Photographer #427: Nicol Vizioli

Nicol Vizioli, 1982, Italy, is a fine-art photographer based in London. She received a BA in Cinema at La Sapienze University in Rome and only recently an MA in Fashion Photography at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts. Her graduation project is called Shadows on Parade, a series of bizarre and mythical portraits. "They are declinations of my imagery, desires, waits, silent attempts of redemption. Sometimes they are dreams, more often they are prayers."..."The casting was very instinctive but precise: twins, elderly, albinos or bald people." She has been painting and drawing before she started photography and this strongly influences her work today. Her work has been exhibited in Italy and in the UK. The following images come from the series Shadows on Parade, AntiFashionManifesto and Hildegard Von Bingen.

Website: www.nicolvizioli.com

Photographer #393: Marco Vernaschi

Marco Vernaschi, 1973, Italy, is a photojournalist with a very distinct signature. He has covered various intense stories around the globe. Child Sacrifice deals with the fraudulent phenomenon of child witches, organ trafficking and child sacrifice. The motive for the killing, mutilation and torture of these children however is merely economical. In Guinea Bissau he focused on narco trafficking and the criminal networks. Latin American drug cartels and the Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah use the region for illegal trade of cocaine, oil and human trafficking amongst other things. This has resulted in organized crime, prostitution, an aids epidemic and the assasination of its president, army chief and two leading politicians. One of his latest bodies of work is Placebo, which is an inward journey of Marco himself. It focuses on sex, death and his own sexual-related experiences. It is a conceptual project in which he has tried to understand his life better and to heal from his scars and memories. The images are a combination of direct experiences, visions and fragments of dreams. It is a strong, direct and intense project that includes a poetic layer. The following images come from the series Placebo, Child Sacrifice and West Africa's New Achilles' Heel.

Website: www.marcovernaschi.com

Photographer #373: Martina Bacigalupo

Martina Bacigalupo, 1978, Italy, studied photography at the London College of Printing. For the past four years she has been working as an engaged freelance photographer in East Africa where she focuses on personal projects and collaborates with international NGOs. Several bodies of work were made in Burundi. The series Burundian Elections deals with the rise in tension surrounding the 2010 elections. The other stories in Burundi often deal with physical handicap. For The Backyard Women she followed several women who suffer from an obstetric fistula, a lesion responsible for a permanent and uncontrollable flow of urine or fecal matter, often due to a long and difficult childbirth. More than 80% of these women are thrown out by their husbands creating vast social problems and the resources to treat them are lacking. In Kirundi, fistula is called "the backyard disease". Martina covered stories in several other countries as Somalia, Congo and Italy. In 2009 she released the book Fiore del Mio Pericolo. In 2010 Martina received the Canon Female Photojournalist Award. The following images come from the series Burundian Elections, The Backyard Women and Pianissimo.

Website: www.martinabacigalupo.com

Photographer #336: Nicola Lo Calzo

Nicola Lo Calzo, 1979, Italy, is a documentary and portrait photographer based is Paris. His photographic work focuses on minorities and human rights issues, often in African countries. In his series Inside Niger he portrayed the population that live and work on the borders of the Niger river. The river functions as the center of Nigeria's economy, but pollution and desertification have become obstacles to economic development. One of his latest series is Morgante, telling the story of several individuals. Dwarfism, a person of short stature resulting from a particular medical condition, is the common demoninator between the portrayed. Nicola's work has been published extensively and exhibited throughout Europe. The following images come from the series Morgante, Inside Niger and The Other Family.

Website: www.nicolalocalzo.com
(video in French)

Photographer #335: Mauro D'Agati

Mauro D'Agati, 1968, Italy, is a documentary photographer who has released various monographs with large publishers. One of the books is Alamar (2010), telling the story on the town close to Havana in Cuba. It was once a symbol of the utopian dream of the socialist community. Although build with passion during the 1970's, it has been constructed in an amateurish way and has become more of an example of chaos and mistakes. In his book Napule Shot (2010) he shows us various aspects and sections of Naples through various characters and locations. Other books Mauro has released are Palermo Unsung (2009) on performances at local music festivals in various districts of Palermo, Vucciria (2006) about an old market neighbourhood in Palermo and Less Vegas (2011) with stories in and around Las Vegas. The following images come from the series Alamar, Napule Shot and Vucciria.

Website: www.maurodagati.com
(Video in Italian)

Photographer #325: Paolo Ventura

Paolo Ventura, 1968, Italy, studied at the Accademia di Bella Arti di Brera in Milan and currently lives and works in New York. He envisioned scenes he wanted to photograph, but these situations could not be found anymore. Therefore he started to construct entire sets by hand. He creates miniature buildings, trees and other objects. At the same time he constructs all the figures himself, making tiny clothes for the little men and women that he uses as actors in his scenes to tell his narrative and magical stories. In 2006 he released his series War Souvenir as a monograph and in 2009 the book Winter Stories came out. In the last five years Paolo has exhibited extensively throughout the USA and Europe. The following images come from the series Civil War, Winter Stories and War Souvenir.

Website: www.paoloventura.com

Photographer #306: Francesca Galliani

Francesca Galliani, 1962, Italy, is a fine art photographer who lives and works in New York City. At the age of 19 she moved to the United States and received a BFA at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington. She does not limit herself merely to the photographic medium and could be described as a mixed media artist. To intensify her strong images she uses the methods of painting and collage. She writes words or short sentences, adds paint and other visual objects onto the original photographs. Francesca's work has been exhibited extensively throughout the world and has been published in a vast amount of magazines and numerous catalogues and books. The following images come from the series Transgender, Nudes and Asia.

Website: www.gallianiphoto.com

Photographer #238: Angelo Musco

Angelo Musco, 1973, Italy, makes larger than life photographs that consist of an uncountable number of bodies. As the photographs are made up of numerous images they are very sharp and invite the viewer to go on a quest of discovery. In his series Tehom, which in Hebrew means; the deep, and in Greek means Abyss, he created an unseen and mysterious underwater world in which he plays with reality. One of the photographs is called Hadal after the Hadopelagic Zone meaning the deepest trenches of the ocean. In reality this zone is found at 6000 meters depth, but there is still life in these harsh regions. As the people in his image, the life at this depth lack any pigmentation as coloration is useless in an environment with no light. His website shows details images of his work. The following works are Tehom, Tehom: Hadal and Aranea.

Website: www.angelomusco.com

 

Photographer #188: Francesco Giusti

Francesco Giusti, 1969, Italy, is a freelance documentary photographer. He made documentary work in many countries, from his homeland Italy to Congo, and from Ha�ti to Egypt. For the series Sapologie he photographed members of the SAPE (Soci�t� des Ambianceurs et des Personnes �l�gantes). These men dress with a refined and unique style and bring some glamour into their humble environments. In the series Hotel Industria, which was also published as a book in 2006, he focused on ex-industrial areas on the outskirts of Milan that were transformed into shelters by illegal immigrants. The following images come from the series Sapologie, Hotel Industria and Agadez.

Website: www.francescogiusti.com

Photographer #164: Marco Bolognesi

Marco Bolognesi, 1974, Italy, works and lives in London. He can be described as a multimedia artist, because next to his photography he also draws, paints, uses video, makes installations and uses collage techniques. His photography consists of portraits of women with props added. The women become sculptures, with plants added to their heads or parts from a computer. In his series C.O.D.E.X Blue, he painted his model completely blue. Marco released several books with his work. The following images come from the series C.O.D.E.X Blue, Babylon Federation and BlackinBlack.

Website: www.marcobolognesi.co.uk

Photographer #128: Christian Tagliavini

Swiss/Italian photographer Christian Tagliavini, 1971, presented his new series to the world only a few days ago. The series 1503 are nine still characters from a visionary renaissance. They are portrayed in solemn, die-cut costumes. In 2008 he made his the series Dame di Cartone (Cardboard Ladies). Costumes from different era's were made with cardboard and shot with live models. In the proces of making a photograph Christian is not merely the photographer, he is in fact the author, stage- and costume-designer, casting manager and director all at the same time. The following images come from the brand new series 1503, Dame di Cartone and Aspettando Freud (Waiting for Freud).

Website: www.christiantagliavini.com