolution or, depending on one's point of view, a disgrace: they form part of the special police antiterrorism squad, one of the country's most prestigious military corps, and they don't have any intention of leaving.

Jordan - Eco adventures

2008-05-21

The most peaceful and restrained of all middle eastern countries is at a marketing crossroads. Should it just be famous for its beautiful queen, Dead Sea salts and the popular city of Petra, or should it carve out a new eco-chic market for the community of globe-trotting travellers? In terms of environmental resources, Jordan is one of the richest countries in the neighbouring east, and is characterised by a unique biodiversity: in just a few kilometres one passes from the desert to mountain oases, from coral reefs to canyons, from the northern wetlands overflowing with bird life, up to the Alpine habitats in the west-central regions. The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, in collaboration with the government, has the duty to protect these extraordinary natural habitats scattered between Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

El Salvador - La Ruta de la Paz

2008-05-20

Transmitiendo desde algun lugar remoto de El Salvador, esta es Radio Venceremos, la voz del pueblo para todo el pueblo.This is how the guerillas forming part of the Farabundo Martì National Liberation Front (FMLN), who from 1981 to 1992 fought against the extreme right wing Salvadorian regime, began their radio transmissions. Today we have returned to visit the locations which were the settings for some of the most shocking and appalling war actions, such as the slaughter of 800 civilians and 400 children in the village of El Mozote, carried out by special army units trained by the Americans. We return to tread an imaginary Ruta de la Paz (Road of Peace) to discover a country which is slowly trying to forget its darkest years in order to start living again and display its cultural and naturalistic wonders.

Poland - The Free City´ of Danzig

2008-05-08

Danzig appears to be a city of tragic fate. An important Baltic port since the 16th century, the city was the setting for some of the most important events which occurred during the 20th century. Contested by Germans and Poles, the city was declared Free City after the First World War, and placed under the control of the League of Nations. In 1939 its occupation by the Nazis marked the start of the Second World War. At the end of the war, all that remained was a heap of rubble and its inhabitants began reconstructing the ancient Medieval houses one by one. In 1980, the struggles by the Solidarność movement in the Lenin shipyards led to the collapse of the entire Communist block.

Brazil - Salaam Brazil

2008-05-07

In the Tres Fronteras region between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, the lingua franca is Arabic: on both sides of the Paraná and Iguazú rivers, which define the boundary between the three countries and which host a flourishing smuggling trade, live tens of thousands of Lebanese Shiites, Sunnites and Christians. The majority of them are traders and they exploit the Paraguayan free port of Ciudad del Este for their businesses. But some of them, according to the authorities, finance Al Qaeda, or, in some cases, are active members of international Islamic terrorism, who, aided by police corruption and the frontier´s penetrability, here have found a quiet corner where to plan their activities

D/La Repubblica - Cape Town voices

2008-04-30

Italy - Apulia, rediscovering the rupestrian churches

2008-04-30

It´s midnight in Ginosa and the congregation of confraternity members is preparing a torchlight procession towards the Mother church. Tonight there´s the vigil of the patronal festival, an appointment not to be missed, which fills the city with lights and stalls. The real protagonist is the church, splendid with her geometric facade overlooking a craggy ravine, abounding in ancient presences, places of worship carved into the rock which go back into the mists of time. Southern Apulia teems with such locations and these marvels are worthy of a tourist revival. Many of the rupestrian churches are embellished with well preserved frescos which probably date back more than a thousand years, to the era of Byzantine domination, when Basilian monks fleeing from Cappadocia. But there are those who maintain that the phenomenon goes back further.

Dominican Republic - Santo Domingo´s black soul

2008-04-28

Everyone considers Santo Domingo one of the most popular Caribbean all-inclusive holiday village locations. But Santo Domingo is more than this. Within its boundaries there is an extremely active Haitian community, a slice of Africa in the Caribbean. The Dominican Republic Haitians carry out all the most strenuous and worst paid jobs: from cane sugar cutters, to salt collectors, from miners to prostitutes. They´ve also brought traditions and beliefs into this country, such as voudou and witchcraft, imported directly from the African slaves and transformed into different forms of syncretism.

Cuba - Revolution 2.0

2008-04-27

In the year of the revolution´s fiftieth anniversary, Fidel has left the limelight and winds of change are blowing throughout the island. His brother Raul has taken over and immediately popular technology has become legal all over the country. People in Havana are queuing up to buy mobile phones, microwave ovens or DVD players. Computers and LCD televisions are appearing inside shopping malls alongside electric bicycles and modern washing machines. There´s less fear to show the money inside socialist pockets. Fashion shows and rock concerts are being held, there´s better food on the tables and benefits allowed if one works for a foreign company, while Obama and the Usa are completely re-thinkng their policy on Cuba.

Brazil - Florianopolis, Eurobeach

2008-04-21

Florianopolis, state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. Or, better still, Europe: this is the first impression that the city and the beaches which surround it, give to those who arrive here. Santa Catarina, colonized as from the start of the XIX century by waves of Italians, Azoreans and Germans, is the most European state in the federation, both in its exterior appearance and in its inhabitants´ way of life. As for the Brazilians, incurable pro-Europeans, the sea around the island upon which Florianopolis rises, is the chichiest holiday destination.

Peru - Ayahuasca: a hallucination will cure you

2008-04-07

Pisaq, Peru. Twenty American citizens arrive in this isolated locality in the sacred Valley of the Incas, ready to take, under the supervision of a shaman, that which is universally considered to be a drug. It´s name is ayahuasca, an Amazonian root which is used for the preparation of a strongly hallucinogenic decoction, which promises (and in fact produces) a profound psychological experience: a couple of hours of self-awareness which many agree is the equivalent of ten years of psychoanalysis concentrated in one night. Amongst these Americans, enticed here by skilful marketing which is turning ayahuasca into an international business, there aren´t only old beat generation groupies, but also doctors and scientists, convinced that the root´s active principles can cure drug addictions and numerous psychopathologies.

Tunisia - Tunis : old postcards from the medina

2008-04-04

Tunis is one of the most modern and European cities in Africa, but its core reveals inevitable contrasts. Its medina, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is undergoing important restoration works to restore the old palaces to their former splendour. But in the more working-class area, a couple of hundred metres from the roads trodden by groups of tourists in search of free exoticism, survives a world made up of markets, small cafes, old hammamat, artisans and sordid brothels. A world which refuses to conform with the globalization which is invading the whole planet. The photos in this reportage have been taken today, but, if we eliminate just a few details, they could have been taken many years ago.

Mali - Living inside a mud sculpture

2008-04-01

In the basins of the Niger river and lake Chad, today known as Sahel, we can find a wide diffusion of bancò (raw clay) houses with particularly refined shapes. Even religious and social buildings such as mosques, or saho (common houses where the youths Bozo live) are made from mud, notwithstanding their imposing dimensions. Further south, other peoples build houses with anthropomorphic shapes, such as the Kasena and Lobi, who live between Burkina Faso and Ghana, whilst the Somba/Tamberma, who live between Benin and Togo, construct fortified houses like Medieval castles, all rigorously made from mud. Even in Mauritania, the city of Oulata, and the region populated by the Soninkè, abound in mud houses decorated with geometric designs tied to the Islam. At the moment UNESCO is taking care of the restoration of some architectures.

D/La Repubblica - Peru: Amazonas.com

2008-03-31

Eritrea - Meskel, the bonfire of plenty

2008-03-28

Do you know that Christianity arrived in Eritrea by chance? explains father Abraha as he watches the Meskel parade. It disembarked with a group of Syrian merchants who were shipwrecked along the coast of the Red Sea on their way back from India. Today, at least half of the inhabitants in Eritrea profess to be Christians, Coptic-Orthodox for the most part. The festivals falls in mid September: the Meskel, during which the retrieval of Christ´s cross by Saint Helen, mother of Constantine I, in the Holy Lands is celebrated. According to legend, it was the smoke from a bonfire which indicated where the remains of the cross were buried. The same bonfire which today, in Asmara will reveal the future of the country if the pyre falls eastwards.

Indonesia - Dancing amongst Javanese volcanoes

2008-03-27

They call it Kejawen, the religious mix which in Indonesia has merged together Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and ancient local beliefs. The island of Java as vast as Greece, 130 million inhabitants dominates the archipelago from all view points: political, economic, social. However, especially in the central area, amongst paddy fields at sunset, majestic temples and the royal baths of the Javanese kings, the tofu producers of Sawahan and the villages where dancers perform to the rhythm of the gamelan orchestras, Java still has wild corners, traditional, of rare beauty. Where the unpredictable gumung api, the volcanoes, which bring destruction, but also life (the ashes make this terrain one of the most fertile on earth), are tied to spiritual divinities. To be honoured periodically with dances, prayers and offerings, even money.

Libya - Ghadames, invisible oasis

2008-03-26

Finally, 600 kilometres south of Tripoli, appears Ghadames, one of the best preserved Saharan cities. 45 thousand palm trees, a profile marked by varying levels of flat roofs, ochre coloured walls embellished with swallow-tailed merlons (against the evil eye) and cloud-white minarets. The hypogeous oasis is still extraordinarily intact. A homogeneous accumulation of mud and lime brick buildings with palm tree beams, the result of centuries of additions and modifications, always following traditional models and plans, essential, harmonious and coherent. Since the city develops nearly entirely under cover, to defend itself from the heat and wind, it´s also a perfect example of natural bio-insulation. That's why Italo Balbo, used to fly there for the weekends on his three-engined Savoia Marchetti airplane.
(Text by Renato Scagliola)

Niger - The narcissists of the savannah

2008-03-14

For the nomad Woodabe cattle-herders who live in the torrid expanses of the Niger Sahel, there are only two important things in life. The cow, real object of devotion (and nourishment), and beauty. Each year, between September and October, when the Sahel grasslands permit the assemblage of a large number of herds, the young cattle-herders, who for the rest of the year wander with the bovines in the search for a tuft of grass, know it´s time to meet for the Gerewol, a festival where the girls dress-up, and parade in songs and dances with slow and sinuous rhythms. It´s a fleeting moment, to be at one´s best in order to win the heart of the girls, who will choose the handsomest man in the festival.

Italy - Volterra, no way out

2008-03-12

Tuscany, Volterra: a maximum security State prison inside a 13th century fortress, where Count Ugolino, mentioned by Dante in the Divine Comedy, served his sentence. Today it hosts 140 prisoners, many mass murderers, none with a sentence of less than twenty years: many of them pass part of their hour´s recreation in the gym or in the ancient courtyard fitted out for body building. They do it to keep fit, to have the advantage in a possible fight. And mostly, so as not to go crazy.

Eritrea - Return to little Rome

2008-03-11

Asmara is a seventy year´s jump back in time. In the Italy of Odeon cinemas and beveled mirrors, of Tagliero garages and pensioners in colonial straw hats enjoying an ice-cream at the small tables of the bar Impero. The Italians transformed a small shepherds village at an altitude of 2347 meters into that which was to become Little Rome. Today, Asmara should be seen from above. One can see the Catholic cathedral, the Coptic one, then, to the east, the Jewish synagogue and right behind it the large mosque built by the Italians. Because here the Christians are in the majority, but all the major religions are represented and respected. There was a mayor once, after the liberation, who loved exclaiming Friday I pray in the mosque, Saturday in the synagogue and Sunday in church. One God is bound to help me sooner or later..

Italy - Cheers, Oltrepo Pavese

2008-03-10

Uncork a bottle of Barbacarlo wine and raise a glass to the sky. It´s the best way to explore the Oltrepo Pavese, perhaps on the steps of the sports journalist and Italian writer, Gianni Brera. Explore the Oltrepo, glass after glass, tavern after tavern, tableful after tableful (of friends). Brera was born on the left bank of the Po, in San Zenone, and from Milan he enjoyed returning frequently to visit this fertile, genuine land, a damp corner of Lombardy wedged between Piedmont and Emilia. He also returned to visit his friends, such as the legendary Lino Maga, the only person to produce the real Barbacarlo, a frothy wine obtained from a few vines amongst the Broni hills. Or Mario Musoni, the king of the risottos as he used to call him, the chef who was elected the best cook in Lombardy during the The Thursday Club evenings.

Eritrea - Save Massawa

2008-03-06

With easy mooring, Massawa is without a doubt the loveliest port on the Red Sea noted the Italian delegate, Ferdinando Martini, in 1896. Massawa is the other side of Christian Eritrea, a city, which with its arches, its arabesques, its labyrinth of narrow alleyways, looks towards the Islamic East. Of course, violated by bombings, Massawa is no longer the pearl of the Red Sea, the largest port along the east coast of Africa. Once, the most important commercial routes passed through here, and this is the reason why Arabs, Turks, Portuguese, and then French, English and Italians fought for this location. Today some progress is being made, travellers are returning to walk these dusty streets and a few entrepreneurs are starting to invest money here. But more is needed: the old city is falling apart and nobody is doing anything to help.

Israel - Sixty years of solitude

2008-03-06

Israel turns sixty: an age which urges human beings to take stock of their life, and which is usually the prelude for a period of serenity. But not in the case of this Middle Eastern State: just like the day after its birth in 1948, Israel still feels isolated and under siege, in a condition which is anything but peaceful. And it suffers (or perhaps in some way benefits) from the vast contrast between the ultra-Orthodox side of society, unerringly tied to religious traditions, and the more lay and progressive side, for whom the Shabbat isn´t the sacred day for resting and praying, but an excellent opportunity to try out a new surfboard.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Malawi - The warm heart of AIDS

2008-02-28

The warm heart of Africa cite the brochures. Yet Malawi is also one of the poorest countries in the world and has been associated for 20 years with the worst acronym of the new millennium, AIDS. During the British protectorate there were two hospitals in the capital, Lilongwe, one for the whites and one for the blacks. The white hospital, the Livingstone, was on the top of a flowered hill. The black hospital, called Bottom, was only a step away from a stagnant river. Here, they´re still hitting rock bottom: in 19th century buildings which are falling to bits, no medicines and just enough staff, can be found the unfortunate maternity ward. Why unfortunate? Because in Malawi, 15% of the women who give birth are HIV positive. And the transmission of the virus from mother to child represents 30% of all the new cases of HIV in the country.

Lithuania - Vilnius, the Uzupis Republic

2008-02-28

The Republic of Uzupis is one of a kind artistic enclave, with peculiar ideas and specific cultural projects. A proper Art Inkubator, as today is usually remarked. Until yesterday it was no more than a political paradox located in the heart of Vilnius. A brilliant idea, socially helpful, which tried to transform a degraded area, enclosed by the small Vilnia river bends, into an ideal micro-state linked to the rest of the world by seven bridges only. Uzupis was a weird idea born as a joke on april the first in the year 2000, conceived to conquer again the soul of the area, turning that ugly world into a creative place where life can be taken easy and where bohemien dreams can be lived freely.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Indonesia - Sumba, in the island of the spirits

2008-02-27

As vast as Corsica, 400 kilometres east of Bali, Sumba is not just one of the 18,000 islands which make up the Indonesian archipelago. It´s isolation has preserved all the best it has to offer: slow rhythms, a life based around agricultural cycles, virgin beaches and ancient megalithic tombs. And, above all, one of the most fascinating and mysterious cultures in the whole of Indonesia. Here, there are still bloody clashes between tribes for a question of honour, and all carry a parang, the sharp bladed knife. But that which is of primary importance in Sumba officially ninety percent Christian is the veneration of the dead, whose tombs rise up in the middle of the villages: according to the animist Marapu cult, it´s the ancestors who protect the living in this life, and only a worthy funeral can make their spirit ascend into the sky.

Palestine - A day in the life of the West Bank

2008-02-21

Driving from Ramallah to Nablus a continual alternation of Palestinian villages and settlements of Jewish colonists is like covering a chessboard, not as a king, but as a simple pawn, knowing that you can´t step on other squares, only those of your colour, and that in no case is it permitted to cross the borders. The wall built by Israel, as high as a three storey building, has condemned an entire nation to an open-ended imprisonment, without a trial and with the collective charge of terrorism. The Palestinians aren´t in a cell, they´ve just been enclosed in a large yard, a sort of lifetime hours´ recreation: in whatever direction they walk, sooner or later they´ll come up against the wall. Provided they get there: before, there´s an Israeli army checkpoint, and no certainty to pass beyond it. Yet, life goes on.

Chile - Santiago boom boom

2008-02-19

When Pedro de Valdivia founded it in 1541, he drew inspiration from the frontier. From that Santiago de Compostela which was the furthermost territory before an unexplored ocean. Thus, Santiago de Chile was born, then a humble village in a valley at the foot of the Andes, today a huge city and Latin America´s real financial capital, where the most powerful multinationals on earth have decided to locate their South American bases. Here, in Greater Santiago, which also includes Valparaiso and Concepción, lives one Chilean in three. Nevertheless, the city is liveable, elegant, with its crowded but dynamic Paseo Ahumada, full of parks and museums, yet refined, with Liberty houses and colonial residences. Such as the Palacio de la Moneda, where the old mint was located and where President Allende tried to hold back Pinochet´s army.

Yemen - Ex Arabia felix

2008-02-19

Ancient Arabia Felix, called thus by the Romans, is today a country with practically no vegetation, underdeveloped and strictly tied to Islamic law, where, away from the large cities, every self-respecting man carries a light machinegun slung over his shoulders. The only remains of Arabia Felix are imposing and crumbling vestiges, which the Unesco interventions have saved, but often defaced. And, unique to the Islamic world, the tradition of dedicating at least three hours a day to chewing qat: a local drug, which, considered sinful by the more Orthodox Islamic fringe groups, has up to now prevented the Yemen forming part of the Arab League.

Africa - Botswana & Zambia

2008-02-18

Two perfect countries for a safari, where savannahs and alluvial plains, parks and nature reserves, luxury lodges and five star service become the African universe par excellence. Zambia and Botswana have infinite and exclusive itineraries, a far cry from the mass stereotype safaris of Kenya and Tanzania. Between the Kalahari Desert and the Chobe River, for example, there are thousands of square kilometres of nothingness where it's easy to meet communities of bushmen or migratory paths, sensational panoramas and atmospheres of ancient Africa. In Botswana, water safaris are organized on the innumerable canals which form the Okawango Delta, teeming with elephants, hippos, antelope, lions, gazelle and countless bird species. Walking safaris and luxurious bush camps, on the other hand, are very popular in Zambian national parks.

Australia - Waltzing Matilda

2008-02-18

Waltzing Matilda is a popular Australian song, a sort of second national anthem. It tells the story of a swagman who steals a sheep and, to escape from the police, drowns in a billabong, one of the many small isolated lakes in the Australian outback which are the remnants of a dry river. The Australian swagmen were roving workers, mainly sheep shearers, who travelled by foot for the most part, carrying a swag with them, a rolled-up blanket containing all their possessions, slung over their shoulders like a rifle. Today it simply means to travel around the outback with a sleeping bag and an off-road vehicle, on a walk about and along personal songlines. A universe of adventures and dreams in the heart of Down Under.

Mexico - Maya on the road

2008-02-16

Dust, archaeology, sea and forests. On the roads of Northern Mexico one goes far in time, following the traces of the Maya. From Merida to Palenque, from Uxmal to Xpujil, one lives on the road across the Chiapas region, Quintana Roo, Riviera Maya and the Yucatan peninsula. The Caribbean Sea is never far away: but with a little common sense one can ignore the hundreds of all-inclusive resorts which invade the coast and discover a world made up of silences, jungles, extraordinary ruins, villages, islands, agaves, cacti and biospheres. All you need are 4 wheels, a map and a good history book. A jump in the cenotes, a swim in Punta Allen, a tour of Chiapas and a night under the stars of Tulum sounds pretty good

Chile - The Atacama festival

2008-02-14

It takes place at summer´s end, when the heat is bearable and the pilgrims follow ancient desert paths at an altitude of 3,000 metres. All are headed for Ayquina, an Andean village along the Rio Caspana valley, which attracts hundreds of believers with its festival dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. Here, people pray, eat and dance in the streets before the start of the processions which mix Andean outfits with costumes inspired by the conquistadores. Just to participate in the celebrations, the locals leave their Andean homes, and walk for days through the driest region on Earth. We´re in the heart of the Atacama Desert, Northern Chile, amongst barren lands, geysers at over 4,000 meters and salt lakes populated by pink flamingos: in some parts of this inferno it hasn´t rained since the Spanish invasion took place five centuries ago.

Africa - Flying safari

2008-02-14

Welcome to the austral hemisphere, an aeronautical paradise where the moon hangs upside down, the skies have no limits and airplanes are used instead of taxis. Flying over Africa is marvellous. One circles in-and-out of boundless spaces, clouds and lights, hedgehopping over golden savannahs, clayey lands and herds of stampeding buffalo. The Cessna becomes a Land Rover with wings, a magical bus, a sky-bike upon which to race without stopping amongst the wind and the geological eras. The plane shortens distances and permits inaccessible locations to be reached in every season. However, in particular, it reveals a new, spectacular dimension, mapped out by natural geometries which would otherwise be invisible. Rivers become snakes of infinite lights, the guiding paths seem unnatural and the geographical references become perfect.

Cuba - Fishermen and dancers

2008-02-12

There are those who hope that Fidel Castro will soon lose control of Cuba, and those instead who wish him a long life. Political questions aside, under the ideological veneer lies a beautiful and vibrant island which every day hobbles along as best it can. A pleasant, enchanting people to be discovered, starting off perhaps from one of the most ancient cities born in the New World: Havana. A population of fishermen who pass the mornings on the Malençon, of dancers who perform at the Tropicana every evening, of young and old people who crowd the Habana Vieja. A population of students, of farmers met along a country road, of children who play baseball in the street and well dressed girls who happily celebrate their entrance into society.

Czech Republic - Prague

2008-02-12

Forget Kafka, autumnal mists and ideas on post-communism. This is all old stuff. The most westernised amongst all the cities from the ex-Soviet bloc has now become one of the liveliest and modern European metropolises. Prague is hyper-cosmopolitan: avant-garde designers, ethnic-chic restaurants, models, tourists from all over. For a trendy long weekend with a 19th century air, explore the emerging districts full of clubs, such as the Zizkov area, or walk up to Petrin Hill to survey the roofs of the Old City. Go shopping in the old boutiques in the Jewish quarter which have recently been refurbished, drink a surrealist coffee inside the Czech Cubism Museum, discover the breweries in the Old City and stay in the newly opened Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which even boasts one of the country's best spas

Africa - Flying above the Sahara

2008-02-11

An aerial ride over the most beautiful regions of the Sahara. A flying meridian travelled from south to north along routes of sand and wind. Geographic splendours, from Mali to Egypt, across five thousand kilometres of dust, sand, rivers, acrobatic agriculture, archaeology, ghosts towns, volcanoes, geological patrimonies and spectacular nature. From Bamako to Timbuctoo along the Niger and its internal delta. Next, southern Algeria with the wonders of the Assekrem and the Tadrart: dunes, lava, striking wadis and mutable orography. The Libyan Acacus and the circular Messak cultivations precede the grandeur of the Erg Murzuq, one of the most incredible dune clusters on Earth. We can then find the Waw en Namus volcano and the nothingness of the Libyan-Egyptian border. Finally, the Mediterranean, the beaches of Marsa Matrouh and Alexandria´s

Malawi - The land of great water

2008-02-10

Since the 17th century, explorers had been talking about a huge lake in central Africa, but no one had ever seen it. One of the first Westerners to arrive here in 1859, was a Scottish missionary, whose great passion was exploring the Black Continent: David Livingstone. But the banks of the Malawi Lake the 3rd largest in Africa, nearly as big as Lombardy have been inhabited by man for at least a hundred thousand years. Men, who today still live in harmony with their Nyasa, great water in the Chiyao language, living on its shores and catching the colourful cichlids using ancient traditional techniques: many of these fish are eaten, and just as many are destined for European aquariums where they are particularly appreciated. In fact, there are hundreds of species, and like a sort of aquatic Galapagos, they can only be found here.

Chile - Patagonia express

2008-02-10

The Chilean Alaska, with its fjords and glaciers appears suddenly south of Puerto Montt. It´s the harsh region of Aisén, the Chilean Patagonia´, once populated by the Chonos Indians and for many years forgotten by the Europeans: a desolate and arid land noted John Byron, grandfather of the more famous poet, which didn´t have a very benevolent aspect. The antithesis of the Argentine Patagonia: the flat, barren and steppe-like lands are substituted here by tall peaks and inlets where the icebergs of Campo de Hielo Norte offer unforgettable sights, and where the isolated communities (less than 100 thousand people live in the area) were founded in the past by pioneers. Travel connections are difficult and the Camino Austral wanted by Pinochet a road which should have joined Puerto Montt with Punta Arenas remains more or less a dream.

Libya - The forgotten Roman Empire

2008-02-10

The sea whitens towards the north-east, whilst the seagulls fly low over the colonnades and statues stacked in the agora. Capitals, bas-reliefs and cipolin marbles are illuminated one last time before the twilight and the sudden tempest. It´s a storm about the history of Rome, electric, ozonic, which produces surreal effects amongst the Greek-Roman architectonic splendours which surface, now and as at the time of the empire, on Libya´s beautiful soil. Leptis Magna, Sabratha, Apollonia, Cyrene, Ptolemais can be found along the Libyan coast between the Tunisian and Egyptian borders, and even today, they are legendary testimonials of the Great Empire. Epic vibrations are still transmitted from the beaches of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. They constitute a patrimony which is worthy of Pompeii, Athens and Rome itself. Open-air museums immersed in incomparable natural settings, just a step away from our peninsula.
(Texts by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Canada - British Columbia, the Great Rainforest Coast

2008-02-08

This part of British Columbia is a microcosm of mixed waters and evergreens, giant lichens, glaciers and continual rain. A lost nature, primordial, made up of crystal-clear skies, majestic mountains (snow-capped even in August), emerald lagoons and extremely deep fjords, to visit by boat, seaplane or, where possible, on foot. The forest is enchanting, not hospitable, but beautiful: at these latitudes it´s unthinkable to find such a dense and varied tangle. To walk through it is practically a tropical experience. Take an alpine wood, fill it with moss, orchids, enormous leaves and every sort of botanical oddity which comes to mind and stick in on the sea a few steps away from snow-covered peaks, waterfalls and Indian reservations.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

France - Gypsies, Roma and cowboys of the Camargue

2008-02-08

Before the rampages of the Barbary pirates on the coast that separates the Mediterranean from the Rhône delta, history and legends mixed up. Jesus had just been crucified when, in Palestine, a group of Christians and the mothers of two apostles, Mary Jacobe and Mary Salome, took a boat up to the shores of Provence. Each year since then, the 'Gardiens de Camargue' parade carrying the statue of the two Marys in procession. Later, the figure of Sarah the Black was placed alongside the legendary Marys, which has never been clarified by official historiography. The gypsies, call her 'Sarah-la-Kâli', the 'gypsy' or the 'black' and made her their patron saint. They began to arrive from all over Europe to the church of the Saintes Maries to take her in procession on the 24 th of May.
( Text by Bruno Zanzottera available upon request).

Mali - Cow is beautiful!

2008-02-07

You don´t deserve to die with the cow, you do not have any love for the cow, when it is cold, you lie by the fire; when there is milk, you drink six spoonfuls, we drink only one´ so goes a passage from the epic poem of Silâmaka, a sort of Peul Odyssey, in which one can find the behavioural model of the noble nomadic shepherd: knowledge of his livestock, symbiosis with them, environmental resistance and self-discipline. For each of them, the only imaginable good in life is the herd and to be able to walk proudly in front of the cows is one of the few important things which matters. During the annual transhumance, the Peul cross the fields of the internal Niger delta with hundreds of thousands of heads of cattle. These days are also marked by celebrations: festivals, weddings, trade agreements.
(Text by B.Zanzottera available)

World - Geocosmetics - Global beauty

2008-02-01

The naked body gets adorned by a drop of sweat, a pearl of dew, or, if you are Marilyn Monroe, by a puff of French perfume. At the ethnological level, the beauty of women and men is concerned with deformation: skin cuts, hairdos, tattoos, elongated heads, induced strabismus, giraffe necks, razored hair, wigs, masks, penis sheaths, lip plates, crippled feet. It´s global cosmetics, baby, in the whole world and into all bodies. Man is a bio-cultural being who models his body in order to clearly separate himself from a terrifying Nature. The human body is soaked with kinship nexuses, personality, social relationship...

(Text by Alberto Salza, anthropologist)

Mexico - Chipilo, polenta and venetian dialect

2008-01-31

Chipilo is a town with three thousand inhabitants, a few kilometres from Puebla, which resembles a corner of the Veneto transplanted in Mexico. In 1882, seventy families from Segusino, in the province of Treviso, departed from Genova by ship, the Atlantico, and disembarked in Mexico after a month. The government threw them into the worst territory, but in a few decades of work and sweat, they were able to transform the same land into the most fertile in the whole country. Here, today, at an altitude of over two thousand meters, they still play bowls, burn the Befana in January, eat polenta and minestrone with pancetta. They still use the same Venetian dialect spoken by those first immigrants, whom the natives called cuah´tatarame, the strong and sturdy giants´.

Venezuela - Aeronautical adventures

2008-01-29

Venezuela is a world of water, clouds, grassy plains, ancient rock and explosive scenery. It reveals a wonderful nature made up of deserts, meandering rivers, powerful deltas, rainforests, coral islands, geological feats and an extraordinary humanity. From north to south, one passes from the wild coasts of Caracas, which run for hundreds of kilometres in front of sandy peninsulas and prosperous archipelagos (Los Roques, Las Aves, Isla Tortuga and Isla Margarita), down to the central plains which lead to the Gran Sabana (the region of legendary mountains and tablelands, the tepuy) and finally to the Amazonian forest. From the Columbian border, the peaks of the Andean Cordillera, land of Indios and mountain civilizations, tower over the Caribbean Sea and the Orinoco Delta.

Australia - Flying over the West Coast

2008-01-29

A coast to coast amongst the clouds and Australian skies. That is, from Perth to Darwin on board a small, private airplane, to discover the wonders of the western coast of Australia from up high, thanks to an aeronautical adventure of five thousand kilometres. A flying safari which starts off in the extreme south of the continent and follows the whole coastline up to Darwin, just a stone´s throw from Indonesia. Under the wings of the twin-engined plane flow interminable beaches, intricate river deltas, amber cliffs, ancient meteoritic craters, deserted archipelagos and tiny Aboriginal communities surrounded by the nothingness of the outback.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Panama - In the capital of the Chinese speaking canal

2008-01-29

Panama is an incredible mix of races, and one can understand why by visiting the Panama Interoceanic Canal Museum. To build it, more than 70 thousand men arrived from 97 different countries, and their descendents never left. Opened in 1914, the Panama Canal is one of the greatest works of civil engineering, a bridge spanning across two worlds, the umbilical cord of the Americas. However, sitting on the stands of the Miraflores locks, one is struck by a peculiarity: many of the passing vessels are Chinese. They are the real masters of the canal explains a guide, the Chinese own the two Ocean ports. They were purchased by the Hong Kong based Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, the colossus belonging to Li Ka-shing, one of the ten richest men on earth.
(Text by Alessandro Gandolfi available upon request)

Panama - The many souls of America´s Switzerland

2008-01-29

Panama es mucho más que un canal..., cite the tourist brochures. The word, anama, in South American Indian, means abundance. Here we have everything that God needed to create Paradise wrote John Le Carré. In Central America, Panama has the highest middle-income per capita, whilst the skyscrapers of Punta Paitilla are evidence of its Yankee soul, devoted to profit and expenditure. Panama is the Switzerland of the Americas, but it doesn´t only have banks and a famous canal: it has volcanoes and equatorial forests, national parks and unique ethnic groups such as the Kuna, who live on the islands of the Sun Blas archipelago. And the Darién, on the southern border, called the plug: it´s such a wild and inhospitable place that the Pan-American Highway ends here, in a small town called Yaviza, dashing the dreams of a road which could unite Alaska with Patagonia.
(Text by Alessandro Gandolfi available upon request)

Egypt - Rommel's beaches

2008-01-29

The Mediterranean you weren´t expecting. A new Egyptian Riviera still in development which will become, according to the plans of the tourism investors, the alternative to the Red Sea, which is now passé and overcrowded. From Alexandria, in Egypt, up to the Libyan border, runs a sandy and semi-deserted coast 400 kilometres long, lapped by transparent, tepid waters. On the trail of our historical past, one can still hear the echoes of the Second World War. Rommel with his Panzers, Cleopatra and Julius Caesar´s love affairs, the bloody battles, the memorial sites and the new travel economy mix in and around Marsa Matruh, amongst solitary beaches, old lighthouses and lagoons swarming with Cairene families.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Kenya - Nairobi, art in arrival from the shanty towns

2008-01-25

Nairobi is a sprawling metropolis where some of the biggest and degraded shanty towns in the African continent can be found. However, amongst the shacks of these cities made of sheet metal, barbed wire and rubbish, some interesting artistic realities are developing. We can find painters, musicians, actors and other artists who are developing creative routes in difficult situations, were it´s much easier to turn into a criminal rather than an artist. Some are beginning to enjoy a certain fame in Kenya, whilst others are still unknown, but the important thing is the attempt to try to escape from the situation of utter squalor in which the inhabitants of these places live.
(Text by Claudio Agostoni disponible sobre pedido)

China - Red star, white houses

2008-01-25

In China, the era of the pagodas has ended: the latest architectural trend is inspired by a garish neoclassical style which exalts the new xenophilia of a nationalist people, but who want to live in a house decorated with Corinthian capitals and statues of Zeus. King of this trend is Li Qinfu (one of the 100 richest men in China) who has constructed a replica of the American Capitol on the outskirts of Shanghai for his textile manufacturing company. In Hangzhou, in the meantime, someone has decided to reconstruct a perfect, full-scale replica of the White House, exact in every detail, right down to the objects on the President´s desk, and to turn it into a theme park where tourists come to have themselves immortalised at the Oval Room desk.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Madagascar - African Sea

2008-01-23

The botry sail between the tortuous Madagascan coasts and the sandy landing-places of Nosy Be. Groups of men and women unload bunches of bananas, chickens, and all kinds of merchandise. It´s market day in Hell Ville. Three hours, with a favourable wind, are needed to reach the nearest port of Grand Terre. Sailing amongst the islands which surround Nosy Be, one risks an indigestion of beaches, coral reefs, rocks, groves and watery corners in which to enjoy a tropical swim without comparison. One minute it seems like you´re in the Maldives, next, the Seychelles.

Croatia - Dubrovnik Dreaming

2008-01-16

A city-state, fortified island, Mediterranean vision. Its stones sparkle brightly under the Croatian sky. After centuries of marine history, it´s now time for Dubrovnik to rest, having become one of the most popular international tourist locations. Seen out of season, perhaps at night, far away from the bustle of the restaurants and bars, its walls turn into surreal stages to be trodden under the light of the moon, with the red roofs as theatrical wings. Perfect forms, architectural stories to be studied from the sea and the surrounding hills. A real star, seen for once, with a special eye.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

United States - Las Vegas views

2008-01-10

A non-place above all others, the triumph of kitsch and reconstructed locations, the city of entertainment par excellence has now become a scaled-down Disneyland for families. One gambles, goes on wild shopping sprees, eats cheaply and is amazed by the special effects created to the sound of poker dollars. Photographic plates at 180°, for a capital of vice which has become sweeter, but ever more bright.

Mali - A journey to Fatima's hand

2008-01-07

The pilgrimage to the Hand of Fatima begins in November and ends in March. To reach the Main de Fatma, the most imposing granite spires in Africa, one must climb. It is a lay pilgrimage, silent, made up of long hours in buses and days passed on the rock faces. The Hand of Fatima: five sandstone fingers, smooth and compact, five pillars in the middle of a savannah whom all call the African Dolomites, in an area north of Mopti which resembles Monument Valley and which up until a decade ago couldn´t be entered. Fault of the rebel Tuareg, and the conflict which sees them opposed to half of the West African states. The last truce goes back to the autumn of ´99: since then, in the north of Mali, there is no more shooting. And the Aiguilles de Garmi (or Grami Tondo in the local dialect), with its 600 metres of cliffs, and which really does resemble a hand, attracts rock-climbers from the world over

Canada - On America's iced top

2008-01-07

The voyage across the Rocky Mountains follows the legendary 93, the Icefields Parkway, 230 kilometres which run over the frozen roof of America. Along this road, in the last three centuries, tales of men and exploits have intertwined, the sufferings of the natives and Hudson´s Bay´s dreams of commerce, the conquests of the railway and the birth of a pioneering tourism with a European feel. Here, today, straddled between Alberta and British Columbia, can be found some of the finest protected areas in Canada. The Jasper National Park, the variegated Kootenay, and the Yoho with its marine fossils: the proof that millions of years ago here there was a sea. But the oldest of all is the Banff National Park, where wolves and bears can avoid the automobiles, thanks to expensive bridges camouflaged as paths.

United States - The Berkshire art mill experiment

2008-01-07

'In North Adams, Massachusetts, in the heart of the Berkshires - say their web site - a former historic mill building known as the Eclipse Mill, with over 125,000 square feet of floor space, has been converted into forty artist live/work studio loft condominiums. These are large open space units with high ceilings where an artist can both live and work in the same space'. All these artists-residents (painters, writers, photographers, sculptors, illustrators, musicians, dancers, potters, weavers and filmmakers)escaped from big cities to refugee in Berkshire's hills, and all of them are now expected to contribute to a sense of community, and invited to participate wherever possible in artistic events held throughout each year.

Mali - Following the Niger river

2008-01-07

It´s one of the most spectacular festivals of Western Africa: the Niger herd crossing, a transhumance towards south, where ancient laws decide the entrance of the bovines into the water, the search for new, green pastures and the longed-for return of the Fulani herders who, isolated for months on the edge of the Sahara, return to the Niger each year with their herds, crossing the mighty river in the search for fresh grass. The crossing will take weeks and will involve other villages, but it´s in Diafarabé, a tiny village along the Niger banks, where, in December, the first cow will jump into the water and start the procession, and where the festival which welcomes the return of the young Fulani men to their women will begin.

United States - New England, Europe on the other side

2008-01-07

The United States was born in New England on a cold day in 1620, when a ship called the Mayflower docked at Cape Cod. On board were a couple of hundred wretches from England: they called themselves pilgrims, and were searching for a new Jerusalem and believed to have found it here. Four centuries later, New England a together of states in the north eastern corner of the country: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont is still the most European amongst all the American regions; the most enchanting during the autumn months, when the leaves turn to gold and the voyage becomes a homage to the hills of Vermont, the clippers on the Mystic, Boston with its merchants and intellectuals. But the real New England can be found on the New Hampshire car number plates: live free or die is their motto. Because this isn´t America they say it´s New England above all.

Cuba - Havana Pop

2008-01-07

A visionary city, defragmented in its urban character and structure. A non-place full of icons and secrets, lively and chaotic in its social and metropolitan weave. It´s an impossible feat to try to describe the Cuban capital. One has to start from a single family in order to discover the roots, the tribal structure, the mysterious adhesive which keeps the whole island united. In the moment of maximum transition, between Castro´s era and that which will happen straight after, Havana will be Cuba´s mirror, the navel of the world for the Cubans, who will probably face the most decisive year regarding their future. With the usual nonchalance: cigar in mouth and dreamy gaze.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Italy - Slovenia - Gorizia, the lost border

2008-01-07

Gorizia: a city halfway between Berlin and Athens, Madrid and Kiev. A city of borders and thresholds´, historically the meeting point of the three great European cultural and linguistic families: Latin, Germanic and Slavic. A meeting point which the city has retained, even if the 1947 peace treaty sliced it in two, creating a Slovenian sector (Nova Gorica) and an Italian one. A partition emphasized by a small wall, 50 centimetres high and dominated by a wrought-iron mesh fence, which fell last December with the entrance of Slovenia in the Schengen area. Up until the fall of the Berlin wall, on one side of the Gorizia wall there were the lights and the contradictions of the West, on the other, the shadows and the fears of real socialism. The symbolic location of this urban rift was the Transalpina, the Nova Gorica railway station, recognizable for its characteristic, early 20th century, secessionist style.
(Text by Claudio Agostoni available upon commission)

Perù - The Incas' Masters

2008-01-07

When the Spanish, led by Francisco Pizarro, conquered Peru in 1535, capturing the Inca emperor, Atahualpa, they didn´t even realize that they had destroyed a fully-developed civilization. The Incas however, were only the last to arrive in these territories. Their empire was formed around the 13th century and was preceded by many other kingdoms. Starting from the 17th century BC, the date that marks the birth of a historical epoch with the Chavin civilization, various populations, amongst which the Lambayeque, Moche, Chimù, reached an extremely high level of refinement from which the Incas, much coarser, but militarily evolved, took inspiration after having conquered them. Today, the archaeologists who work in the excavations in Northern Peru, are making ever more new discoveries regarding these ancestors who we could call the Incas´ masters.
(Text by Bruno Zanzottera available upon commission)

Nepal - The ancient kingdom of Lo

2008-01-07

It is obvious that we are on the boundary of one culture and that another is about to begin´. Thus wrote the expert on Tibetan culture, Giuseppe Tucci, as he left Nepal and entered Mustang. The Kingdom of Lo, as its inhabitants call it, is a portion of Himalayan territory at an altitude from 3,000 to 6,000 m amongst the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri mountain chains. A corner of Tibet where the monastic structure, as it was before the Chinese invasion, still survives. Its capital, Lo Manthang, can be reached only after several days walk, and, during the month of May, the Ti Ji is celebrated, the kingdom´s important religious ceremony, where the monks dance a long series of Cham (sacred dances) to represent the struggle between the god Palchen Dorje Chono and the demon, Tharpa Nagpo Rutha.
(Text by Bruno Zanzottera available upon commission)

Slovakia - Bratislava, eurozone, capital boom

2008-01-06

Bratislava didn´t even exist as a capital before the secession from the Czech Republic in 1993. Before low-cost flights, few considered the city as an holiday destination. But now, between foreign investments and ambitions for tourism. it dreams in style. From the Castle one can see the new urban structure. On the northern side, in the historic city centre, the old, aristocratic districts. On the other side, the buildings from the Soviet era seem to belong to lost communist world. But it´s only an impression: the river division is an illusion. Even on the poorer bank, new shopping centres, Multiplex cinemas and residential areas for the nouveau riche have sprung up, which are decentralising the wellbeing and interest from the overcrowded city centre.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Caribbeans - Grenadines, the wind archipelago

2007-12-19

Once they were epic sperm-whale hunters, unbeatable naval carpenters and, before still, pirates under the pay of Capt. Kidd, now the majority of the inhabitants of the smaller islands of the Windward arc live thanks to sailors from the world over, who from December to April flock to the stunning berths of St. Vincent, Bequia, Canouan, Union Island, Mustique, Mayreau, Grenada, St. Lucia, Martinique and the Tobago Cays, to explore the tranquil seas, enchanted lagoons and flourishing coral reefs. A paradise for all sailors, the archipelago has nearly 100 islands which make up the arc of the Lesser Antilles. Territory of whalers, ex English colony, theatre of legendary feats and battles, today these waters have been blessed by nautical tourism.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission).

Canada - Québec, artic safari

2007-12-19

An extraordinary journey with Huskies along the frozen mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, amongst six metres of snow, woods, timber refuges, ice hotels and subpolar surroundings. A race through the forests north of Quebec City, around the village of Saint David de Falardeau, not far from Lake Saint-Jean and the Saguenay fjord, as well as the Atlantic coasts of Eastern Canada covered by white cedars, firs, birches and pines. The dense undergrowth, where the dead pine needles on the ground form the sapin, a fragrant and insulating carpet, becomes a spectral universe, kingdom of reindeers, moose, stoats, otters, foxes, wild rabbits, wolves, beavers, caribou. Dogsledding is a tough passion. Forget getting behind a sled and enjoying the ride.

Romania - Bucharest, eastern endless nights

2007-12-19

An all-round portrait of the Romanian capital. After the entrance into Europe, the urban economy has radically changed. The upper middle classes have exploded, the nouveau-riche are on the rampage and the dozens of new hi-tech clubs, restaurants, discos and casinos are all the rage. The capital is one of the last places on earth where the borders which divide Stalinist heritage and capitalist opulence coexist in total harmony, at least on the surface. Trends are born and cultures metabolized. The result is a fun and contradictory chaos, full of surprises, unexpected enchantments and surreal beauty.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Mali - Muddying up the castle!

2007-12-12

The city of Djenné was for centuries one of the main cultural and commercial centres for the kingdoms which developed within the territory of Mali. Its huge mosque, made of banco (bricks of mud mixed with straw), is one of the most important buildings to be found in sacred Sudanese architecture. Razed to the ground in the 19th century by the puritanical fanaticism of Cheikh Amadou, head of a theocratic state opposed towards any kind of decorative element which could distract one from prayer, it was reconstructed in 1907. Each year, the building is covered with a new layer of mud to defend it from the rains which erode its walls. This is the occasion for a vast public ceremony which involves the whole city.
(Text by Bruno Zanzottera available upon commission)

United States - Montana, Sitting Bull's land

2007-12-11

He fought for the freedom of his people, and to defend them, fled to Canada, can be read on a granite marker in Plentywood, Montana. The inscription refers to Tatanka Iyontanke, better known as Sitting Bull, the great Sioux chief, who, after years of flight and exile, surrendered to the American army in the precise spot where the granite marker is found. It was the 16th of July, 1881. His odyssey was played out in a tight corner between Montana, North Dakota and Canadian Saskatchewan. The Americans still call it Sitting Bull´s land, a land of prairies and hills shaped by the withdrawing glaciers, broken up by the waters of the Missouri and whipped by a warm wind the Chinook which the Indians used to wait for in winter as a gift from the Great Spirit. A piece of Frontier which the pioneers at the end of the nineteenth century used to call the big sky.

United States - Lexington, like a battle in a film

2007-12-11

The sun still has to rise over Battle Green, yet hundreds of onlookers are lined up along the road. The photographers inside a barrier on the edge of a field, the re-enactors who are ready to enter on the scene, the police to make sure that everything runs smoothly. It´s not a Hollywood production, but it could be, considered the effort, the attention to detail, the passion of the actors who will shortly come into play. In the bucolic village of Lexington, in Massachusetts, a few kilometres from Boston, it´s the 19th of April, and like each year, the armed conflict of 1775 is commemorated re-enacted in the tiniest details. It´s not an ordinary battle, but the first battle of the American Revolution, fought by the rebel colonists against His Majesty´s British soldiers.

United States - The indian revenge comes from art

2007-12-06

Tammy is a Tafoya, she works in a huge shed behind her house and carves bronze pieces of the most mysterious beauty. Marcus is a Choctaw, and sitting on the sofa of his living room, he dedicates part of the day to the creation of armlets and bodices using the tiniest pearls. Diego, on the other hand, paints pottery, mixing old designs with postmodern life scenes. What do Tammy, Marcus and Diego have in common? To start, they all live near Santa Fe, in New Mexico. And their works of art, displayed in the most important American art galleries, are sold for tens of thousands of dollars. They are friends, some even went to the same schools, and by expertly merging Indian style with contemporary art, they have managed to create a truly artistic phenomenon. Which, on the one hand, turns to tradition and on the other, is decidedly business orientated.

Cuba - Que viva Harley!

2007-11-24

According to an unofficial census, there are about a hundred Harley-Davidson´s surviving in Cuba. From the day of the revolutionary triumph in 1959, they are prisoners on the island, left to their own devices and forced into a subsistence regime by the commercial embargo which doesn´t allow the importation of spare parts from the United States. They are looked after by a handful of enthusiasts - or maniacs, pioneers and nutcases as someone has called them who share the same destiny and who would willingly, and sometimes have, gone hungry, in order to keep their motorbike on the road. Amongst these is a very special figure: the eldest son of Ernesto Che Guevara.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Jordan - A history of stones

2007-11-24

The millenniums of Jordanian history speak to us through the stones: the biblical, water-eroded valleys which saw the passage of Moses during his wanderings towards the Promised Land, the necropolises of the Nabateans, the Roman propylaea, the castles of the Crusaders. Wherever you are, in the Middle Eastern country of the Hashemite dynasty, you will bump into a rock which has a story to tell.

China - Shenzhen, Deng Xiaoping's masterpiece

2007-11-24

In 1980, Shenzhen was a village with 20 thousand fishermen. It was then that Deng Xiaoping decided to transform it into an enclave based on the principles of the open market. Today, Shenzhen is a metropolis with 12 million inhabitants and an annual economic growth of 20%. However, in spite of the immense development, the city represents an exemplary urban model, not just in China, but in the rest of the world, to the point that the International Union of Architects awarded its city plan in 1999. For the future, the municipal party committee wants to further transform Shenzhen into a modern high-tech logistic centre and a high profile cultural-ecological city. This is what´s happening.

China - Yunnan, the Disneyland of the ethnic groups

2007-11-24

It´s the Chinese province where the majority of the country´s ethnic and tribal minorities are concentrated, 26. The territory extends from the snowy northern mountains to the border with Tibet (today renamed Shangri-La), to the central valleys where the Yangtze river curves into its first meander and where, in the medieval stone villages, the matriarchy of the Naxi women still survives, to the palm forests of the south, on the border with Laos and Burma. Peking has decided to exploit this ethnic and naturalistic patrimony in order to turn it into a sort of amusement park for the use and consumption of domestic tourism, with surprising and sometimes questionable results.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

India - Mumbai, Indian Vespa

2007-11-24

The Vespa has been, and continues to be in some way, the motor of economic development in India. In the Seventies, Piaggio, the patentee, handed over the production lines of the illustrious scooter, protagonist of la dolce vita, to a Bombay company, and the Vespa found a new lease of life in the Indian subcontinent, where it became the most popular scooter. Here it is today, more fashionable than ever, in the streets of the country´s economic capital, renamed Mumbai in the meanwhile.

Italy - Sardinia, Shepherds´ wrestling

2007-11-15

In Barbagia, in the wild heart of Sardinia, survives an ancient millenary tradition. Its name is S´istrumpa, a sport which lies halfway between Sumo wrestling and a tribal rite of passage. In this harsh land which lives off sheep farming, where demonstrating one´s physical strength and courage is still the only way to obtain society´s approval, traditional wrestling is the most widespread pastime amongst the inhabitants. Every man worthy of this name is, or has been, a gherradore, the term with which the wrestler is designated. It is precisely from here that the most famous gherradore comes from, former Mister Universe, close friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger, today resident in California: Franco Columbu.

India - Pondicherry, nostalgia for France

2007-11-15

In Tamil Nadu, the former French colonial enclave of Pondicherry, for nearly thirty years an autonomous state of the Union territories, founds its existence and a consistent part of its economy, on faith. In the city, Catholicism, Hinduism and the cult of the guru Aurobindo are practiced, whose followers dream of a Utopian city which will probably never be completed. Outside the temples, the population, like the rest of India, curses the local Government. Surprisingly, however, it looks back with nostalgia on the good old days when the French used to govern us.

North Cyprus - Neverland

2007-11-14

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (recognised only by Turkey with this name), declared such in 1983, has been under international embargo since 1974, year in which the Ankara troops occupied it. Today, Nicosia (Lefkosha for the Turks) is the last city in the world divided in half by a wall which cuts the houses in two. Since the Greek-Cypriot sector of the island became part of the European Union, the wall has also become the ideal border between Europe and Turkey, in a certain sense. Meanwhile, the northern part of the island, surrounded by a splendid sea and oppressed by diffuse poverty, tries to survive and save the monuments, legacy of three thousands years of history.

Equatorial Guinea - Beautiful and damned

2007-11-14

A miniature country in lesser known Equatorial Africa, once a Spanish colony, governed by a totalitarian dictator which the European Union supports underhand, whilst some non-governmental Spanish organisations fight to save the unique forests from the assault of the timber and cacao industries. Chronicle of the ordinary madness of a regime in the shadow of the palms, amongst monkey hunters and the stories which inspired Frederick Forsythe´s best-seller The dogs of war´, and which gave Mark Thatcher, son of the former British Prime Minister, the idea to attempt a coup at the head of a group of mercenaries, in order to overthrow the dictator in power.

China - Xinjiang, Chinese Far West

2007-11-14

This province in the remote north-west of China faces Mongolia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. 5,000 kilometres from Peking, it´s a medieval world which lives far from the winds of change: the only winds here are those which blow across the Taklimakan desert, or the gusts which come down from 7,000 metres from the Tian Shan massif. A voyage in China´s furthermost frontier, rich in oil which the pipelines carry towards east, depriving it of profits and condemning it to a calculated poverty for which Peking is responsible, so that the nationalist forces can´t take root. Here, the Uigura, a Turkish ethnic group, writes in Arab, prays to Allah and is a powerless witness to the cultural colonisation which will change it forever.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Jordan - Amman, Los Angeles of the Middle East

2007-11-14

One and a half million Palestinians. A million Iraqis. The Jordanians in the minority. A city which stands on 19 hills. A complex traffic system which calls to mind Los Angeles, just as much as the ethnic and denominational mosaic into which its population is broken up. A unique sociological experiment in the Middle East: a community of refugees who have fled from the wars in neighbouring countries, not bringing a baggage of poverty and desperation with them, but, on the contrary, contributing to the cultural wealth, economic prosperity and lightning development of that, which half a century ago, was little more than a provincial town.

India - Sikh: the Punjab lions

2007-11-12

The Sikh are the protagonists of hundreds of jokes which depict them as clumsy and slow-witted. They always carry a weapon in their belt and they have a long history of battles and bloodshed, because fighting is their reason for living. Sikhism is a religion and even if its followers don´t assemble in barracks or battalions, their past is steeped in blood. The turban, the long beard and the name which unites them (Singh, that is, lion) which they gave themselves five centuries ago, were, even before being professions of faith, a declaration of war against the Mughal invaders, descendents of Tamerlane, who entered northern India from the Afghan steppes to bring terror, destruction and Allah´s word. And, in some way, in modern India they continue to be so.

Russia - Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave in the heart of Europe

2007-11-11

Kaliningrad is a Russian enclave embedded between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea; with its widening in 2004, it now borders with EU member states and is located in the geographical centre of Europe. With the name of Königsberg, it was the capital of the Prussian State and the Order of Teutonic Knights. The city was bombed during the Second World War, razed to the ground and conquered by the Red Army. The few surviving German inhabitants were expelled en masse and substituted by Russian populations. The former cathedral, previously in ruins, was only restored after the fall of the Berlin wall and is one of the very few historical buildings in the city. In Kaliningrad, amongst other things, can be found the largest amber deposit in the Baltic.

South Africa - A man, a woman and the rhinos

2007-11-11

Clive Walker lives in the remote South African region of Waterberg, today a UNESCO world heritage site. In his garden can be found a black rhino bull and a white rhino cow. Together with his wife, Conita, he is attempting to reintroduce, with a certain success, black and white rhinos into the parks of southern Africa. These animals, which were on the road to extinction due to merciless hunting they suffered for their horn, used in Chinese pharmacopoeia and erroneously considered to be an aphrodisiac, are now returning to populate the African savannahs also thanks to the efforts of the Walker family. Clive, however, is also a painter and rhinos are naturally amongst his favourite subjects.

(Text by Silvana Olivo available on commission)

Martinica - The Yole tour

2007-11-11

On the island of Martinique, the most famous in the French Antilles, a unique competition takes place. The Tour of the island with the Yoles Rondes. These are sailing boats with a maximum length of 10.5 m, endemic to Martinique, derived from gommiers, the traditional Antillean boats made from dug-out tree trunks. Over the years, the competition, which is carried out in 7 legs around the island, has become so important so as to transform the yoles into powerful sea machines and to supplant the carnival as main event of the year. The regattas are followed by practically all the inhabitants, who go wild with frenzied dances at the end of each leg.
(Text by Claudio Agostoni available on commission)

West Africa - How much? 10 shells

2007-11-11

Cypraeidae or cowries are shells which are endemic to the Indian Ocean. They arrived in Africa under the form of ballast in the European sailing ships which began to sail the oceans around the 15th century. They immediately met with a huge success and many African kingdoms adopted them as currency. They were used for centuries in this way and only the colonization of the continent around the end of the nineteenth century reduced, but didn´t eliminate, their use. Today the cowries are still used in certain rural areas of West Africa for small purchases and for ceremonies, where they are given to the families of the deceased, to newlyweds and musicians. Furthermore, the cowries are a decorative element for sacred masks and headdresses for initiation rites. They are one of the items used by fortune-teller during their divinatory sessions.

Italy - Comacchio, the eel marsh

2007-11-04

Today, the Comacchio Valleys are a paradise of water, made up of canals which are the destination of keen birdwatchers. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, this territory of lagoons and marshes was a hostile place where malaria reigned sovereign and men survived only due to their fishing and eel conservation and processing abilities. The eels became the symbol of Comacchio, and in the Delta Park, fishing is still carried out with the traditional lavoriero´ method, a sort of large arrow point on the surface of the water which blocks the exit mouths of the valleys. A couple of years ago, the ancient Manifattura dei Marinati was reopened, where the eels are cooked in the huge fireplaces, just like they were over a century ago.
(Text by Massimo Calvi available on commission)

India - Kashmir, the conquest of paradise

2007-11-01

For more than half a century, the problem of Kashmir, debated by India, Pakistan and local independence groups, seems without solution. Even today, after the peace talks between the two Asiatic countries seem to be on the right track, the region, of Muslim majority, which in the past was the cradle of Sufism, an Islamic mystic movement, still remains under military garrison like no other place on earth. Notwithstanding this, it´s a paradise which retains its decadent charm, as all forgotten places do, where Islam, at times, still feels like magic.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

India - Puri, the temple city

2007-11-01

In Puri, one of the four holy Hindu cities, in the state of Orissa, life revolves around a huge temple dedicated to Jagannath, one of the incarnations of Vishnu, whose curiously primitive appearance is an enigma which has never been completely resolved. The temple, visited each year by millions of pilgrims, and whose access is barred to non-Hindus, is the city´s main economic cornerstone: it creates work for about twenty thousand people, who, in the internal hierarchy, are divided into 97 castes. In the area of Puri are some of the most impressive monuments of Hindu art to be found in the whole subcontinent, as well as the sacred crematoriums which work nonstop, and where every Hindu aspires to be cremated.

Afghanistan - Kabul City Tour

2007-10-31

In Afghanistan, the first tourists are returning before the peace, on the initiative of Great Game Travel, a travel agency founded by two courageous Americans. They have about a hundred clients a year, they are curious, willing to travel without comforts, someone demands to visit the caves of Tora Bora, scene of one of the most bloody battles between the American army and the Taliban forces. We followed a group of twelve Americans from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon, during the excursion with which they start (or end) all the journeys in Afghanistan: the tour of Kabul.

Tunisia - Green Maghreb

2007-10-23

The green side of Tunisia. Far from the clichés, the southern desert, the mountain oases and the touristic folklore, lies a country which is trying to relaunch the protection of its natural patrimony through a more precise management of the national parks and the nature reserves which are found in the northern part of the country. An important step towards a greener Tunisia, a complement to the investments in mass tourism which subsidize the greater part of the Maghrebian economy, but which often ignore the environment. A voyage amongst oryx, marshes, avifauna, perfumed woods and surprising panoramas. A piece of green Africa embedded between the dunes and the Mediterranean.

Jamaica - One love, no love

2007-10-23

Jamaica is often presented as a Caribbean paradise, but beyond the walls of the luxury resorts it presents a profoundly contradictory face. The rural society, incredibly fragmented from a denominational point of view, lives in semi-poverty on a fertile land. Kingston, the capital, is a chaotic, degraded city, afflicted by rampant criminality. The lush coastal region of Hellshire, declared a national park, has been left abandoned. And a peoples, who, impassioned by the proclamations of the Rasta religion, seem to nurse a constant grudge against the West, the same West whose way of life they attempt to reproduce in the large towns.

Namibia - Savannah, clouds and dreams

2007-10-23

The hatches of the small aircrafts allow a fantastic bird-eye view of the Namib Desert, the dunes of Soussusvlei, the Kunene River, the Kaokoland and the Skeleton Coast, just to quote the most famous places in Namibia Watching the wildlife from up above is surely a strong emotional hit, just as good as taking the usual 4x4 car tours and follow the animal tracks on the grounds. Overflying colourful Himba villages or the majestic Namib Rand, amongts prairies, dry mountains and savanas, is a rare opportunity that will surprise everyone. Take a look at the extraordinary orography of Namibia from a distance, and then land in a peaceful bush camps to sleep in 5 stars lodges and discover the people, the animals and the great beauty of Africa Australis.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

United States - Flying over the Wild West

2007-10-23

In flight over the most scenographic areas of America. Gliding and circling over the all-American national parks in the south-west, to discover the real skin of the United States. Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Arizona seen from the clouds: canyons, geysers, artificial lakes, surreal cities, enchanted bays, windmills, famous bridges, deadlands, national parks, natural graphisms and ecstatic visions of the most spectacular territories in the whole of America. Few Indians in this Far West. No cowboys. But lots of sacred ground in Manitou land.

India - Ladakh, when oracles and shamans meet Buddha

2007-10-22

A little after the start of the Tibetan new year, 2 inhabitants from the village of Stock and 2 monks from the Matho monastery repeatedly fall into a trance and make prophecies on religious questions as well as bestowing blessings to remove obstacles and bad luck. The chosen oracles, called lu-yar (body lenders), prepare for the event with a long hermitage where they meditate and make offerings to the Dharma guardians before the Rongsten Karmar divinity takes possession of their body. When this occurs, the oracles exhibit themselves with a series of Cham (sacred dances) inside the two monasteries. All these ceremonies originate from the shamanic tradition found in Ladakh before the arrival of Buddhism into which it was then introduced.

Mongolia - The Olympics of the steppes

2007-10-16

The Naadam, three manly sports, is the festival of all united Mongolia: a nomad Olympics which unites thousands of athletes from the four remote corners of the country. A sublime representation of hunting, war and its art (wrestling, horse racing, archery), probably invented by Genghis Khan to welcome the summer and mould invincible warriors. The giants of wrestling invoke Khan when, having beaten the opponent after a match which seems to have no rules, they jump around, miming with arms open wide the devekh, the dance of the eagle. The cry which accompanies the best archery shot is also dedicated to him, as well as the fixed gaze of the small horse-rider as he runs towards the finish.

Egypt - Hollywood of the Middle East

2007-10-15

Cairo is still the Hollywood of the Middle East: 90 percent of the films destined for the Arab market are produced here.... Nabil Osman allows himself a cigarette whilst he looks over the two million square metres he can see from his office. This is the size of the Empc, the Egyptian Media Production City, a type of Cinecittà constructed ten kilometres from the pyramids. These studios are the largest after Los Angeles and Bombay points out Mubarak´s ex spokesman. Cairo has been the capital of Middle Eastern cinema for some time now. Its films are distributed from Morocco to Turkey to the Gulf States, reaching a public of 300 million people. It´s also for this reason that the Egyptian dialect is understood in all the Arab world.

Cameroon - Mandara, the mountains of the Moon

2007-10-14

Close to the Nigerian border, the extreme northern region of the country, where the plains dotted by volcanic peaks offer a scene beyond this world, where the Kapsiki ethnic group, strictly animist in a predominantly Islamic area (the Muslims use the term kirdi, that is, infidels, with reference to the Kapsiki) keep alive some of the most extraordinary and delicate traditions of darkest Africa.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Malaysia - Prayer and torment

2007-10-12

Thaipusam is the most important Hindu festival. A sort of Thanksgiving: the occasion to repent one´s mistakes, to atone for one´s sins, to show gratitude to the gods, or to ask them for a new favour. However, the nations in the world which accept its cruelty are few. Proclaimed barbarous and uncivil in India, where it was born more than 1,400 years ago, the Thaipusam festival practically survives only in Singapore and Malaysia, preserved by the Tamils who were taken here from the south of India by the English. In Kuala Lumpur, a million people meet in huge caves for three days of prayer and to fulfil vows, which foresees complicated forms of torment and group self-torture.

South Africa - Cape Town voices

2007-10-11

It´s one of the most beautiful cities in the world, as well as being the location where geographical Africa ends. Cape Town is changing, growing. Waiting for the next World Cup. In the meanwhile it´s becoming trendy. We gave voice to musicians, writers, artists, trend-setters and chefs to try to understand exactly what´s happening in the small and sparkling South African metropolis. Five interviews, a sidelong glance, no comment. Only a personal, grandiloquent view. Voices from a fun and relaxing city, surrounded by stunning nature and its aura of un-dispersible frontier. A non-place which has nearly totally subdued the post-apartheid social tensions and which looks to the future in the pursuit of a harmonious development.

Mali - Liquid Africa

2007-10-11

The periodic overflow of the Niger, which runs from southwest to northeast through the whole of Mali, for several months each year transforms the entire region into an unreachable water world. Unique graphic elements and colour tones flow between Bamako, Mopti and Timbuctoo, along the internal delta. Thousands of canals flood the plains, transforming dozens of villages into snow-white islands, surrounded by a blue-green sea made up of grass and fens. The main artery, on the other hand, is busy with punts travelling between the desert and the capital. The markets of Djennè are in turmoil whilst the taxi boats between the villages work nonstop. The fords are impassable, Africa becomes a universe of water with muddy borders. The dust disappears amongst extraordinary lights, calm navigational reflections and Malian silences. The Sahara blends with black Africa.

Canada - Toronto, the multiethnic challenge

2007-10-11

An extraordinarily lively city, born under the emblem of multiculturalism, where 85 different ethnic groups live together in harmony. A noteworthy example of a multiracial society, a city which continues to experiment with architecture, a constant open-air stage for street artists from the world over.
(Text by Melania Mazzucco available on commission)

Honduras - The pirate coast

2007-10-10

The story goes that in the September of 1779, the notorious Welsh pirate, Henry Morgan, led the attack on the fortress of San Fernando de Omoa, which the Spanish had just finished constructing, precisely in order to protect from buccaneers and pirates, the territories and riches plundered from the locals. Actually, Morgan, who died of cirrhosis of the liver on the 25th of April, 1688, was the protagonist of many abominable feats, but he certainly couldn´t have taken part in a battle a whole century after his death. His image of able pirate has, however, captured the imagination of the Hondurans, who have transformed him into a sort of national hero in a war against the loathed conquistadores.

China - Shandong: Buddha, Bath and Beyond

2007-10-10

The north-eastern province of Shandong, say the Chinese, is the only province in the country which can boast four seasons: this means that the economy is mainly agricultural. However, the government tries to exploit the mild spring and summer climates by attracting tourists here: and for them for the most part Chinese has created beaches, restored monuments, and constructed imposing Buddhist complexes from scratch, transforming the scenery forever.

Yemen - Chewing Paradise's flowers

2007-10-10

Illegal in many Arab nations, qat is the national drug´ of states such as Yemen, Djibouti and eastern Ethiopia. In Yemen, the cultivation of this plant has practically supplanted that of coffee, of which it was one of the world´s major producers. In Yemen, about 80% of the adult population chews qat and on the qat market stalls of San´a, slogans such as Chew and relax, success will arrive on its own stand out. Here, qat dictates the rhythm of life, all offices are closed in the afternoon when all the inhabitants, women included, are busy in the chewing rite. Around mid-morning, the men get on the phone to decide where to meet to chew, and consequently go to buy qat, all vying to demonstrate that they are connoisseurs.

Bolivia - The cloud people

2007-10-10

Here are the people of the tablelands, the people to whom president Morales wants to give all power. One of the forgotten populations of Latin America, people left to their own devices and the daily struggle with Mother Nature, with an impossible climate, hard, dry terrain which produces little fruits, with an oxygenless air at five thousand meters which burns the lungs. For these reasons they are a hardened people, proud, strong, who live life with their heads held high, walking with the slow but sure step of mountain dwellers, and who are always ready to reveal a smile.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Cameroon - Amongst the Kapsiki, where dying is a party

2007-10-10

In the Mandara Mountains region, in the extreme north of the country, near the Nigerian border, live the Kapsiki ethnic group, strictly animist in a predominantly Islamic area (the Muslims use the term kirdi, that is, infidels, with reference to the Kapsiki). The Kapsiki keep alive some of the most extraordinary and delicate traditions of darkest Africa. Amongst these are the funeral ceremonies, unique in the continent, during which the deceased takes part in the dances, duly dressed up, balanced on the shoulders of the masters of ceremonies. This is the extraordinary document of one of these very rare ceremonies.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Azores - The Wild West of European Union

2007-10-09

Lost in the Atlantic, the archipelago of the Azores is located on the extreme westerly border of the EU. Nine volcanic islands, hard, ferrous earth, yet covered in a luxuriant vegetation which manages to survive on bare stone. A unique climate which permits the cultivation of oranges, passion-fruit and tea on the same hill. A nation which feels abandoned by Europe, accustomed to battling against nature, snatching every metre of land from it, day after day. An exceptional architectural patrimony where the stylistic phases of Portuguese baroque are the common denominator in hundreds of churches. An incurable passion for festivals, which always finish at midnight with the inevitable fireworks.

Tunisia - Amongst the oases of the inland sea

2007-10-09

It´s coming down from the Berber village of Chebika that one begins to glimpse the flat depression of the Chott el-Jerid. An immense white slab which sparkles under the sun, an arid tract which the winter rains animate with tiny waves. There was a sea here in the past, and in the nineteenth century someone even had the idea to fill it again. An impossibility. But even today, a thin crust of crystallized sodium alternates the depression together with mud, clay and marsh. Crossing the lake has always been dangerous and the road which divides it in two is the most spectacular in Africa. It´s the road which introduces south Tunisia: the attractions of Tozeur and Nefta, the oasis of Ksar Ghilane, Matmata, which was the setting for Star Wars, and the magnificent dunes of the Great Eastern Erg.

Brazil - Bahía, where the gods make love

2007-10-08

Salvador de Bahía is Africa transplanted in Brazil. A colonial city unique in its genre, with 166 churches, 15 forts and three thousand animist temples where candomblé is practised, the syncretic, sanguine and sometimes violent religion which arrived on the western coast of the Atlantic three centuries ago, together with the slaves from the Gulf of Guinea. Amongst the alleyways of the city, where baroque gold coexists with the favelas, white magic with Catholicism, African traditions with Creole folklore, it´s impossible to hide from the magic, the witchcraft, the soul of Black Africa which permeates every corner and every instant of everyday life.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

China - Shandong, the apple kingdom

2007-10-07

In the north-eastern province of Shandong, two million hectares of land are used for apple cultivation by small, independent farmers. The apples are Fuji, the most highly regarded variety. From the ports of Yantai and Qingdao, the Fuji apples depart to conquer the world markets: every year 88 billion apples are shipped abroad, 12 apples for every inhabitant on the planet. We followed the journey of a Fuji from the tree to its port of embarkation.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Australia - Northern Territory: Not Today, Not Tomorrow

2007-10-05

From Alice Springs towards Arnhem Land, the Northern Territory is another Australia. Considered by the other states as a sort of useless appendage of the country, it´s a place where life goes by more slowly, regulated by the rhythms of nature which here rule over man, expressing their power with landscapes of rare beauty. Surprisingly, the Northern Territory is also where some of the model Aboriginal communities can be found, such as those of the Tiwi Islands, as well as the most striking examples of Aboriginal entrepreneurship, which is not just found in the usual art galleries: in Alice Springs, the Aborigines own an airline.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available on commission)

Australia - Melbourne, the experimental city

2007-10-04

It´s absolutely the liveliest and most progressive in Australia, the only metropolis of the country born from the gold rush and not from a penal colony. It was no accident that it was chosen as seat for the first federal parliament in 1901. It has nearly four million inhabitants from more than eighty different ethnic groups. In the city there is the world´s largest Greek community outside of Greece and an Italian community of more than half a million people. There are Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Chinese, Middle-Eastern, Maghrebi, Central African districts, and none of these gives the idea of being a closed ghetto. Melbourne seems to have created the golden formula of a multiethnic community better than any other city.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Argentina - Football: no, thanks, I prefer polo

2007-10-04

Created in Persia in the fifth century B.C., polo is the most ancient team sport in the world. Amongst its fans, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Tamerlano, who had the habit of using the heads of his murdered enemies instead of balls. For many, modern polo is an exclusive sport and surrounded by an aura of snobbishness. It´s true, but not in Argentina. Here, where the image of a man on a horse seems much more natural than elsewhere, polo is a sport just as popular as football, and a championship final is able to fill a stadium with twenty thousand places.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request; the same reportage is available in color)

Africa - Wings over Africa

2007-10-04

Nearly 10,000 kilometres across the whole of Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean Sea onboard two Cessna 210´s. A stunning adventure across 10 countries, 2 tropics, 26 different airports in 25 days of journey. 55 hours of total flying and 3,400 litres of fuel consumed from South Africa to Egypt.
A bird´s eye view over the spectacular landscapes of the black continent. An incredible safari on wings over archaeological wonders, national parks, herds of animals, unspoilt wilderness, hidden villages, tribes and natural masterpieces. A summary of Africa not to be missed, which is now open to other travellers thanks to an Italian tour operator who has opened the way amongst the African skies, from the Atlantic Ocean to the pyramids.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available on commission)

Armenia - In the shadow of the Ararat

2007-10-03

A small, almost ignored country, isolated at the feet of mount Ararat, Armenia hasn´t been in the news for a long time. Today, after more than fifteen years from the independence from the former Soviet Union, its population, which has not forgotten the genocide carried out by Turkey at the beginning of the last century and which has never been recognised by the international community, is trying to find its identity. The young want to live like Westerners, and subconsciously seek approval from the same West which seems to have forgotten them. At the same time they are rediscovering the Christian faith of which Armenia was the cradle.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available on commission)

South America - Lima-Rio on the road

2007-10-03

Seven thousand, five hundred kilometres from Peru to the Brazilian coasts, across the Andean cordillera, the Titicaca Lake, the Bolivian tablelands, the Pantanal forests, the never-ending plains of the San Paolo state and the sensational coast of Rio. Twenty-five dusty days on the road on buses, trains, pick-ups and boats, travelling from one end of South America to the other, following an invisible and very personal imaginary meridian between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. In search of the real day-to-day Latin American continent.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Afghanistan - The Chinese of Kabul

2007-10-03

Since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, the Chinese have been the protagonists of a real invasion of Afghanistan: they have arrived in their thousands to capitalize on the reconstruction opportunities created by the end of the conflict. Today, the bazaars of the capital overflow with Chinese products, the motorcycles built in Guangdong are the most sold, Chinese restaurants spring up like mushrooms (and, in defiance of the law, serve alcoholic beverages) and Chinese technicians are busy everywhere in the construction of new buildings. But, in Kabul and many other cities, numerous guesthouses have opened, which are really only brothels in which the young Chinese prostitutes, many of whom are illegal immigrants, entertain their clients. Drugs bound for China, and then the rest of the world, often pass through here.

Italy - Amongst the Tabarkini of Carloforte

2007-10-02

Squeezed in the south-western corner of Sardinia, San Pietro is one of the most beautiful and interesting Mediterranean islands. For one reason, most of all: its history, closely tied to that of the Tabarkini community. A group of Genoese coral fishermen emigrated to the island of Tabarka, along the northern coast of Tunis, in the 16th century, but were forced to leave two centuries later because of pirate attacks. The community found shelter on the island of San Pietro and the Tabarkini have lived there ever since. With their ancient 16th century Ligurian language, a cuisine which is a curious mix of flavours and a historical centre that of Carloforte, the capital whose architecture resembles that of the Genoese quarters.

Namibia - A wonderful dry garden

2007-10-02

It has the world´s oldest desert and the tallest and reddest dunes in existence. It has green plains kissed by the pale dawn sun, tablelands which slope down towards the foggy coast and suddenly rise up into spectacular cliffs, the same cliffs which offered shelter to the first men on Earth. The beauty of Namibia is such that it takes ones breath away; a coarse beauty which seduces over time, which captures you with its largeness and its silences. A solitary tree growing in a white and motionless lake, a small straw-coloured flower which has managed to sprout from the dry earth, branches and tree trunks like spirits condemned to live under the sun. It´s in this way that Namibia, only apparently dead, has learnt to seduce the world.
(Text by Alessandro Gandolfi availabe on commission)

Lithuania - Crossing the rebel country

2007-10-01

On a train travelling to the Baltic Sea. Three hundred kilometres from Vilnius to Klaipeda, to explore this (small and flat) country, which in 1990 was the first to rebel against the Soviet empire. The capital, Vilnius, captivates with its decadent baroque style, its proud and pleasure-loving air, the lively clubs. But one just has to leave the city to observe the slow lifestyle of the countryside, the farmers at work in the fields, the tranquil canals immersed in the green vegetation, the low hills and the forests where hidden nuclear bases lie abandoned. Klaipeda has a Prussian air and once, permission from the KGB was required to enter it. Today, its bars attract cruise tourists who, the following day, will visit the Curonian Peninsula: to come here asserted the philosopher von Humboldt is just as necessary as visiting Spain or Italy.

Lithuania - Journey to the sand peninsula

2007-09-30

The Curonian Peninsula, also called the ''Lithuanian Sahara'', is a strip of sand a hundred kilometres long which overlooks the Baltic Sea, five thousand years old and part of the Unesco world heritage since 1991. Once, Soviet politicians used to come here on holiday; today, the peninsula is still a tourist attraction, the fishermen still live along the coast and many of their cottages have been turned into splendid guesthouses. Travellers from all over the world come here to see the sand dunes by the sea, to visit the parks (like ''witch´s hill'' with its folklorist wooden statues) and to buy the famous jewellery made from Baltic amber.

Australia - Opal predators

2007-09-21

Coober Pedy, in the South Australian outback, is the world´s queen of opals. In no other place on earth are so many of these precious gems extracted, formed tens of millions of years ago when here there was a huge internal sea and not the desert there is now. From above, Coober Pedy is a vast Gruyere, with more than 250,000 holes a metre wide and twenty deep which are the result of 90 years of excavations. Some have found fortune in Coober Pedy; many others have wasted years in the search for a gem which is not easy to find at all. However, there are those that are still trying, continuing to live in dwellings carved out of the rock (to combat the heat) and frequenting the town´s historical society.

Algeria - Back to the Assekrem

2007-09-19

Thirty years ago, Algeria was one of the most popular Saharan destinations of the entire Maghreb. The Tassili National park, the Hoggar mountains, the orographic wonders of the Assekrem, the dunes and the pinnacles of the Tadrart Acacus, the Djanet oasis, Timimoun and Tamanrasset, or the holy cities of Ghardaia, were the settings for expeditions and amazing adventures, amongst the Tuareg, off-road vehicles and sand. Then, the arrival of Islamic extremism, the attacks, the terror, the civil conflicts, razed the country´s foolish ambitions of touristic development to the ground. Today, on the contrary, the whole southern region, which hosts the most beautiful areas of the Sahara, is finally peaceful and safe. The first travellers are returning, tent camps are reopening, the oases are repopulated with tourists. A full-scale return, even if with a couple of physiological difficulties, to the splendours of the past.

Cuba - Feather-weight revolution

2007-09-14

We entered into Havana´s state boxing schools, veritable sanctuaries where its practically impossible to be admitted and where the secrets of a pure method of training are jealously guarded; training based on anger and the wish for revenge more than on technique. The gyms are in disrepair, with makeshift equipment. Elementary-school children and teenagers work-out barefoot or wearing old leather shoes, with rag gloves and a punching-ball made from tyres, in the name of the socialist revolution and with only one aim in mind: winning.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Australia - The Great Australian Cattle Drive

2007-09-14

A few years ago, a group of seasoned cowboys put it into their heads to revive the age-old custom of droving, which once used to drive thousands of heads of cattle for hundreds of km across the grasslands and the deserts of South Australia. For some time now, the herds are moved on board of road trains, and the cowboys began to think that the old art of droving the herds, would be lost. Thus, the idea of a Cattle Drive was born, which every 2 years sees expert drovers and young cowboys drive a large herd and a numerous group of tourists towards the new, winter pasture lands. The route winds its way between red sand dunes, salt lakes and tiny, isolated villages, following the Old Ghan trail, the legendary train which used to cross the continent from south to north.
(Text by Bruno Zanzottera available on commission)

Ghana - Beware, Beware, the witches are back

2007-09-12

Gnani, in Northern Ghana, seems like a classical African hut village, but instead it´s a special village, a village of witches. The thousand or more people who live there are all elderly, for the most part women, accused by their families of having used their powers to carry out crimes of different sorts. Many firmly deny to being witches, but some proudly admit that they possess magical powers. In Africa, every manifestation of nature encroaches on the supernatural. Here, mountains, rivers and rocks are living beings, able to interact with man. Animals are the incarnation of spirits, and a life which ends prematurely is the work of an evil spirit, working under the guise of a village inhabitant.
(Text by Bruno Zanzottera available on commission)

India - The crazy Bombay nights of the rich

2007-09-12

The high society hates Bombay but couldn´t live anywhere else in India writes Suketu Mehta in his Maximum City. In Mumbai, frenzied metropolis where soon, there will be more people than in the Australian continent, the filthy streets merge with the clubs which vividly resemble Soho. Here you can meet the industrialist, the young actress, the famous artist and Monica, brilliant descendent of a Rajpur royal family, well inserted in high society and able to open every door in Mumbai. She guides us in this night-time tour to discover the new mid-upper class made up of rich young people, educated abroad, who wear Prada, drive BMW´s and go to discos where entrance is at the discretion of the management.

Ghana - Ashanti, the gold religion

2007-09-12

For Africans, gold is the metal of metals, unchangeable and eternal. As a living being, gold does not live in nature but moves around the earth. It can make itself visible and invisible. The Ashanti gave the Sacred Stool, a golden artefact, the task of uniting the peoples and creating a great kingdom through the priest Okomfo Anokyie, who made it fall from the sky into the arms of king Osei Tutu. Since then, the Stool is the Nation´s symbol and is only shown during important ceremonies. Ashanti festivals are the externalisation of the rituality expressed through the gold which, worn in abundance, the king shows to his subjects as a sign of power and authority. In fact, it´s with gold that the secret pact between king and religion is sealed.
(Text by Bruno Zanzottera available upon request)

Algeria - Algiers, back to life

2007-09-11

The city begins to live again after the dark years of Islamic extremism. In particular, the young and the women represent one of the vital elements of this new cultural ferment which opposed the fundamentalist obscurantism with all its might. Today the people are trying to forget in every way the years of gratuitous cruelty, perpetrated by both sides in a mortal combat for power. Artistic and cultural movements are being revived, where the attention is drawn to the West in the tradition of a lay and tolerant Islam.
(Text by Andrea Semplici available upon commission)

Bolivia - Where the earth touches the sky

2007-09-10

From Sucre to Potosi, to Uyuni, to Tarija, Latin America rises up to dizzying heights, until it touches the sky. At five thousand meters in the motionless air, the earth offers visionary views from a metaphysical painting: landscapes from another planet, abandoned mining towns which tell the story of the silver epic, the huge salt desert of Uyuni, steam trains like archaeological ruins crystallised forever and a curious museum: that which contains the remains of Butch Cassidy, who came up here to hide from the law, and who found his death under this sky.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Tanzania - Ol Doinyo Lengai, God´s volcano

2007-09-10

Ol Doinyo Lengai is a unique and extremely fascinating volcano situated in the Great Rift Valley. It´s the only volcano in the world which erupts carbonatite, a very fluid lava which is much colder than balsaltic lava (510° C, compared with the normal 1100° C). This lava emits an orange light during the night, but isn´t incandescent during the day; the majority of the flows resemble very fluid black oil, or brown foam rubber. Its name means God´s mountain in the Masai language, who venerate it as a sacred place and who climb it now and again to offer sacrifices to the volcano´s god. On its slopes can be found the Natron lake, rich in soda deposits with the characteristic pink-red colour and nest-building area for flamingos.
(Text by Cristina d'Antonio available upon commission)

Ireland - People from the Emerald Island

2007-09-03

A peoples which has a harp as its symbol couldn´t have been born anything less than poets. A nation which loves to recite songs and poems, which erects statues to its most famous bards, which organises tens of musical festivals to a tradition which the English never quite managed to repress, well, a similar nation couldn´t be anything but happy. Fun, extrovert, cordial. There are those who say that the Irish are like this because of their natural inclination for smiling, but also because of all the sufferings which they have had to overcome in the last centuries. A series of disgraces and tragedies which they have learnt to scoff at and laugh over. 'The heart of an Irishman wrote Shaw after all is none other than his imagination'.

Tunisia - Tunisi Lifestyle

2007-09-02

Beside the suq, the Medina and archaeology, Tunis is evolving into a modern and pleasant metropolis. With new residential districts, skyscrapers, elegant seafronts, art centres and avant-garde nightclubbing. Truly a city of the new Africa, a country which is changing and growing, thanks to important investments, clever politics and a new cultural and economic shadow world. In the hands of young yuppies and the middle and working classes, who snub European fashions and styles, as well as the Western markets. Far from extremisms but never forgetting their traditions.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available on commission)

Jamaica - The Love Republic

2007-08-30

The two Hedonism resorts are situated in Jamaica. They allow all guests to wander around completely naked and have sexual encounters more or less where and when they feel like. Single guys, girls and couples seeking new thrills may enjoy a free independent Love Republic where almost everything is permitted. A full photo chronicle of ordinary craziness set in a tropical and modern Sodom. Please note: all pics have been shot in Jamaica inside the Hedonism II and III and all models and guest appearing have signed a privacy release.
(Text available on commission)

Brazil - Bahia Sound

2007-08-28

In Salvador de Bahia, the 'blackest' city in Brazil, one can listen to the low beat of a corner of Africa transplanted amongst baroque churches and architecture. It starts from the Pelouriñho, pulsating heart of the historical centre, and radiates everywhere. It's a widespread creativity nurtured by music, religious rites and pride in one's roots, carried in chains across the Atlantic.
(Text by Claudio Agostoni available on commission)

Perù - Lima Lifestyle

2007-07-10

Unexpectedly, over the past few years, the Peruvian capital has become a trendy metropolis. Thanks to a revisiting of the traditional cuisine in a fusion key and kitchen stars such as Gaston Acurio, Lima is experiencing a moment of fashionable popularity without precedents. It´s even transforming itself into a development model for other South American cities. The newborn gastronomic culture even seems to be prodding the identity crisis which has always pervaded Peruvian society, by revaluating the importance of Andean traditions. Mountain produce, (potatoes first and foremost, there being about 3,500 varieties), is invading half the kitchens in the country and ends up on the tables of the capital´s respectable scions, spurring on the leisure culture. New clubs, lounge bars, chic restaurants, fashion ateliers and trendy parties are the must-dos of the new Peruvian lifestyle.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Tanzania - Hunting with the prehistoric man

2007-07-05

They are called Hadzabe and are amongst the very few genuine hunters and gatherers left on earth. Except for a few details, they live in the same way that mankind did for about a million years, before discovering agriculture, pastoral farming and the various forms of social and political organisation. An encounter with them is the same as coming face-to-face with our origins, the way we were before undergoing a multitude of cultural and technological conditionings. They live around Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania, not far from where Louis and Mary Leakey discovered the fossilized remains of the first Hominidae which proved the African origins of man.

Australia - The gold which shook the continent

2007-06-27

In 1851, gold was discovered in Australia. In less than a month the continent was shaken by a rush which drew in sailors, clerks, judges, shepherds, ex convicts and immigrants from the world over. Gold was also discovered in Western Australia; it was then that the isolated Australian region up until that time only inhabited by prisoners condemned to hard labour opened itself to the world. Coolgardie, Leonora and Kalgoorlie were born in those years: the extracted gold was taken to Perth, shipped worldwide or processed in local mints. Today, Coolgardie and Leonora are ghost towns; but not Kalgoorlie, which remains a typical frontier mining town where this precious metal is still extracted and where miners like to have fun in the evening.

Europe - Iron Curtain Trail

2007-06-27

An aboriginal walk about along a chaotic Middle-European route. An on-the-road between two seas; the Baltic to the Black Sea across an old continent, still surprising, beautiful and devastating, a modern yet 19th-century country at the same time. Perhaps, more simply, a historical and generational circle to be closed, with eyes glued to the road and shutters drawn: to smell the brackish coastal air, the woods´ resin, market fragrances and, alas, smog of endless lorries. A modern caravan route from the Baltic Republics across Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, following part of the ex-Soviet frontier, the Danube´s course, the Romanian countryside, the Bulgarian steppes and the Macedonian mountains.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Venezuela - Yanomami - The aesthetes of the forest

2007-06-27

These images gather some testimonies of the extraordinary sign culture which still rules the complex tribal society of the Yanomami Indians. Today the communities are semi-nomadic and frequently controlled and protected by missions and research institutes. They still have, however, an extreme appearance. Every comma which appears on their backs, every smudge, circle or ochre serpent which adorns their bodies has a precise significance. Red and brown are colours representing joy and friendship. Black and dark shades mean war. White demonstrates the wish for peace. In this way we enter into the world of the ekurà, the forest spirits.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

India - Pushkar, peace after the storm

2007-06-26

Pushkar is famous for its camel fair, held each winter in the heart of Rajastan, which transforms the holy city into a chaotic, frenzied place, where pilgrims, tourists and tradesmen live together for a few days amongst dust and general fervour. After the huge festival, what remains of the ghats´ holiness or the magic atmosphere at sunset as the light slides silently down the hills cutting in two the temples and the buildings on the holy lagoon? Behind the curtain of Middle-Eastern hippies, profane commerce and internet points, the village still retains a surprisingly special aura which makes usual Indian visions disappear. Dismantled the circus tents of this famous eastern fair, Pushkar still pulses with ascetic solitude and secret energy.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Maldives - Surf in paradise

2007-06-26

It´s not easy to associate the archipelago´s relaxed atmosphere with the surfing adrenaline. Nevertherless tribes of Japanese, Australian, American, Hawaiian, Portuguese, South African and Brazilian lads arrive here every springtime, searching for the perfect wave amongst the world´s most beautiful islands. Even if talking of rollers in the Maldives, after the tsunami seems like a tasteless joke, there will still be good waves and bad. The archipelago´s president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, relates that waves have always been good friends to the Maldivians. He recalls how children have always surfed from time immemorial, with wooden, improvised boards, learning how to deal with sea currents and tides before becoming fishermen and oceanic navigators.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Myanmar - Mergui Islands - The hidden archipelago

2007-06-26

The Mergui are a paradise hidden amongst the folds of politics and time. Eight hundred islands spread over a vast stretch of sea, 36 thousand square kilometres in front of the coasts of Siam. A string of coral, tropical forests, atolls, stacks and cliffs, scattered over the north-south axis of the Burmese coast, untouched for fifty years, from the time when the English colonisation ended. Little lake dwellings can often be found amongst the islands, or communities of Moken and Selong fishermen (language family tree: Malayo-Polynesian) who still live following ancient customs and traditions.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

India - Bishnoi - Patrons of the trees

2007-06-26

The Bishnoi are a very peculiar ethnic group living in a restricted area of the northern Rajastan in India, situated mainly between Jodhpur and the Thar desert. These rural communities try to live following 29 supreme rules that are very protective of the environment and nature. Bishnoi men and women for instance, do not kill animals or cut trees for any reason and they fight against any violence to the ecosystem. Around their villages it´s easy to observe hundreds of Indian gazelles (chinkaras) living safely in peace. Nowadays Bishnoi still survive and stand for nature and peace trying to continue the ancient tradition of protecting the wilderness.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available on commission)

Africa - Walking Safari

2007-06-26

Use your own feet in Africa. Safari in Swahili simply means voyage. Once, leaving meant getting a move on and walking to the sea, a train station or simply to the next village. Instead, today, going on a Safari means hours in a pick-up inside national parks and reserves which are more or less wild and crowded, trying to see and photograph as many animals as possible. The low rumble of the pick-ups is usually constant as are the bone-breaking potholes which accompany the thousands of wildlife watchers up and down the savannah. In southern Africa, it´s been possible for a while now to leave those mechanical noises behind and observe lions, elephants and giraffes in the best way, that is, on foot.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available on commission)

Gabon - The Lost Eden

2007-06-20

Gabon has two main resources, wood and oil. The Gabonese are rich, probably the richest in Africa in proportion. With the independence from France and the arrival of the large extraction and cutting companies, the economy of the country quickly changed. Great flows of hard currency invaded the coffers of the state. An environmental disaster. However, in 2002, the President, Omar Bongo Ondimba, during the Johannesburg environmental conference, surprised his African colleagues by declaring that his country wanted to change its ways by lowering the wood cutting quota and creating no less than 13 national parks simultaneously. More than eleven percent of the territory.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available on commission)

Mexico - Holbox, secret beaches

2007-03-21

Five years ago, this Mexican island was practically unknown, a place off the beaten track. Up to now, the two thousand inhabitants (there are even about thirty Italians who have opened restaurants and pousadas), have lived more or less in blessed peace, welcoming a couple of hundred freak travellers each year. However, the development plans are frankly alarming. The road, which from the junction of the Cancun-Merida motorway leads to Chiquila, the embarkation port for Holbox, is being renovated and seems ready to welcome the big Riviera Maya buses. The beaches and the lands to the east, the wild Ensenada, are in the sights of the allotters and the hotel companies. It is rumoured that even Fox, the former president, has bought a large slice of palms and sand on the farthest point.
(Text by Davide Scagliola upon commission)

Mexico - Who says that mexican wine is crap?

2007-02-05

In the land of tequila and beer, wine has never been a success. Up until the only Mexican wine region began to make a name for itself. In the Guadalupe Valley, between Tijuana and Ensenada, the climatic conditions are similar to those of Southern France, and the wineries, housed in ancient Dominican missions, are reaping successes thanks, above all, to the work and professionalism of Italian and French wine experts. In Mexico, wine consumption, with respect to other spirits, is increasing, and even the Americans have noticed this phenomenon, crossing the border by coach in ever growing numbers to taste the multi-awarded wines from Monte Xanic, Casa de Piedra, Bodega Santo Tomás or L.A. Cetto. But we don´t want to turn into a new Napa Valley a local producer has declared, there, the tourist has become more important than the wine!.

D/La Repubblica - Gabon, Paradise lost

2006-10-31

Asia - Teheran to Istanbul on the road

0209-08-21

What remains of the ancient Silk Road is now scattered between China and the West, along hyper-busy routes, violated each day by lorries and endless lines of cars. Highways and motorways now cross the whole of central Asia from Peking to the Dardanelles, following the historical thread of an ultra-modern caravan route. Of course, traces remain of that which once was: unreachable mosques, castles, royal palaces, isolated villages, shepherds and atmospheres worthy of MarcoPolo. But one must search very, very carefully in order not to be disappointed. From the Iranian capital to Turkey lie about 4 thousand kilometres of history and progress, social disasters (Kurdistan) and natural wonders. We went by Land Rover to discover the new Mesopotamian rhythms.

Parallelo zero: the reportage bank

Russia - The Krokodil drug

Europe - Living on the edge

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Medjugorje

United States - Slab city

Qui Touring - Italy - Baku

Alpha magazine - Vatican secret archives - Marco Ansaloni

Italy - I am legend

Ça M'interesse - France - ETONNANT

Kenya - Escape to Mount Kenya

Sette - Corriere della Sera - Italy - Malawi, Aids

Vanity Fair - Italy - Kung Fu grandma

United States - New York Renaissance

La Vie - France - Ethiopia

Italy - Dear Mr. President, I'm Italian too

D/La Repubblica delle Donne - Italy - Makallè, the perfect prison

Rolling Stone - Italy - Tito's bunker

North Korea - Inside the utopia

GDL - Belgium/The Netherlands - Swimming Kamasutra Style

Ethiopia - Macallè, the perfect prison

XL - Russia - Tibet - Living under China's rule - by Giancarlo Radice

Gente - Italy - Baby Mom

Italy - Love givers

Kenya - Young Africans are growing up. Perhaps too much.

D/La Repubblica delle Donne - Italy - Kenya - Junk Food in Africa

Iraq - Beyond the news, 10 years later

Italy - Favignana, the island of memory

Greenland - Artic Ice

El Molo Renaissance

Mo - Belgium - Mitrovica - Marco Ansaloni

D/La Repubblica - Italy - Motel America

Panorama - Italy - Yes we Kenya

Kenya - Kung-fu grandma

Financial Times Germany - Graziano Delrio

Cuba - Cuban greenhouse

Azerbaijan - Full step on the gas

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Hopping into Tito's bunker

World - Child survival in a changing climate

Italy - In the rice triangle

Kenya - The best option: Obama there, Obama here

Gabon - Libreville, a dirty African star

Burkina Faso - Albinism in Africa

The Netherlands - The wonderful world of Lize

Gabon - Iboga, Freud´s root.

Italy - Gibellina, utopia laboratory or ghost town?

Italy - Tuscany: a different view

World - Into the silence. Hermits of the third millennium

Motel America

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Vatican City - The secret archive

United States - Motel America

Italy - Travelling Jesus

Cameroon - Theater of life

Armenia - The wedding plan

Kenya - Nairobi

Famiglia Cristiana - Italy - Slaves for few euros

Italy - Faces of Piazza

China - Beijing 798 revisited: art for the people

India - Karnataka, the key to India

The Guardian - UK - Ucraina - by Giancarlo Radice

Alpha Mag - India - Orissa

Prier - France - Lîle du silence

World - Ships and the sea

National Geographic France - Argentine

Financial Times Germany - Moleskine

Financial Times Germany - Giovanni Bernesch

Peru - America's biggest native pilgrimage

Ethiopia - A waterless paradise

Western Sahara - Saharawi: 35 years of solitude

Myanmar - The Karens: a long war against the Burma regime

L'Aquila, the Nicolas - by Davide Scagliola and Bruno Zanzottera - Documentary Showreel

Our new website about photography workshops is finally online

Indonesia - The Green School

Italy - The earth shakes in Emilia

Russia - No Protest, No Comment

Ukraine - Saved by the caregivers

World - Madonna World Tour

Sri Lanka - Back to life

Italy - The fountain of desires

GQ - Russia - Mafia

Prier - France - Lîle du silence

LAfrica come non lavete mai vista.