INCONTRI ITALIA-AFRICA IN OBIETTIVO
May 25th is World Africa Day 2020, which commemorates the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (later African Union) in 1963, created to mark the independence that many countries on the continent have just gained.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs celebrates the Day with an online photographic exhibition, Incontri Italia-Africa in obiettivo, a tribute to this world that is so alive, mysterious and full of contradictions, told through the lens of some Italian photographers who have worked or lived in African countries. Their shots capture moments of life lived between daily labours and urban or natural scenarios of extraordinary beauty. Through their gaze, our eyes can observe in depth and with greater richness of detail, the thousand faces and the essence of a multiform and complex culture, only geographically distant from our own.
The initiative collects images taken mainly in 2019, on the occasion of the exhibition Italia, Culture, Africa and in cooperation with the Italian Embassies and Cultural Institutes based in Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.
IVORY COAST| photos by Raffaela Mariniello
Raffaela Mariniello is one of the most famous photographers in Italy. She has held an Artistic Residence in Abidjan, former capital of Ivory Coast. The result of her experience was the work Natura Cultura Artificio, for the project Under the spell of Africa curated by Adriana Rispoli, in which the author presents the strong dynamism of this African country with her typical use of contrast between light and shadow.
ERITREA | photos by Antonio Politano
Passaggio in Eritrea ed Etiopia is a travel-report in the two countries, curated by photographer and journalist Antonio Politano and by the Cultura del Viaggio Association, as part of the programme “Italia, Culture, Africa” 2019, with a group of Italian, Eritrean and Ethiopian student photographers. Departing from Ethiopia, the group reached Asmara, and continued through the Eritrean plateau to more remote market towns and islands.
ETHIOPIA | photos by Antonio Politano
Photographer and journalist Antonio Politano makes reportages for several newspapers (La Repubblica, National Geographic Italia). He has lived in Africa for three years, working for the United Nations, and then travelled and stayed in various areas of the world. He is the editor of Sguardi, an online magazine about photography and travel, and the curator of the programme of the Festival della Letteratura di Viaggio in Roma.
KENYA | photos by Leni Frau
Maddalena Stefanelli, aka Leni Frau, is a travel agent and a very active social photographer. Author of the book Sotto una lanterna africana, written together with Freddie Del Curatolo, she lives and works in Malindi, Kenya. It is precisely from this beautiful country that Leni Frau offers us throbbing shots, immortalised in the capital Mombasa.
SENEGAL | photos by Marco Gualazzini
Born in Parma, Marco Gualazzini began his career as a photographer in 2004. Among his works, reports on microfinance in India, on freedom of expression in Myanmar, on discrimination against minorities in Pakistan. In recent years he has dedicated himself to Africa.
In 2019 he was awarded the first prize “Environment, Stories” by World Press Photo.
SOUTH AFRICA | photos by Tommaso Fiscaletti
Tommaso Fiscaletti is a young photographer who has been living in Cape Town since 2013. His research focuses on the relationship between human beings and on the awareness they have of their experiences. The shots presented here belong to the series Between Home and Wisdom: on the scenery of Cape Town are men and women that Fiscaletti portrays in their daily lives, in family bonding and in the memory of ancient traditions.
TUNISIA | photos by Gigi Sorrentino
Gigi Sorrentino is an Italian teacher of foreign languages. Born in France, he has travelled the world on many trips to capture the soul of distant cultures. In these shots of the Medina in Tunis, Sorrentino gives us magical fragments of a reality where he has stayed for a long time.
