ALESSANDRO GRASSANI | PHOTOGRAPHER

Alessandro Grassani (b.1977, Italy) graduates in photography at the Riccardo Bauer Institute of Milano, where he lives. 

His work has appeared in numerous international publications including Sunday Times, New York Times, Time, El Pais, Foreign Policy, Der Spiegel, Mare, Vanity Fair, Internazionale, D of La Repubblica and Sette of Corriere della Sera. Grassani’s corporate clients have included Enel SPA, Lufthansa, Ferrovie dello Stato (the Italian State railway company), CommerzBank and ICE(Italian foreign trade institution).

He goes to Albania in the period of the landslide of the pyramidal societies and the clandestine immigration towards Italy, travels in the Balkans, around South America, Asia and Middle East, covering international events and stories in more than 30 countries in the world. In 2004 with the funeral of Yasser Arafat he started to cover the ongoing conflicts in Israel and Palestine. He is in the Gaza Strip before and during the clearing out of the colonies and again returns after the Hamas election victory and the military operation by the Israelis called “Summer Rain”.
 He also works in Iran, where he goes for the first time at the end of 2003 to record the effects of the Bam earthquake. He returns many times after the election victory of the conservative president Ahmadinejad: he investigates the situation of the Hebrew-Iranian Jews and he works on a long-term project about the complex Iranian society. In 2011 he begins a new long-term project entitled “Environmental migrants: the last illusion” documenting around the world the life of the people forced to migrate because of climate changes and with no alternative to the illusion of a better life in the city.

Website

Alessandro Grassani nasce a Pavia nel 1977, si laurea in fotografia presso l'Istituto Riccardo Bauer di Milano, città dove vive. Inizia a lavorare come fotografo nel settore della pubblicità. Con il tempo la sua attenzione si è spostata verso una fotografia di approfondimento e indagine su importanti tematiche sociali che l’hanno portato a lavorare dal Sud America all’Asia, dal medio Oriente all’ Europa afflitta dalla crisi finanziaria, viaggiando per oltre 30 Paesi e pubblicando i suoi reportage sulle principali testate giornalistiche internazionali, tra gli altri, The New York Times, Sunday Times, Sette del Corriere della Sera, Vanity Fair e Internazionale.

Attualmente sta lavorando a un nuovo progetto a lungo termine chiamato “Environmental migrants: the last illusion”, documentando in diversi Paesi, la vita di chi – a causa dei cambiamenti climatici - è costretto a lasciare la campagna per emigrare in città.

I suoi lavori sono stati esposti in mostre personali e collettive in Italia, Londra, Madrid, Tokyo, New York, Parigi e ai Recontres d’ Arles e sono stati premiati al Sony World Photography Awards, Days Japan International Awards, Luis Valtuena Humanitarian Photography Award, PX3 International Awards, Premio Lucchetta-Miran Hrovatin, IPA International Photography Awards e hanno ricevuto una menzione d’onore al Memorial Mario Giacomelli, premio Amilcare Ponchielli e premio FNAC.

All images © Alessandro Grassani/ LuzPhoto

http://www.luzphoto.com/

>>>

L’ISOLA DELLE DONNE DIMENTICATE

Alessandro Grassani

Asia, Bangladesh, Khulna district, Bani Shanta, one of the 14 official brothels in Bangladesh, a Muslim nation where prostitution is considered legal.

07/2011. View of the brothel with a prostitute walking when the Pashur river is in flood. The brothel is located in the Bay of Bengala where sea level rise is getting dangerous and dangerous for the pronstitutes living in the Bani Shanta brothel which can goes under water at any time now. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. Rosina and a client are getting in Rosina's house. Rosina doesn?t know exactly her age but she says she is around 20-22 years old. She is just arrived 2 months ago because her husband sold her to a "shordarni" one of the ?mothers householder?. A shordarni is a woman, ex-prostitute, who had enouth money to buy houses and prostitutes and now lives taking rent and a percentage on every clients to the prostitutes. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. Pia smoking a sigarette in public. To smoke in public is forbidden by prejudiced for a woman in Bangladesh, only prostitutes feels and is free to smoke everywhere. Pia is 25 years old and her family doesn?t know where she is and what she is doing. Her father promised her as spouse but she didn?t want to get married that man, that?s why she decided to run away from her family. She fell in love with a man that after a while decided to sell her to one of the ?mother householder? in the brothel and from that moment she became a prostitute. She has now two babies living with her in the brothel, she had them when she got married with a client who run away just after the second child came. She says that life in the brothel is getting difficult and difficult from when the Mongla port is closed, there are only few clients and moreover local clients with few money to lose. She asks to every single client between 150 to 200 thaka (2 euro) and pays for her small house 500 thaka a month. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. A prostitute going with a client in her home. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. Pia and Zosna contend for a client. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. View of the brothel with a prostitute and her children when the Pashur river is in flood. The brothel is located in the Bay of Bengala where sea level rise is getting dangerous and dangerous for the pronstitutes living in the Bani Shanta brothel which can goes under water at any time now. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. View of the brothel when the Pashur river is in flood. The brothel is located in the Bay of Bengala where sea level rise is getting dangerous and dangerous for the pronstitutes living in the Bani Shanta brothel which can goes under water at any time now. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011, Asia, Bangladesh, Khulna district, Bani Shanta, one of the 14 official brothels in Bangladesh, a Muslim nation where prostitution is considered legal. A prostitute having bath in the Pashur river, all the prostitute are used to bath in the dirty river water thats because the lack of bathroom in the brothel. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. Zosna 45 years old getting ready for a day of work. She works in the brothel from 15 years and before of this she was working in a rice factory. she decide to quite her job in the factory because her husband left her when her daughter was only 1 years old and with the factory salary she was not able to support her daugther. Her daughter is now 13 years old she knows what her mother does and she feels ashamed. Her daughter is living with her grandmother in Bagagharat ( a city a couple of hours from the brothel) and thanks to the money Zosna is able to send home she is going to school. Zosna visits her daughter twice a year. Life for Zosna is difficoult at least twice because she is getting old and the few clients remained they prefer to go together with younger prostitute but fortunatly she has some fixed clients and she is still able to earn enough to sustein her daughter. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. Zorina making up and getting ready for a day of work. Zorina doesn?t know exactly her age but she says she is around 20-22 years old. She is just arrived 2 months ago because her husband sold her to a "shordarni" one of the ?mothers householder?. A shordarni is a woman, ex-prostitute, who had enouth money to buy houses and prostitutes and now lives taking rent and a percentage on every clients to the prostitutes. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. Rosina waiting for a client outside her home. Rosina doesn?t know exactly her age but she says she is around 20-22 years old. She is just arrived 2 months ago because her husband sold her to a "shordarni" one of the ?mothers householder?. A shordarni is a woman, ex-prostitute, who had enouth money to buy houses and prostitutes and now lives taking rent and a percentage on every clients to the prostitutes. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. Saheda Begum is taking care to an her friend' s baby, working in the brothel and leaving next door. She arrived to Bani Shanta when she was 15/16 years old. She worked as prostitute in the brothel for almost 20 years but she does't want to tell her story because as she says " it is too sad ti hear my story". Now she is a "shordarni" and it means that she is the boss of the prostitute working in her houses, she gets rent from them and also a percentage on their profit. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. Rupali, 27 years old cookin in her small house where she receive client and lives her daily life. She got married when she was very young and after few months she was sold by her husband to the brothel. She is young and beautiful but with the crisis caused by climate changes and the reduced discharge of the river and the capacity of the port of Mongla she earns only 150 taka (1,5 euro) for every single meeting with a client. She pays for her small corrugated iron house a rent of 500 hungred taka (5 euro) a month. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto
  07/2011. Posters in a prostitute house. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. Two prostitute making advances to a client. Two prostitute contend for a client. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

7/2011. Prostitutes contending a client. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. View of the brothel with a prostitute washing dishes when the Pashur river is in flood. The brothel is located in the Bay of Bengala where sea level rise is getting dangerous and dangerous for the pronstitutes living in the Bani Shanta brothel which can goes under water at any time now. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011.  A local ngo with the support of the Italian Mani Tese has just started a project of alternative work to save the prostitutes from misery. The prostitutes are producing string, sold to local factory producing local handycraft. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011.  Pia at home with her younger son. Pia is 25 years old and her family doesn?t know where she is and what she is doing. Her father promised her as spouse but she didn?t want to get married that man, that?s why she decided to run away from her family. She fell in love with a man that after a while decided to sell her to one of the ?mother householder? in the brothel and from that moment she became a prostitute. She has now two babies living with her in the brothel, she had them when she got married with a client who run away just after the second child came. She says that life in the brothel is getting difficult and difficult from when the Mongla port is closed, there are only few clients and moreover local clients with few money to lose. She asks to every single client between 150 to 200 thaka (2 euro) and pays for her small house 500 thaka a month. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

07/2011. View of port of Mongla the second largest in the country before climate changes has reduced the discharge of the river Pashur. © Alessandro Grassani / LUZphoto

• http://www.luzphoto.com/
• http://www.alessandrograssani.com/

>>>

INTEGRALISMO E VOGLIA DI LIBERTÀ IN IRAN

“Sono tornato in Iran l’ultima volta nel 2009, anno in cui il regime ha festeggiato il trentesimo anniversario della rivoluzione e anno in cui il popolo iraniano ha fatto sentire la propria voce più forte che mai, mostrando al mondo un Iran diverso da quello che credevamo di conoscere. Obiettivo del mio lavoro è raccontare la complessità di questa società, perché l'Iran non è solo fondamentalismo e propaganda. Anzi, mentre in altre capitali del Medio Oriente l'Islam è diventato il catalizzatore dell'insoddisfazione nei confronti del governo, a Teheran la gente si allontana sempre più dalla religione, che identifica con i governanti stessi.
Ho viaggiato per migliaia e migliaia di km nelle zone più remote, dove vivono le minoranze etniche, il 45% della popolazione dell''intero Paese. Kurdi, Baluchi, Azeri, Arabi, Turkmeni e Lor cercano di affermare i loro diritti, la loro appartenenza e la loro voglia di autonomia, in contrasto con un regime che li reprime e nel quale non si riconoscono. Il mio viaggio si è concluso a Teheran, città in cui è palpabile la divisione della società iraniana e dove i giovani (il 70% della popolazione ha meno di 35 anni) sono ben consapevoli dei limiti della loro società e guardano all'occidente come un modello da seguire.”


Sono le parole del fotografo Alessandro Grassani, che da anni va in giro per il mondo e immortala i più scottanti temi di attualità: Albania, Sudamerica, Striscia di Gaza, e adesso l’Iran.


L’Iran, oltre a essere una nazione lacerata dall’integralismo islamico e oppressa dal fanatico presidente Ahmanedinejad, è anche un paese dove migliaia di giovani lottano ogni giorno per la libertà, dove la maggioranza degli studenti odia il regime e respinge l’interpretazione oscurantista dell’Islam, dove Kurdi, Baluchi, Azeri, Arabi, Turkmeni e Lor cercano di affermare i propri diritti.



Gli splendidi scatti di Alessandro Grassani ci mostrano il grande desiderio di libertà e lo straordinario spirito di ribellione che alimenta le speranze di una nuova generazione di iraniani.


I nostri telegiornali parlano soprattutto della terrificante corsa al nucleare di Ahmanedinejad, ma qualche mese fa le immagini della Rivoluzione Verde hanno commosso tutto il mondo.



È importante che non ci si dimentichi dell’Iran e della sua straordinaria popolazione: perché, accanto a infamie come le condanne a morte degli adulteri con la lapidazione, accanto alle torture e alle uccisioni di bambine “che hanno peccato”, c’è qualcuno che lotta contro tutto questo, contro la famigerata Rivoluzione Khomeinista, contro l’oppressione e l’ingiustizia.

all images © Alessandro Grassani

http://www.alessandrograssani.com/

>>>