This book is the result of a combination of an experience in participative social research and an experiment in documentary photography. “Europe deports” focuses on a group of refugee seekers living in a refugee centre in the province of Varese that seeks to shed light on European laws on asylum. It focuses on an absurd communitarian regulation that forces refugee seekers to return to the first European country in which they entered to ask for protection and wait for bureaucracy to take its course – effectively deporting them. The book recounts the life histories of five refugees, complemented with photographic works. The visual component shirks sensationalism, instead using the still life technique: presenting objects chosen by the refugee seekers themselves to represent the things they brought with them during their journeys to Europe.
Authors:
Paolo Grassi has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Verona. He has carried out ethnographic research in the Dominican Republic and Guatemala. His last book, “The urban limbo” (Ombre Corte 2015), describes the urban structure of Guatemala City focusing on a specific social phenomenon, namely juvenile gangs.
Matteo Spertini is 26 years old. He is a graphic designer and a photographer. He has a B.A. from the Brera Academy of Milan with an Erasmus at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Dijon, France. He attended a master class in documentary photography at the John Kaverdash Academy of Photography in Milan. He is carrying out research on social realities at the edge of consumerism in Europe and elsewhere: a small rural community in the Alps between Italy and Switzerland and the life of an Irish hermit constitute the first chapters of an on-going work. He is also working on a report about Siberian orphanages.
Christian Parolari was born in Rovereto, Italy, on April 14th, 1986. He lives on the Northern side of the Lake of Garda, a place that constitutes the theme of his first serial work. He attended a master in photography in Milan, focusing on photojournalism. A pair of stylistic and career choices has led him to explore the fields of instantaneous photography as well as still life and post-production techniques. He is currently developing projects related to images and photographic research not necessarily connected to the act of releasing the shutter.
Book launch party
words P.Grassi
graphic design M.Spertini
photos di C.Parolari
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