TITLE: Wedding Party

This image is part of a long-term project of mine, which began in 1999 and which I am still carrying forward today, photographing entire generations that follow one another. The project is developing both in the old camps– where people lived in extreme conditions, with no water and no electricity – and in the new camps– which are legally authorised, and where different ethnic and religious groups cohabit together. . We are living in a moment of disconcerting approval of hateful feelings which result in stigmatizations, hostile statements, incitement to discrimination of the other, within a climate whichissadlyfostered by some of the highest institutional offices.Roma and Sinti are privileged victims. People still cannot dominate the inclination to deal with the uncertainty in life by finding an enemy, a culprit that could be blamed for one’s problems.Roma are the victims of century-long prejudices: they are child kidnappers, vagrants, lazy; theft runs in their blood, they force their children to beg… In 2008 a survey by S. Tosi Cambini, La ZingaraRapitrice(The Gipsy Kidnapper)was published,where the verdicts of Italian trials over ten years were examined.It was demonstrated that no missing child has ever been found in a travellers’ camp. Besides, to consider them as nomads is misleading, as they have not led an itinerant life for generations. Begging is almost exclusively practiced by women and children, who are proud to contribute to the support of the family. Today in Italy, 85% of the 180 thousand Roma people live in houses, have a job, pay the rent and are integrated. But the image that is used to represent this ethnic group is that of the Roma people who live in camps, dressed in rags, dirty and scroungy - only 26 thousand, 0,04% of the entire Italian population. Instead of a loud airing of views for mere propaganda purposes, we shouldseriously cope with these camps, real ghettoes where a hideous form of racial segregation is carried out – a purulent wound in the conscience of a country that claims civilization.

AUTHOR: Pietro Di Giambattista (Italy)

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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.