BEAUTY IN HELL: Beauty over Drama
“BEAUTY IN HELL – Beauty over Drama” is an award winning, independent reportage and a personal long-term photographic project. The main objective is to find and document the beauty present in some of the most difficult, poverty stricken and dangerous realities around the world. In this particular case two of the largest slums in Nairobi: Mathare and Kibera (plus some photos in refugee camps and missions around Kenya). (Full story after the photos)
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- Contrasts: Curiosity & diffidence, desperation & indifference | Through the streets of Mathare Slum (Nairobi). The contrast between the innocent beauty of the young girl, the vivid diffidence of the boy behind her, the finality of the body on the ground behind her and the indifference of the people passing by. This is the ensemble of feelings that runs through these slums every day.
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- The Street Children | These boys sniff glue, oil and solvents and are part of extremely dangerous street gangs. Beauty is very hard to see here and may not be visible at first but it is there, in the situation, in the fact that I managed to get 20-30 of them together, to spend a few hours them while listening to their stories, to trust each other. The boy in the foreground is only 18… the other 2 around 15.
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- Something ahead… maybe | I ran into this little boy the first day in Mathare Slum (Nairobi). He was going to school. Behind him one of the streets leading into the slum.
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- A happy family… | This family is made up of 3 women (mother and 2 sisters)… the father disappeared a long time ago. These women take care not only of their own children (which are a few as you can see) but have also started a project to try to rescue the so called “Street Children” (photo n.2).
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- High quality, protein soup ready… | On the street of Mathare Slum, Nairobi. This woman is preparing a basic meal which will be sold to the people walking by.
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- Disillusion… | Come to church and “the knowledge of God Ministry” will save you from desperation! Welcome to Mathare Slums!!!
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- Africa, where are you going … | A young girl playing on the railway that runs through Kibera (the second largest slum in the world – Nairobi). All you can see in the background is Kibera with over half a million people.
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- Little Ghosts. “Mercy” is the woman in the middle… she said that she has taken care of over 200 children in the last 10 years. Those around her are some of the children she was taking care of at the time.
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- Enjoying the fleeting moments | In the middle of Mathare (Nairobi) and between the garbage and the sewers a few kids were enjoying a game of football…
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- Makadare Market/Slum | Inside Makadare, one of the largest markets/slums in Nairobi. People are working on the production of shoes from old tires and other rubber recycled objects. This place is like a huge labyrinth of tiny shops and small businesses crammed together.
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- An old craft still alive | Just outside Kibera Slum (Nairobi) a job that has nearly disappeared in the western world.
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- Where once was hell | The plain where, in 2012, I found thousands of tents and plastic shelters, making a very large unofficial refugee camp. One year later I went back and it was gone … the government had built 4 new villages, with electricity and running water. The real reason behind it were the national elections around the corner… it was still a happy, unusual and astonishing surprise.
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- The musical instrument | Near Mogunda in the north of Kenya. These children live in tiny villages and take care of the flocks. The one in the middle has some kind of musical instrument he is playing with. When it is held in the right direction the wind going through the strings makes different sounds.
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- Early morning hope | A young girl at the sunrise in the refugee camp outside Mogunda. She is preparing food for the rest of her family.
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- The real situation | Inside the refugee camp outside Mogunda… a young boy is waiting to get his share of food.
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- Seen it all | This old woman from a tiny village near Mogunda came to us out of nowhere and, in a bout of pride, straightened up and asked me to be photographed.
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- The plastic bottle business | Just as you enter Mathare Slums (Nairobi) you run into this “recycle factory”. These people spend their days collecting plastic bottles from the streets and then try to sell them by weight.
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- The production process | Inside Makadare, one of the largest markets/slums in Nairobi. People are working on the production of shoes from old tires and other rubber recycled objects. This place is like a huge labyrinth of tiny shops and small businesses crammed together.
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- The production process | Inside Makadare, one of the largest markets/slums in Nairobi. People are working on the production of shoes from old tires and other rubber recycled objects. This place is like a huge labyrinth of tiny shops and small businesses crammed together.
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- Western beauty in Nairobi’s hell | This little girls caught my eye because of a really strong contrast… she was holding a classic symbol of western beauty inside one of the harshest realities in the world.
WHAT IS “BEAUTY IN HELL” EXACTLY?
“Beauty In Hell: Beauty over Drama” is a critical and personal artistic response to an increased awareness of living in a system that uses drama everywhere. I believe we are now unconsciously accustomed to consider an event interesting and noteworthy only if it contains some form of strong contrast, therefore if it is dramatic. Without drama there is no news and everything becomes boring, dull and not worth of our time. In simple terms we tend to use drama to make sensationalism. But Drama is just one part of the story… if drama becomes the only thing mainstream media covers and the only thing we hold up, what can we expect to grow from it?
With “Beauty In Hell” I am trying to express, through artistic sensibility and not sensationalism, exactly the opposite and show that also within these extremely hard situations beauty is always present… that the beauty inside the human spirit is present everywhere, even in places that might be described as real life circles of Dante’s Inferno.
Yes, the main objective remains that of informing the public and bringing awareness of the desperate conditions, of the extremely poor level of life and of the nearly complete absence of human dignity, but I would like to do this in a slightly different way… by also showing the beauty inside these situations and not just the drama.
WHERE CAN THIS BEAUTY BE SEEN AND WHAT DOES IT CONSIST OF?
Clearly any form of beauty in these places is not an easy thing to find. First of all we need to feel it inside ourselves, so that we will first be able to see it and then find a way to make people willing to show it. It can be seen in the eyes of the locals, in their daily activities, in the smiles with which they welcome you, but also in the rage and aggressiveness with which they approach you… in a few words in the spontaneity, simplicity and lack of malice with which they act. Beauty is clearly visible in the sense of community and sharing that these people have and our society has nearly lost or perhaps has simply forgotten.
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/BeautyInHell/
WINNER OF THE FOLLOWING AWARDS & PRIZES
ALSO EXHIBITED AT:
2014 Rooftop Gallery (in collaboration with Le Flux Asia) – Group Exhibition.
2014 Arles Photo Festival (Le Magasin de Jouets Galerie) – Group Exhibition as Px3 (Paris) First Prize Winner
2015 Chiang Mai Documentary Arts Festival (France Cultural Center) – Group Exhibition.
2015 Poltu Quatu Resort – Solo Exhibition – Poltu Quatu Resort, Costa Smeralda, Sardinina, Italy.
2016 MILAN PHOTO FESTIVAL | “PERIFERIE: Immagini e Parole” – Group Exhibition with 3 photos.
The book “BEAUTY IN HELL” received an Honorable Mention in the Book-Documentary (Pro Category) at the Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA). This is the first time I entered a competition with a completed book (self published) and so, this recognition is a little big step forward… Another fantastic result from a project very dear to me. https://www.tonycorocher.com/honorable-mention-tifa-photobook-beauty-in-hell/
