TITLE: Cruise Passengers

The phenomenon of sea migration from the North African coasts to Europe unites a multitude of desperate people fleeing from wars and hunger. This historical event is destined to mark our era and is one of the main reasons for debate and conflict among European states.
To escape from the "pietistic" narrative that surrounds the daily news of shipwrecks and deaths at sea, I decided to propose my own more "ironic" reading of the facts, which is not meant to be a underestimation or "diminishment" of these tragedies, but a different way of emphasizing them.
The image I present is a composition of two of my photographs from 2019, in which I relate a cruise ship departing from the port of Trieste to African children playing and diving into the sea from the port of Stone Town (Zanzibar). What appears is the attempt of the children to reach this luxurious ship by sailing towards a hope for a better life, which for most of them will not turn out to be true.

AUTHOR: andrea bettancini (Italy)

All my education was developed in the area of ​​creativity, first the art school
and then the IED of Milan in the fashion department.
I worked as a designer in Milan for various clothing brands and collaborated with an architecture magazine of the Mondadori group.
Photography has always been a passion of mine, since the days of analog.
I prefer reportage, street photography and photographic storytelling in general, also through the fusion and contamination of images that develop a non-analytical sign language.

I was finalist at the Sony Awards 2022 professional documentary section, winner of the ND Awards 2022 long exposures, finalist at the Urban Photo Awards 2022 (portfolio), finalist Siena Awards 2022, finalist World Water Day 2022, winner as best author at the main Italian FIAF competitions (Follonica , Golden chip, Cameri, Murlo, Brugine)