JAVIER CORSO//

WINNER GRANT PHOTON 2015 – OLLEROS PHOTON FESTIVAL AWARD

FISHSHOT (project) // 

Fish Shot is a documentary, photographic and audiovisual project, which portrays the hardest and least known reality of Finland . A country that stands for quality of life but it hides high rates of suicide, homicide and violence. The common denominator present in more than half of the above cases, is the excessive consumption of alcohol. A problem rooted in Finnish society causes, directly or indirectly, a huge number of deaths among the population.
A subjective look that relies on social geographical environment surrounding the individual and based on data and experience gathered in the country. Images that try to reflect the atmosphere and conditions under which the Finnish society live: the emotional isolation, emotional repression and exaltation of self-sufficiency largely explain the causes of their problems.

www.javiercorso.com/fishshot

https://www.facebook.com/fishshot.project

https://instagram.com/javiercorso

@javiercorso

MIKEL OIBAR //

WINNER FUJIFILM PHOTON FESTIVAL 2015 AWARD

WINTER DONBASS // 

Winter has come to the region of Donbass. What a year ago was a quiet, tourism and the richest region of Ukraine, has now become a devastating war scenario. A stagnant war that has claimed more than 6,000 lives and has displaced more than two million people.

The citizens of Donbass have spent the winter under shelling, hiding in underground shelters, with continuous power outages, water, gas or electricity due to the destruction of infrastructure, trying to repair the houses, mines, hospitals or destroyed schools and temperatures they have reached -25.

When asked when the conflict ends, no one answers soon

https://www.facebook.com/mikel.oibar

http://www.nerviofoto.com/fotografos/mikel-oibar

@mikeloibar

CRISTINA ALDEHUELA//

LELO BURTY, HONOURING YOU// PhotOn Grant Finalist 2015

Each Easter Sunday in Shukhuti, a small village in the southeast of Georgia, their citizens celebrates an event full of love and memories for those who died. Each Easter Sunday they remember their deceased relatives and friends playing a match known as Lelo Burti. Lelo, a combination of rugby and fight almost taken to extremes. For a whole day they play honouring and remembering all those who they loved and are no longer with them. Victory is not about winning, victory is more than this. It is a tribute to their neighbors who are no longer there, a way of expressing that they will be always with them. At the end of the match, they will leave a ball in the grave of the person who died most recently. Thus, year after year. The cemetery is a blanket of old balls that recall that they were and are still loved. Lelo is not only a game, a sport; Lelo is passion, strength, faith and devotion.

http://cristinaaldehuelafoto.tumblr.com/

 http://instagram.com/cristina.aldehuela

@crisaldehuela

EMANUELE NUTILE//

DOLCE AMARO // Photon Grant finalist 2015

Francesca is a Neapolitan woman who is about to turn seventy years old.

Born into a poor family of peasants, she had to leave school very early for working in the fields and take care of their siblings. After finishing long working hours, Francesca returned to his modest house by bicycle, crossing the long and steaming gravel roads. A young man saw her passing daily, amazed by the strength of this young lady without childhood.

Years passed and they fell in love, although their fields were not surrounded of almonds trees anymore, but of towers of cement and suburbs in continued expansion, and social gaps and crime rate expanded with them, making honest life difficult to carry out. One day her husband decided to look for a new life outside the city, shortly afterwards she followed him towards the hard life of the fields and the healthy contact with nature.

25 years have passed since Francesca lives in the mountains with back ache and taking care of his  deaf-mute and paraplegic brother, and remembering while smoking this little girl buzzing among the almond trees. It’s nice to see the inner strength of this woman that doesn’t stop before any obstacle and gives away smiles to her back ache, and opens the door to foreigners and loves life as it is.

http://www.emanuelenutile.com/
https://www.facebook.com/emanuele.nutile
@emanuelenutile

CÉSAR PASTOR//

THE HURLER EQUATION // Photon Grant finalist 2015

Essay: The Hurler Equation (Work in progress)

The Mucopolysaccaridosis Type I (MP S I) also known as Hurler syndrome  

It is an inherited metabolic disease that affects 1 out of every 175,000 births, what directly places it within the group of the so called rare diseases.

This type of genetic incidents appear in the early years of life. Initially, the babies affected don’t show any obvious symptom but as they grow, they cease to develop properly what is followed by a progressive mental deterioration. Generally, children stop growing at the age of 3 years old and they present particular facial features such as flat face, bulging forehead and flat nasal bridge.

Due to the neurological impairment caused by the disease, the life expectancy of the children affected doesn’t exceed the 9 years old.

Ignacio Utrilla, Nacho, has 7 years old and lives in Pulgar a small town near

Toledo. With just one year he was diagnosed with the Hurler Syndrome. Since then his life and the life of his family is a non-stop journey to different Spanish hospitals.

Three years ago Nacho underwent a bone marrow transplant, which didn’t  stop the devastating effect of the disease but has noticeably improved his quality life.

“The Hurler Equation” is a documentary essay, started in 2014 and currently under development.

Through Nacho, his family and his environment I try to document the evolution of this tragic disease without cure of which is very difficult to find information.

https://www.facebook.com/kaesar81

TOMMASO RADA//

FORGOTTEN SOLDIERS // Photon Grant finalist 2015

In the 1961 Portugal, governed by the dictator Salazar, started a war in one of his colony, Angola. Soon problems emerge also in the others African Colonies, Guiné Bissau and Mozambique, the war quickly expanded on the three fronts. This bloody war, that was going to be named Portuguese Colonial War, ended only in the 1974 when the Portuguese regimen full down.

While in the rest of Europe the youth was fighting for their rights and for a new society, in Portugal an entire generation of men between 18 and 30 years old was receiving a mandatory call to go to the war. 
During the postcolonial war, in the three fronts (Angola, Mozambique and Guiné Bissau) the number of men sent was 149 thousand (the Portugal population is 10 millions including elders, women and children); 8289 died on the fields and 15507 report injuries; in these statistics are not counted all the ones that later suffered of PTSD.

For the ones injured the worst still have had to come. In fact back to Portugal, the regimen first and the Portuguese govern after the 1974 didn’t wanted to show to the population the effect of the war. The people injured were hidden and segregated in military hospitals where only few people was able to access and also after they was dismissed several fundamental rights wasn’t recognized: many amputated soldiers have had to wait years before receiving the prosthesis for their lost limbs and many veterans they have had to fight for their rights to obtain their deserved soldier annuity. The Portuguese Govern recognized the PTSD as disease only in 1999, 25 years after the end of the war, a large number of veterans of the Colonial War still suffer of PTSD while there are still former soldiers that fought for their country that are not receiving the proper treatment for this disease. The Portuguese veterans represent the long-term effect of the war. Forgot by the society, hidden by the authority their physical and psychological trauma became every year more acute.

tommasorada@tommasorada.com

www.tommasorada.com

@tommasorada

MAR SÁEZ//

VERA AND VICTORIA // Photon Grant finalist 2015

Vera and Victoria are two young teens who met over two years ago and fell in love. Vera is vegetarian, is ending Classical Philology and fascinated by animals. Victoria combine temporary jobs as a waitress. It is a torrent of vitality and loves you surprise her and she loves being stolen kisses when she least expect it. Vera feels female from infancy through age 18 but not confessed to his family. Since then it stopped being called Bernardo and the boy disappeared from his life. He is an activist and is proud of her body. Does not intend to undergo any surgery. Argues that sexual identity is at the head of each person and genital reassignment is a personal and individual decision. Victoria was 14 years old the first time she seduced a girl. He felt sorry that was a lesbian, she knew her family would not understand. Homosexuality was a taboo subject at home. Years later was relieved to find it was bisexual. From Vera, she loves that she make feel her special and unique. She lost in her eyes. She did not care she was transsexual. She love her like never before had loved anyone. Vera and Victoria are two young teens of 26 and 22 who have dreams, hopes, fears and dreams. The project began in 2012 as a visual diary and after each encounter with them a new page is written. This is an intimate portrait of this young couple and wealth of their relationship.

www.marsaez.com

https://www.facebook.com/mar.saez

https://instagram.com/marsaezphotography

JUANJO PÉREZ M.//

UKHUPACHA // Photon Grant finalist 2015

Ukhupacha deals with the riots that struck the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios, the mining heart of the country, during March of 2014.

In this zone that is part of the Lote 76 work miners for over 30 years. Previous governments promoted this mining where there is also the nature reserve of Amarakedi, inhabited by the indigenous communities; Harakmbut and Matsigugega.

Several factors led to this instability, although the final trigger was the Government attempt to regularise the minner’s situation. To date, only 10% of the 70,000 workers have successfully completed the necessary processes. The main obstacle for them is the state sale of the Lote 76 to the US gas extraction multinational Hunt Oil.

During 14 days, the mining community mobilized themselves blocking the Pan American highway; one of the gateways of supplies in Peru, unblocking this one hour per day. In response to the protests the Peruvian Government mobilized 1,500 civilian police personnel who despite their great number fail to control the protests. The escalation of tension raised and ended with a heavy military repression, the destruction of several mines and the death of a father of a family due to the gunfire from the army.

To date there has been no persons responsible.

https://www.facebook.com/juanjo.perezmonclus

@juanjopmfoto

ANDREA DE FRANCISCIS//

THEY SHALL NEVER DIE // Photon Grant finalist 2015

The work carried out through this project was initially based upon the production of charas, or cannabis resin, but it gradually developed into an anthropological exploration of the customs and traditions of the Indian Himalayas.

More than 1,600 hectares of cultivable farmland and 500 hectares of public forests are currently under cannabis in the Northern states at the Himalayan foothills. The total illegal production is difficult to estimate due to the lack of reliable data but it is believed to secure a livelihood to thousands of families in the area.

Unlike other types or cannabis resin, charas is produced by “rubbing” the plant while it is still alive and collecting the resin from the hands. This practice, compared to the usual “beating” and “filtering” of the dry plats, as in Moroccan or Nepali tradition, takes a longer time and gives less but more qualitative resin. The peculiar manufacturing it was shaped in the seventies, when sadhus (Hindu holy men) and hippies reached those villages where marijuana was growing wild, teaching locals how to “rub” the plants and make qualitative hashish.

On the global market, Indian charas is considered as the king of hashish’s and it can cost up to 25US$ per gram, but the farmers who produce the costly resin struggle with hunger, harsh climate and always tougher legislation.

Entire families and villages in the valley thrive on illegal cannabis production, being a very profitable business and the only activity that allows them to survive so isolated from the rest of the world; anti-drug crusaders are helpless in the face of local economic realities and demand-supply chain.

Since 1985 the production has been declared illegal in India, although the use of cannabis has deep roots in Indian society. International pressure to curb the problem led to an increase of the price on the global market and worsened the situation of the villagers, who have no real alternative for their livelihood.

The title “Charsi kabhi na marsi” refers to the popular hymn by villagers “Charas-makers (shall) never die”

http://www.andreadefranciscis.com/

http://instagram.com/andreadefranciscis

https://www.facebook.com/andrea.defranciscis

ANTONIO PAMPLIEGA//

SYRIA UPRISING // Photon Grant finalist 2015

From December 2011 to March 2015 I traveled to Syria in total 11 times, visiting different parts of the country. (Idlib, Aleppo, Latakia, Homs, Deir Ezzor or Kobanî). This work shows the evolution of a conflict that just celebrated his fourth anniversary and that seems endless in a short period of time.

Since the first peaceful demonstrations until the presence of the Islamic State. This selection of photos show the conflict every stage. The cruelty against the civilian population. The armed conflict. The desperation and helplessness of citizens until the arrival of the Islamic State and the destruction of a society, the Syrian, the most advanced in the Middle East. It is a journey through four years of a war that has left more than 300,000 dead on the road.

@Apampliega

https://www.facebook.com/tonipampli?fref=ts