http://www.maurobottaro.it Mauro Bottaro photographer - a web based photographic archive and portfolio of reportages, commercial, industrial and personal research photos. follow al list of available items. copyright 2009 Mauro Bottaro en-EN photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) Fri, 14 May 2010 16:50:20 +0200 Fri, 14 May 2010 16:50:20 +0200 720 http://www.maurobottaro.it/compo/dia_logo.png http://www.maurobottaro.it 144 39 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=9 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=9 photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=4 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=4 According to scientific studies conducted by a leading group of doctors and experts called Akea, set up 10 years ago to study and monitor longevity in Europe starting from the Sardinian phenomenon, the accentuated predisposition of the inhabitants of the island to live so far beyond expectation is only due to genetics for 30 per cent. What really makes a difference is the lifestyle and habits, which has been responsible for giving Sardinians 50 per cent more probability of passing the limit of the century.
In the Nuoro province there are literally thousands of small towns with less than 2000 inhabitants, and that is where the food eaten, air breathed in and nature surrounding make up the magical potion for longevity. The small villages of Orroli, Mandas, Isili, Serri, Gergei present a high centenary and over ninety year old population. The typical diet of these areas is made of soup, pasta, lamb and pork meat, sheep cheese and very good red Canonau wine. Gergei and the surrounding areas are famous on the island for the plantations of olive trees, which find a perfect climate and rich soils at the altitude ranging from 300 to 600 metres above sea level. All have agricultural and shepherd traditions which make up the hard working and healthy lifestyle recurring in all the centenaries of the area. The method of transport for them has been their legs and horses, which also comprise a fundamental part of the local heritage, even though now a days they are used only for seasonal celebrations and religious processions.
To hear Antonio Crabu, or Tonino from Isili, you would think he was born on a horse. All his life he travelled round and round the province to tame horses and he was well known in the villages well before reaching the age of 100. “If there was a difficult horse, male or female, they would call me…and I just mounted and rode it, and rode it and rode it, till I could come back and hand it over to the owner and tell him, now it’s fine. And that’s how it was, I solved any problem a horse would have…” he grins thinking of the real passion of his life. Now he doesn’t leave his son’s house too often as he says he doesn’t trust himself, but till a few years before you would find him sitting down only to eat his meals. And drink his wine of course, two glasses a day which nobody takes away from his diet.
Signora Assunta from Gergei is also well known in the area, especially because of her loquacity and her lively spirit, high and strung even more than when she was younger. “One thing I have not lost with my age is my tongue! I can talk for hours if I want…mind you if you give me my stick I could also walk for hours, it’s just that everyone is afraid to let me go, in case I get lost. But how can I get lost if I was born in this very village !” she jokes, as she tells me all the cultures of plants and vegetables her and her husband used to grow and sell. She likes talking of her childhood more than her closer past, of how they always used to leave her and her sister to attend the oxes, which all the families had for heavy transport of things or of how to make fresh bread to take to the public furnaces.
In Mandas another lady, Signora Bonaria, which means “good spirit”, also makes a point of telling me a few local cooking recipes, from the beginning to the end. “We used to eat all that we grew, fed and fattened ourselves, in our own fields with our own hands, and what we didn’t have we exchanged with our neighbours for something we had. Grains, olives, tomatoes, peas, maize, everything, and all the meat, sheep, pork, horse” then she changes subject, “because I have not lived till this age because I have been lazy, nobody can say I have rested to get to this age, you see I have done all jobs possible for my family and even if I did not go to school, when my children went I got them to teach me to read and write, because I had to do everything.” Indeed, you can still see all this energy in her eyes, full of knowledge and determination, which she is convinced is part of the reason why she is still on this earth.
For sure, everyone in the province, being extremely proud of their unique longevity records has their own theories and explanation. It is enough to go to any local square and ask, in the shade where the retired part of the population sits to “people watch” for most of the day, to spark of an infinite debate on the subject. However, if we were to really discover the magical potion to reach the centenaries, it would take away all the fascination of the beautiful and unique territory of this ancient island.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=6 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=6 housing block, towards the rest of the town and other people. The ongoing project which I have taken an excerpt from, shown in the following pages takes peoples daily routines to show their drug habits
and general lifestyle which even when off drug seems to stigmatise them and infl uence them heavily. The use of heroin and crack, whether past or present, for these individuals is the driving motor of their daily existence, and although they desperately try to hold control over their lives they are continuously catapulted into the drug related routines. The outreach agencies talk of their clients as having a user’s career of 15 to 20 years. This means no matter how hard they can try to put them on rehabilitation programs, they will most probably go back to the drugs. This is why more than helping them to get off they reach to drug users to give them the possibility and knowledge of not dying from blood borne viruses, unsafe injecting practices and overdose.

Steve, Tracey, Del Darren and Madaline have probably never seen each other, although they all live in the same neighbourhood. The world they live is very similar, because they are all heroin and crack users and their lives are driven by this habit.
This “monkey” which they all carry on their backs has destroyed their relations with the society which sorrounds them, as well as their personal lives. Their daily routine evolves entirely around drugs and they cannot keep away from the damage which these do to them emotionally, physically and fi nancially.
Staying with them day after day , I realized how they truly live a parallel life to their environments, in which they walk and act completely unnoticed and anonymously, almost as if they were invisible.
Steve and Tracy, also known as Ginger and Hammy, are always together, because the thing they care the most about is that if one of them gets arrested while scoring drugs, their dog Sooky would not be left alone.
Steve has just turned 29 and injects in his groin both heroin and crack together, a practice called speedballing. This at least 6 times a day, on top of his prescribed methadone. His last 12 years have been out of home, without shelter untill 3 years back when he was assigned a place in a shelter hostel in Southwark. Recently when I asked him about the area in which he lives, he said to me, “If I have to be honest, it is difficult to get out of drugs when they are in your face.”
Del Boy and Darren have a very special relationship. Social services have tried to break this many times but without success. They have been dividing everything for the past 8 years, the carboard they lay on when they were sleeping rough and now a social housing fl at assigned to Del about 18 months ago . It is in such a state that they have ended up sharing the same bed in one of the rooms where they do everything. As meticulously as they divide their begging shifts and incomes they register all monetary outcomes which go on drugs. For the 3 times the dealer comes to their house, they note in their “drugs usage” log, as they have titled it, how much “brown “ and “white” they buy, on each round. This is adding up to an average of 2000 pounds a month, more than most people would earn on salaries.
Madaline has been clean from heroin for more than a year, but the signs of the heroin use are evident on her body and deep in her mind. She has had a heart attack, a trachetomy and when she decided to withdraw and go into detox she came close to having her leg amputated, because of an abscess, where she kept injecting, which was at a dangerous stage of infection. She is very proud of being clean now, but is tackling daily with depression and a sense of being lost, as well as all the grief and anger given to her by the rest of her family because of years of heroin abuse.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=3 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=3 The conflict killed over 1,500 people, most of whom were Lebanese civilians, severely damaged Lebanese infrastructure, displaced about 900,000 Lebanese and 300,000 Israelis and disrupted normal life across all of Lebanon and northern Israel. The high number of civilian deaths in the conflict has been one of its most controversial aspects. Around 1,100 civilians. Almost one third of the Lebanese civilian casualties were children under 13 years of age.
The United Nations Development Programme estimated that about 35.000 homes and businesses in Lebanon were destroyed by Israel in the conflict, to add to more than 130.000 damaged houses. The systematic targeting of the Lebanese civilian infrastructure includes 400 miles of roads, 73 bridges and 31 targets such as Beirut International Airport, ports, water and sewage treatment plants, electrical facilities, up to 350 schools and two hospitals were destroyed. It was estimated that overall economic losses for Lebanon from the month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah totalled at least $15 billion, if not more.
Various agencies have criticised both Israel and Hezbollah. Amnesty International condemned both Hezbollah and Israel for attacks on civilians, in addition to the confirmed use of white phosphorus by the Israeli Defence Forces and published a report suggesting that the attacks on civilian property were a deliberate part of the Israeli military strategy, rather than collateral damage. Human Rights Watch condemned the indiscriminate use of force against civilians by both Israel and Hezbollah. They blamed Israel for systematically failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians, which may constitute a war crime.
The United Nations has criticised Israel for it’s use of cluster munitions and disproportionate attacks. Cluster bombs are a menace to civilians even if not directly aimed at them for two reasons: they have a very wide area of effect, and they always leave behind unexploded sub munitions. The area covered by a single cluster carrier emission, also known as the footprint, can be as large as two or three football fields. A basic cluster bomb can contain anywhere from three to more than 2,000 sub munitions.
The other serious problem is unexploded ordinance (UXO) of cluster sub munitions left behind after a strike. The surviving sub munitions are live and can explode when handled, making them a serious threat to civilians, long after they have fallen to the ground. This way, the UXOs can function exactly like land mines.
In Lebanon as many as 70% of the sub munitions dropped may not have detonated, because of the old batches of production which they belong to. The evidence of this is being traced by U.S. congress attorneys through the carrier shells’ serial numbers. More than a dozen people have been killed and around 100 civilians were injured by unexploded sub munitions since the August 14th ceasefire.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=7 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=7 photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=5 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=5 In occasione della riunione dei governanti dei maggiori paesi industrializzati, i movimenti no-global e le associazioni pacifiste diedero vita a manifestazioni di dissenso poi sfociate in gravi tumulti di piazza con scontri le cui proporzioni ed effetti non si erano mai verificate nei decenni precedenti in Italia, e che culminarono con la morte del manifestante Carlo Giuliani.
Nei sei anni successivi ci sono state alcune condanne in sede civile nei confronti dello Stato Italiano per abusi e violenze commessi dalle forze dell'ordine. In sede penale sono stati aperti diversi procedimenti contro manifestanti e contro alcuni esponenti delle forze dell'ordine per abusi compiuti durante la manifestazione. Circa 250 di questi procedimenti (originati da denunce nei confronti di esponenti delle forze dell'ordine per lesioni) sono stati archiviati per l'impossibilità di identificare gli agenti responsabili; in molti di questi casi, la magistratura ha però ritenuto effettivamente avvenuti i reati contestati.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=10 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=10 These women take the sport very seriously, as they formed themselves into the first and largest UK league in April 2006. They have twice a week training sessions in an East End leisure centre. There is a lot of shouting not only when the girls are “jamming” as they call the competition, but also during the training, very physical and fast paced. They call each other with skating nicknames like Bambi Manslaughter or Sleazy rider, each has to register on line on an official database, so as not to take anyone else’s name by mistake. It is a very self organised adventure they have all embarked on, team spirit being the main philosophy, hence the feminist links.
Roller derby originates in the US during the 1930s, invented by a business man, Leo Selzer, and was originally played in mixed teams. It reached the height of is popularity in the 1950s and 60s, when games were regularly broadcasted on TV and players were paid professionals. It then fell out of fashion and has recently enjoyed a fast revival as a girl only amateur sport. The Leagues in America are more than 100, and it has been gaining popularity here in Europe in the past 18 months, with four leagues in the UK, one in Sweden and another in Germany.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=11 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=11 This huge 20,000-square-metre facility is divided in three pavilions dedicated to the director Luchino Visconti, the stage designer Nicola Benois and the costume designer Luigi Sapelli (aka Caramba). Most of the handmade works for the production are carried out there - set design, sculpture, thermoforming, carpentry works, mechanics workshop, set assembly, costume workshop, costume design, laundry. The premises hold more than 60,000 stage costumes, and include practice rooms for the chorus and a stage area for direction rehearsals which perfectly corresponds to the Piermarini stage.
This heritage exists thanks to the daily work of more than 150 workers including joiners, blacksmiths, carpenters, set designers, scenography technicians, sculptors, dressmakers and costume designers who create the whole staging from a simple sketch.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=12 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=12 FREEOPERA is a football team of one of Italy’s most modern detention facilities, the High Security Penitentiary of Opera, in Milan. Born out of the requests of the prisoners themselves, the team members have been chosen by the inmates.
Inmates serving life sentences play and train next to the ones who have committed minor offences, since the only criteria for participation is how good are their footballing skills. Because the time runs slowly and to be able to have an activity is a privilege, all who are allowed to be part of the Freeopera team are truly dedicated and live their days inside to be able to go to the field which they can see from the windows of the their cells.
The team has always been confined to games inside, only “home” games, but has competed against normal teams in the 3rd category National Football Federation in 2003 to try and reach the 2nd category promotion.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=18 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=18 In May 2000 a frustrated Ethiopia launched a full-scale invasion into western and central Eritrea, aiming at maximum economic destruction, destroying newly constructed plants, offices, hotels and residences. Having re-captured Badme and other disputed areas, and under considerable pressure from the international community, Ethiopia halted its advances and both sides signed a cease-fire on June 18th 2000. Six months later a final peace treaty was signed, with both countries agreeing to resolve the dispute through binding international arbitration.
The war with Ethiopia has destroyed the Eritrean economy. From the signing of the Algeri Treaty nothing has been like before and on top of this tightening of the belt for everyone remaining, President Afewerki has made any attempt to create political change or opposition impossible with every mean. Amnesty international has openly denounced the banning of all independent information activity in Eritrea since in 2002, 15 journalists and 18 political dissidents were imprisoned without trial and accusations. They have since not been released and no news of their health or whereabouts has been given by government sources.
To make the situation worse, since the beginning of 2006 all foreign NGOs have been banned from being present in the country and as an act of defiance to the UNMEE all American, European and Canadian UM workers have been denied work and living permits in the country, with the accusations of favouring Ethiopia’s expansion into Eritrean territory.
From a social point of view, the police and military control on the population, the repression of all political and religious dissent (since may 2002 all religious confessions different from orthodox, catholic Eritrean evangelical and Sunni Muslims have been banned), have posed a real threat to internal stability. The compulsory military service, which perpetuates itself for even 10 years for some and the continuous state of alert for war is slowly draining the population’s hard fought dream of independence and national unity which forged Eritrea in 1993.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=14 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=14 photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=15 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=15 Their peculiarity doesn’t only reside in their way of life, in symbiosis with the mountains, but their special language, the Titzschu, a Germanic language originating from the Saxon emigrations, carrying with them the Viking past and traditions. They have 14 ways of describing a precipice or a cliff hanging, as well as an infinite array of words for all that concerns milk. Till the 1940s this ancient language in these areas was the dominant expression, and today it is kept alive by a few of those living dictionaries, as are considered the elderly.
Their emigration to these parts of the Alps, where no one dared to life, is traceable to the 13th century. These Vikings of the Alps however were not pirates. They settled themselves above the forests of pine and chestnuts, to prevent conflicts with the local populations. Thus making the pastures and mountain tops their habitats, giving them independence and peace. They had no dogs, or animals for transports, and built their houses using exclusively the materials which surrounded them, collectively by the whole village. This is the real Walser heritage which still survives today.
They are simple people who try to preserve their language and in particular their unique cultural heritage, their feeling of being together with the environment. These populations are spread over the whole of the Alps and according to a recent estimate they count about 13 thousand 8 hundred individuals, the majority of whom live in Austria, around 10 thousand. Then comes Italy, with 3 and half thousand then Switzerland. Their main activity is herding cattle for milk and making cheese, which in summer have to be taken to different pastures, to make sure their natural and biological cycle has a change in climate and alimentation.
Lidia and Edoardo Ferla live above Alagna, basically like their ancestors. Their daily rhythms are given by their natural surroundings, the changes in season, the fall of snow and the needs of their cattle, which with their old age advancing have to be fewer and fewer. They live with their cows on the lowest level of the house and the hay in the highest. Their living space in between, where the heat gathers, although when they where children, in winter, they would sleep and live n little rooms next to the cowshed, where the cheese making room now is. In fact, almost everything else in their Walser house is original, from the floors of the cattle shed to the roof in slate. Their daughter lives with them, and although she is also a primary teacher in Alagna, she maintains a strong link with her parents’ work.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=16 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=16 Each year the activities of the Parliament cycle between committee weeks where reports are discussed in committees and inter-parliamentary delegations meet, political group weeks for members to discuss work within their political groups and session weeks where members spend 3½ days in Strasbourg for part-sessions.
Speakers in the European Parliament are entitled to speak in any of the EU's 27 official languages, and this is another recurring object of debate, as all the staff used for simultaneous translation amounts to enormous costs of the EU, and its citizens.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=17 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=17 The European Union is governed by a number of institutions, these primarily being the Commission, Council and Parliament. The European council is the place delegated to the discussion and vote for the Constitutional drafts is the European Council in Brussels, through the Intergovernmental consultations which take place 4 times a year. These meetings gather national delegations and members of the press from all the 27 member countries, potential members and third countries interested in the European Constitutional process. Even if the media is not officially a European institution, journalists and media operators certainly play an enormous role of filter between the steps of the EU constitutional progress and the single nations’ attitudes towards Europe as a supranational political entity.
The European Union has already delved deep into the single member States’ internal economic mechanisms and it seems to be growing in political terms, as it wants to establish itself as a sovereign entity. This perception of the European Union, as a genuine national concern which should be for all people to get involved in, is really only delegated to the national media present during the important decisive institutional moments. There it becomes apparent how natural it is to have a great array of national opinions and stances, all still quite far from the European Institutions intentions of unity and stability. Even if the media is not officially a European institution, journalists and media operators certainly play an enormous role of filter between the steps of the EU constitutional progress and the single nations’ attitudes towards Europe as a supranational political entity.
The idea behind the images proposed is to take a look behind the scenes of what usually comes from the media during the official meetings in the EU’s palaces. Official hand shakes and press conferences are looked at from a different angle and stripped of what is the final judgement or conclusion taken from the particular meeting. Because the EU is still in process of becoming a truly solid reference for “Europeans”, the actors involved in these processes are often passer bys and temporary, like the media correspondents so are the politicians involved. The only truly unmoving parts of the European Council remain the national briefing rooms, which sit empty for the majority of the time, like small abandoned theatres. They remain there for each country and national leader to play their part to their nation and determine which role they decide to play in Europe.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=19 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=19 photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=20 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=20 In these inner city's islands time is literally money and there is no other reason for people to be or go there if not to work in or in connection to the monolithic companies and banks of the City. In fact the glass buildings and impenetrable skyscrapers put the everyday City workers, who are like any other person, in a deeply contrast with what should be their environment. The contrast is overwhelming and natural as unnatural are these financial areas, which are only alive for money and creation of money in a form which is impalpable and virtual to most people. Economic gains from banking and financial instruments have proven to be virtual and borderline with reality and the real economy with the 2008 world economic crisis, where financial institutions can be said to have negatively influenced people's everyday life out of proportion. Financial districts in cities like London life a life of their own, which never stops. Their workers may have schedules and working hours, but the companies present in these environments never stop, following the markets 24 hours a day around the globe.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=21 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=21 These women take the sport very seriously, as they formed themselves into the first and largest UK league in April 2006. They have twice a week training sessions in an East End leisure centre. There is a lot of shouting not only when the girls are “jamming” as they call the competition, but also during the training, very physical and fast paced. They call each other with skating nicknames like Bambi Manslaughter or Sleazy rider, each has to register on line on an official database, so as not to take anyone else’s name by mistake. It is a very self organised adventure they have all embarked on, team spirit being the main philosophy, hence the feminist links.
Roller derby originates in the US during the 1930s, invented by a business man, Leo Selzer, and was originally played in mixed teams. It reached the height of is popularity in the 1950s and 60s, when games were regularly broadcasted on TV and players were paid professionals. It then fell out of fashion and has recently enjoyed a fast revival as a girl only amateur sport. The Leagues in America are more than 100, and it has been gaining popularity here in Europe in the past 18 months, with four leagues in the UK, one in Sweden and another in Germany.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=22 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=22 Every year Italian immigrants from all over London and England reunite for the Procession of the Madonna del Carmine to take the saints originating from their home villages from the Church to the streets to celebrate them. The mass and moments after are very sacred, with a lot of donations, especially from pious women come especially to touch and praise the saints, essential moment in their spiritual fulfilment. The ore surrounding these Italian faces transplanted to Britain forty to fifty years ago is unique as approach the clay statues to prays and cherish the moments after their donations, before the leave for the procession. It is then the men’s turn to hoist them on their shoulders and slowly carry them round the neighbourhood, as they have done for the past 100 and odd years.
London streets stop for half a day in Clerkenwell to the 2000 odd “pilgrims” and their saints, followed by procession floats in costume and looked on by another 2000 people, passer bys and those who for some reasons decided not to take part directly. The floats are a rare site in the UK because of the young people on them re-enacting scenes from the bible, the apostles, angels and a Madonna are paraded as the Pope himself, at the head of the float procession, with cardinals around him.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=23 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=23 photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=24 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=24 Prostitution in Germany is legal and widespread. In 2003, the government changed the law in an effort to improve the legal situation of prostitutes. However, the social stigmatization of prostitutes persists, forcing most prostitutes to lead a double life. Studies in the early 1990s estimated that about 150,000 - 500,000 women and some men work as prostitutes in Germany. The prostitutes' organization puts the number at 400,000, and this is the number typically quoted in the press today.
Apartment prostitution. (Wohnungspuffs) There are many of these advertised in the newspapers. Sometime run by a single women, sometimes by a group of roommates and sometimes as safehouses for traffickers.
Since 2001 prostitutes and brothels are allowed to advertise. Many newspapers carry daily ads for brothels and for women working out of apartments. Many have websites on the Internet. In addition, sex shops sell magazines specializing in advertisements of prostitutes.]]> photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro) http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=25 http://www.maurobottaro.it/work.php?number=25 photo@maurobottaro.it (Mauro Bottaro)