honorable mention
Jacopo Maria Della Valle italy
title
WATERWORLD
The Bajau have a knowledge of the ocean that is difficult to match: fishing and collecting shells and shellfish are the main activities that the Bajau do, even for 8 hours a day, and they are able to go down to depths of 30 meters to catch pelagic fish or look for pearls and sea cucumbers. They go ashore only to sell their products, exchange them for water, rice and tobacco or to shelter from too strong storms.
The tightening border controls,the gradual decline of fish and the restrictions on their movement put Bajau survival at risk, but moving to the mainland is not yet an option.
I graduated in Scenography at the Accademia delle Belli Arti with honors and I developed a great passion for travel photography. I traveled throughout Europe, in the United States, Cuba and Morocco before starting my reportages along Asia: I went to Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, China and India. Fascinated by Asian culture and guided by the readings of Tiziano Terzani, I always tried to get in touch with the local populations to know - and experience - their characteristic uses, customs and traditions, avoiding the superficiality of the tourist traps. For this reason I embarked on long journeys to discover different Asian ethnic minorities, who live in tribes that are difficult to reach and that still survive globalization.
Among all pictures I prefer the portraits, because they give me the chance to capture the history and the deeper essence of the people in front of me. There are people with whom I shared a lot and others with whom there was only a brief meeting, but in all situations I used the camera to make a connection with the other and to try to represent the soul through a poem of colors. In fact, it’s the camera that I often use to communicate with people so distant from us, who do not speak our own language but are so rich in curiosity and emotions.
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entry description
The Bajau are indigenous, nomadic and stateless people known as "Sea Gypsies", who live off the coasts of the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Their nomadic origins make them difficult to approach and get to know. They are wary people because they are used to living isolated, they are often treated with indifference or denounced because they are considered illegal immigrants on the mainland. In fact, they are not recognized as citizens by any state and have no fundamental rights. In the past they moved freely across the seas of Southeast Asia; today they are more sedentary while they still live closely linked to the sea, in small wooden stilt houses built on shallow water or in boats called "lepas", far from the mainland and its society.The Bajau have a knowledge of the ocean that is difficult to match: fishing and collecting shells and shellfish are the main activities that the Bajau do, even for 8 hours a day, and they are able to go down to depths of 30 meters to catch pelagic fish or look for pearls and sea cucumbers. They go ashore only to sell their products, exchange them for water, rice and tobacco or to shelter from too strong storms.
The tightening border controls,the gradual decline of fish and the restrictions on their movement put Bajau survival at risk, but moving to the mainland is not yet an option.
about the photographer
I was born in Rome in 1979 and I was passionate about photography and reportage from an early age. I started shooting during my second grade with the Fujica ST701 belonging to my father, who liked films and trasmitted this love to me.I graduated in Scenography at the Accademia delle Belli Arti with honors and I developed a great passion for travel photography. I traveled throughout Europe, in the United States, Cuba and Morocco before starting my reportages along Asia: I went to Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, China and India. Fascinated by Asian culture and guided by the readings of Tiziano Terzani, I always tried to get in touch with the local populations to know - and experience - their characteristic uses, customs and traditions, avoiding the superficiality of the tourist traps. For this reason I embarked on long journeys to discover different Asian ethnic minorities, who live in tribes that are difficult to reach and that still survive globalization.
Among all pictures I prefer the portraits, because they give me the chance to capture the history and the deeper essence of the people in front of me. There are people with whom I shared a lot and others with whom there was only a brief meeting, but in all situations I used the camera to make a connection with the other and to try to represent the soul through a poem of colors. In fact, it’s the camera that I often use to communicate with people so distant from us, who do not speak our own language but are so rich in curiosity and emotions.
back to gallery