The Ainu are originally from Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido and Sakhalin, now part of Russia. They were officially recognized as anindigenous peoples of Japan in 2008, after a history of both exclusion and assimilation that almost effaced their society, language and culture. Ainu Nenoan Ainu (meaning ‘humanlike human’) is a journey of exploration of native identity in contemporary Japan. The project reflects upon what it means to be an Ainu in everyday life practices; it addresses the sense of belonging within a community in the double process of both preserving and reinventing their own culture, in the aftermath of […]

Lightness is a personal report of the city of Saigon, a city that, in the collective Western consciousness, still has its links to warlike events. However the tumultuous daily life is made of people, small events, seemingly insignificant details that built reality, the bursting present. It was vital for me to talk about Saigon starting from those same elements, from the inside and from the routine. The material boundaries I bumped into were easy to overcome: the doors of the houses were often ajar and invited to cross the threshold; the businesses and factories on the edge of suburban life […]

Dhaka’s Hazaribagh area, widely known for its tannery industry, has been listed as one of the top 10 polluted places on earth by two international research organizations. At least 160,000 people have become victims of pollution due to the presence of toxic chemicals, mainly chromium. Tanneries in the city’s Hazaribagh area discharge more than 30,000 square meters of liquid wastes every day. These harmful wastes, including chromium, lead, sulphur, ammonium, salt and other materials, are severely polluting the capital city and the river Buriganga. Apart from hexavalent chromium, which is a well-known carcinogen, workers and residents of Hazaribagh also face […]

We stand in a house not far from Milan, where, one week ago, a sixteen-year old girl performed a séance. She was scared. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife, that’s picking up energy. It made our hairs stand on end. We all entered her bedroom standing in a circle, waiting for the invited spirits to come out and communicate. We stood there in silence for too long, completely in the dark, and then, all of the sudden, the sound of a chair moving in the kitchen. “Did you hear?” “Yes!” Ghosts are the most […]

Sexual niches seem to become more presentable and even though contemporary sexologists break the habits of their traditional values and heritage, fetishes and sexual roleplay are still to be considered abnormal or perverted. The prevailing perspective on this topic is predominantly shaped by physical violence, rubber and leather. The true bandwidth of fetishes is unequally wider and varies from human horses and masochists, latex-brides and human puppies to slaves and real-life-rubberdolls. Due to the lacking acceptance, many fetishist still feel forced to supress their needs, what often places themselves into social isolation. On the other hand, the pornification or sexualization […]

The first thing I saw in Skopje was the construction of a 25-meter tall figure of a warrior on horseback – the statue of Alexander the Great. In 2010 the government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia started an extensive project to revamp the country into the sense of connection with its alleged ancient roots. Alexander the Great, one of the most powerful historical rulers, was acclaimed the father of present Macedonian nation. However, modern Macedonia is a young post-Yugoslav, poorly developed country. Dream of the lost nobility was the spark that ignited minds on the both sides of […]

The task of borders is to divide. There’re so much kinds of borders, some natural others artificial. 
Second ones built by men not always are identifiable in something of physical and architectural.
There’s some borders built by preconception or  nescience of the society who made another world lived by people you can see, but they can’t see you.
There’s a border between the world of lights and the world of shadows.
The leading actors of this story are teenagers which life is always in balance at the limit between these two worlds: a thin imaginary line separates two different existences.
Huge architectural and mental […]

In the American West, areas of land ignored by early settlers were once described as “the lands nobody wanted.” These places, now publicly owned and overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, are recognized by communities as socially, economically, and environmentally valuable. After moving to the Upper Snake River Valley of Southeast Idaho, I began exploring some of these areas in order to familiarize myself with the region’s geography, and how local residents make use of it. Almost immediately, I started noticing artifacts left behind by individuals who utilize the expanses of open desert for recreational purposes—the most prevalent being […]

The refugees started flowing up through Europe and into Sweden. The members of the European Union closed their borders and were busy discussing refugee quotas, all the while Sweden welcomed the refugees with open arms. But then the fires began. All over Sweden asylum centres were set on fire, and parts of the Swedish population started showing signs of not being as open and tolerant as had been initially assumed. The politicians tried to keep up appearances. Sverigedemokraterna were told to keep quiet while the prime minister Stefan Löfven condemned the first of the burnings and called it a black […]

In Iran, death penalty is given to the children for the crimes such as murder, drug trafficking, and armed robbery. According to the Islamic Penal Law, the age when girls are held accountable for their crimes is 9 years old, while the international conventions have banned the death penalty for individuals under 18. Pursuant to the passing of new laws in the recent years, the Iranian Judiciary System detains children in Juvenile Delinquents Correction Centre after their verdict. Those with minor crimes are freed after spending their term and those who are sentenced to death are hanged after reaching 18 […]

“In the Soviet era, even adults did not pray, not to speak of youth. And today, there are many youths and even children in mosques. Religion has a positive effect on humans, it is an open fact. It’s better for youths to visit mosques, join religion and keep a healthy lifestyle than yield to some false guidelines and take weapon in hand,” a resident of Gudermes says. The inhabitants of Chechnya treat opening of Hafiz schools and other religious institutions in the republic guardedly. “Hafiz is a person who by heart knows Allah’s Book and explains it to people. This […]

In Ancient Greece, drifting souls were often represented by butterflies symbols. This was a direct link to Psyche, the soul goddess, who was similarly depicted with delicate Lepidoptera wings. When looking for a title for my work on the mental condition, I wanted a word that elevated the individuals I had met above the stale socially created traumas and stigmatizations, which had ruined their lives. The word “Butterflies” soon imposed itself as an image of a delicate but radiant state of being. A description of freedom constantly terrorized by the outside world and an unstable condition made splittable by a […]

In the aftermath of the USSR’s collapse in the early ’90s, the Soviet Republic of Moldova declared independence, but the region along the Dniester sought freedom of its own. Transnistria is an approximately 200-km-long sliver of territory along the left bank of the Dniester river running between Moldova and Ukraine. For over twenty years the republic has an indefinite status, none of the countries recognizes the transnistrian independence except Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh which also are unrecognized republics. Duringthis time, was raised the whole new generation which identifies itself as “Transnistrians”. At first glance it seems that these young […]

In 2015 more than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe. Mostly fleeing conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Irak, they have been traveling the long road from their home to find safety and hope in European countries. For months i have been documenting the struggle of men, women and children in their attempt to reach their dreamed destinations in Europe. I have photographed their landings on the shore of the Greek island of Lesbos after risking their lives by navigating the Aegean sea on inflatable boats. I have witnessed their resilience when borders were closed to find a safe […]

Senegal is at top of the list in West Africa for its emigration rates. The district of Louga, north of the capital Dakar, is one of the poorest and most arid of the country due to the scarcity of natural resources, lack of infrastructure and the incapability of the government to guarantee medical assistance, food safety and basic education. It’s no coincidence that the inhospitable territory of Louga is one of the areas most afected by emigration, according to recent survey close to 40 percent of the households have at least one migrant. A considerable number of local families has […]

What is truly a border? An imaginary line on the ground which divide two countries and often two mentalities. Sometimes a net, sometimes a wall , sometimes defended with guns. The border between Turkey and Syria represents much more, an impenetrable line for many and an open gate for others. Many has died fleeing from a cruel war, before against the regime than against ISIS. Work in Syria is very difficult for journalists. To get inside the country its required to cross the border illegally, passing under the nets. A huge risk to give voice to all of those who […]

Chile in 1961. The first supporters arrive in the Colonia Dignidad (engl. “Colony of the Dignity”) that has just been founded by their leader Paul Schäfer. He promised his followers a god-fearing life in a promised land. In return, they should give humanitarian aid to the poor rural population. From outside the Colonia Dignidad appeared to be an idyllic, self-sufficient community. Yet inside, life consisted of hard labour, abuse of power and child abuse. Leader Paul Schäfer established a system in which he could realize his sexual inclinations without any fear of being caught. During the times of the Chilean […]

Oyoub was selling legumes in downtown Srinagar, in 1985 he disappeared from home: he may have been the first Kashmiri to cross the border with Pakistan to go to the militar camps organized by the CIA to train the mujahideen to fight against the Sovietic Union in Afghanistan. In the next years, thousands of young men from the Kashmir valley followed the same path: this time the goal was the liberation of Kashmir from the Indian occupation. Oyoub in the early 90’s quickly became one of the heroes of the armed resistance in Srinagar. Tens of men under his command […]

Until the ’60s, South Korea was almost a mediaeval country, poor and underdeveloped. After just 50 years, South Korea is now one of the most advanced countries in the world. The rush towards modernity has been fostered by imposing a huge sense of competition and a painstaking effort to reach scolastic, aesthetic and professional perfection. Youngsters grow up by keeping in mind the same ideals and future aims: get the best marks to get the best jobs. At the same time, the aesthetic models are totally conformed, obtained through a massive us of plastic surgery. The Country pushes the young […]

“Kosmet” is short for “Kosovo and Metohija”, a land which has been long disputed by the Serbian and Albanian Kosovans. After the war, unleashed by Slobodan Milošević in 1999, the UN intervention allowed for a gradual return of the Albanians, who in their turn enacted a ferocious revenge against the Serbs, despite the presence of peace-keeping forces. For over a decade, Albanians forced about 200,000 Serbs to flee Kosmet and seek refuge in safer areas. The Albanians also desecrated hundreds of graveyards and orthodox monasteries; a serious insult for the Serbs, who consider these lands to be sacred because of […]

The Islamic dress code in Iran implies on women to cover their hair with a hijab and to wear a Manteau over their clothes outside. As in many other aspects of the Iranian society, for secular youngsters, this means a great deal of compromise on a daily basis and it gives way for a sort of double life. Men do not have to follow any specific dress code but the Islamic republic does not allow shorts, long hair and tattoos or playing certain kinds of music outdoors. These restrictions, created by the Islamic republic of Iran for it’s inhabitants, has […]

“ The relation between North Korea and China is like Yalu and Tumen rivers, always flowing and never stops ” Chinese citizen from Dandong city, China In the long, cold months, to gaze upon North Korea from China’s Dandong city is an exercise in omission. On the Chinese banks of the Yalu River, neon glares and karaoke blares. Prostitutes prowl, their legs bared even in the chill of winter. On the other side, in the Hermit Kingdom, color dissipates. Everything is brown or gray or brownish-gray: sere hills, wheezing trucks, the few factories pushing smoke into the air. At night, […]

The border between Belarus and Lithuania, two countries previously part of the Soviet Union, was once little more than an insignificant, thin line on a map. The people of this area interacted freely with one another. The bonds of their communal life were strong despite their national diversity. Families often intermarried, creating a common social identity. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the erection of the European external border between Lithuania and Belarus in 2004, many of these border towns were divided. This territorial re-alignment not only separated these two countries, it also disrupted the once […]

Times Square gives me illusions or feelings that area has everything from everywhere. Border between people either political or personal, distance, time we all passed through, activities and all kind of differences between us merging all together making one big stream on the street. people have their own concept of values and just doing their own things. All those experiences for people who stood there could be one limited special moment or just a part of negligible mundane life. It makes me wonder, where are they going? Where are they coming from?

This is a story about love. The backside of it. The hard part of closeness, trust and acceptance. This is a story about how vulnerable we are when we expose ourselves to another human being. How fragile we are. And how little it takes for us to lose ourselves in the intoxination of love. But is also revolves around the longing for someone who enlighten you for all that you are and love you unconditionally. This is a work about the difficulties to love and to be loved – to completely comit youself and the risks involved. This work is […]