MICHELE CAZZANI | PHOTOGRAPHER

Michele Cazzani was born in 1966 in Milan. After studying Law, he attended the Italian Institute of Photography in Milan. He has been a professional photographer since 1994, specializing mainly in social reportage and sports photography for various Italian and foreign magazines. In 1996 he covered the Paralympics in Atlanta for the magazine “Freely” and for “Gazzetta dello Sport Magazine” (Sportweek). The images were also published in the US (LIFE magazine), Great Britain (Sunday Times Magazine special issue, sports photography of the year) and Germany (MAX). In 1998 “CAMPIONI, Immagini dall’altro Sport” was published, a photographic book celebrating the champions of disabled sport. Michele continued to concentrate on sports photography, collaborating on a regular basis with Sport Week, Saturday colour supplement of La Gazzetta dello Sport (reference: Giovanna Calvenzi, photo-editor). From 1998 to 2000 he worked in the Middle East and the Balkans documenting the activities of various organizations of International Cooperation, most notably Emergency (reference: Teresa Sarti, president of Emergency). This work documenting Emergency’s activities in their surgical and rehabilitation centres situated in Iraqi Kurdistan, was subsequently published in the book “Kurdistan, Paradiso minato”. Michele’s contribution to the humanitarian sector developed furthermore with the foundation in 2007 of PhotoAid (www.photoaid.eu) a nonprofit photography agency for social reportage, of which he is also the President. PhotoAid aims to provide both Italian and foreign humanitarian associations with top quality photographic documentation of their activities in the field, where possible free of charge. Michele has worked as photographer for the agency Grazia Neri (reference: Elena Ceratti, production manager) both as freelance photographer for various Italian newspapers and magazines, as photo-reporter and portrait photographer; notably with the following publicatioins: Corriere della Sera, Gazzetta dello Sport, Class (monthly magazine, Class Editori), IO Donna (weekly, RCS), Anna (weekly, RCS), Qui Touring (special bi-monthly magazine published by Italian Touring Club), Ventiquattro (monthly supplement of Sole 24 Ore) and Internazionale (weekly international news magazine). During the month of September 2007 Michele coordinated the photographic coverage of “MITO settembre musica”, an important international music festival sponsored by Milan and Turin city councils. In collaboration with the Italian Institute of Photography, Michele produced the book “Denaro in fotografia” (social reportage on money) and “”Tram e Metropolitana – un viaggio sottosopra per Milano” (social reportage on Milan’s public transport system).

Michele Cazzani, nato a Milano, collabora come fotografo free-lance con varie testate italiane. Il taglio "positivo" del suo reportage sulle Paraolimpiadi di Atlanta, svolte nel 1996, ha attirato l'interesse di EMERGENCY che l'ha scelto per documentare la loro attività umanitaria nel Kurdistan Iracheno. Nell'agosto 1998 è partito per Sulaimaniya.
Questo lavoro fotografico è frutto di cinque settimane di lavoro, trascorse fra sminatori, guerriglieri Pesh Merga, sfollati e gente comune, e fra i pazienti dei centri chirurgici di EMERGENCY.

All images © Michele Cazzani

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