TITLE: Gypsies

“I zingari rendono più della droga” (Gypsies earn more that drugs).
These are the words used by the boss Salvatore Buzzi, intercepted by the police in the setting of the investigation “Mafia capitale”, that overwhelmed Rome's municipality in 2015: they give a clear image of a typical italian paradox. 180.000 Roms and Sintas lives in Italy, that correspond only to the 0,25% of the whole population but are perceived by Italians as a bigger menace also because they are continuously made object of political controversy, often used to gain easy consensus. Among them, only 40.000 are living in documented disadvantage and secluded in the so called “nomad camps”: areas created as a temporary and emergency solution and that in the past 20 years instead feed a spiral of corruption and bad management that not only not solved the problem of the integration of Roms and Sintas populations, but gave Italy the sad European record for intolerance and hate. One fifth of the total Rom population living in documented disadvantage is concentrated in the city of Rome, almost 8.000 people living in the “nomad camps”, so called because for at least 2.000 years people of romanì language were nomadic: hailing from India, they have always have been skilled artisans in metal crafting, carousel owners, horse breeders, so far as hated and oppressed.
The work shows the life within legal camps in Rome. They now are real ghettos where different ethnic groups are forced to live with. All of this creates a highly explosive situation.There are also many hidden illegal situations and for this today in the camps is becoming more difficult to photograph and be accepted. Who has a camera around his neck is always viewed with suspicion. Next to the ordinary life situations, there are also situations of which It

AUTHOR: Pietro Di Giambattista (Italy)

HOME
STORIES
BOOKS
BIO
CONTACT
P H O T O G R A P H E R
Pietro Di Giambattista born in Pannarano (BN) in 1956 and he lives and works in Rome. After having studied technical studies he started a full-time classical guitar course and in 1991 he became a performer. He decided to give up the study of the guitar and dedicated himself to photography, devoting his attention mainly to landscapes and portraits. In 1992 he won the 1st prize in a national photography competition at Ercolano (Napoli). In 1997 he enrolled at a Photography Workshop in Toscana held by the famous English landscape photographer Eddie Ephraums. From that time onwards he started taking part into workshops that will determine his professional growth. He also had the chance to meet Paolo Pellegrin and Antonin Kratochvil. In the year 2000 he met Francesco Zizola in Massa Marittima at the Toscana Fotofestival and at the Polaroid workshop he met Maurizio Galimberti. He attended a workshop with Michael Ackerman and later with Yury Kozyrev in Rome. He also enrolled in some courses at the Permanent School of Photography "Graffiti" in Rome, directed by Gianni Pinnizzotto and also attended the start-up to the profession of photojournalism with Rolando Fava . In 2002 he sent a selection of portraits that are part of his work "Nomads" at the World Press Photo where he won the third prize in the category of Portraits. In 2002 he won the 7th International photograph exhibition of Photography in Solighetto (Treviso) , an award that allowed him to publish his first book "Nomads". Pietro di Giambattista has exhibited in several Italian cities and in Barcelona. He has received several honorable mentions in several competitions, was a finalist in the 2016 Photographers Forum Magazine's, first place in the 2016 ND AWARDS in the category Editorial - Daily Life.