Lockdown Artists
Germany, Hamburg
The Year 2020 erased thousands of businesses, ideas and projects. With the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of restaurants as well as fitness studios and theaters have been closed. Artists had seen their exhibitions and their shows being cancelled or postponed and they were forced to stay home due to the lockdowns. How did they face the long, temporary closure? I spent a few days with some artists working in musicals and theatre shows. They spent their days reinventing themselves and training in order to not forget their show’s performances and the choreographies. They also train to attend auditions for new shows worldwide...
© Antonino Condorelli 2020
Empty Cities
Germany, Hamburg - Hannover
Lockdown in Germany during the Covid-19. Most of the activities were stopped by the Government with the aim to reduce the contamination with Coronavirus. In the area where I live, in big cities around as Hamburg and Hannover, only basilar services were granted with very stricht rules. Hamburg, U-Bahn Hafen City Station.
©Antonino Condorelli 2020
Staying Home with Children during Covid-19
Germany Buxtehude
Schools are actually closed due to the virus crisis, and children at home try to pass the time doing something. But, how do they spend their time? How do they make their parents crazy? Honestly, I think I am a lucky man, as my children have a lot of fun in staying home, but sometimes it is hard to deal with them. Especially with the youngest lady we have at home, a lovely crazy girl that makes our home very happy. It is sometimes hard, as I said, to deal with the two young guys as well, who will argue for everything, always finding something wrong with each other. Wow, it is crazy guys! I thought to document the life of my children at home because of the virus crisis.
© Antonino Condorelli 2020
Pezzi di Cuore
Calabria, Various Venues, Italy.
This is the story of mothers’ whose innocent sons were killed by the powerful ‘Ndrangheta, a Calabrian based syndicated crime network whose reach is worldwide. Mothers who saw their sons disappear without reason; innocents killed because they were in love with the wrong woman, or because they saw something they shouldn’t have seen, or because they tried to fight against mafia affiliates.
© Antonino Condorelli 2020
Annet Nagesa
Germany, Berlin
Annet Nagesa is a 27 year old Ugandan athlete with a difference of sex development, who had been told by the International Athletic Federation Association to get an injection due to an over production of testosterone. She accepted, but ultimately discovered that she had gotten a surgery to remove the internal testicles. Annet had been a candidate to attend the Olympic Games in London in 2012, that she did not attend because of the implications of the surgery. She can now not come back to Uganda due to her life being in risk based on how the LGBT community is discriminated in Africa. She is an Asylum seeker in Germany.
© Antonino Condorelli 2020
WAKALIWOOD
Uganda, Kampala
Wakaliwood is a nickname for the film industry that is developing in Wakaliga, a slum in Uganda’s capital Kampala. Its main director is Nabwana Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey. Wakaliwood is best known for its ultra-low budget estimated to be about $200. Isaac also leads Raamon Productions that produces films. The films are all self-produced and filmsettings are even realized with very few materials. Wakaaliwood is known for violence-centered movies, as well as many themes related to kung fu. A lot of children want to learn Kung fu. The martial art is not used for self-defence but seen as an opportunity to recite in movies with Kung Fu themes. Children find in Kung Fu a way of growing up and escaping from poverty.
© Antonino Condorelli 2020
Zabaleen
Egypt, Cairo City
The Zebelins live in a huge neighbourhood of Cairo city. They are a Christian community dedicated to collecting garbage from Cairo. The neighbourhood is called The Garbage City, as the Zebelins bring every kind of garbage there to separate the materials that are then sold in the recycling market. The smell, dirty places, a large number of stray dogs and cats, as well as sheeps and goats, connected to the big amount of garbage, make the life in the neighborhood almost impossible. The Zebelins are about 70/80 thousand in Cairo and they sell about 80% of the garbage they collect in Cairo. In doing so, the Zebelins are a very important part of the process of maintaining a clean city. However, the government is going to replace the Zebelins with Western companies and this is going to cause a few problems between Zebelins and the authorities.
© Antonino Condorelli 2020
Camel Market
Egypt, Cairo.
Egypt’s largest camel market is held at Birqash (pronounced Bir’ash), a small village 35km northwest of Cairo, just on the edge of the Delta’s cultivated land. It’s not for the faint of heart – many traders treat the camels with intense cruelty. Hundreds of camels are sold here every Friday. Most of the animals are brought up the forty-day trip from western Sudan to just north of Abu Simbel by camel herders, and from there to the market in Daraw in Upper Egypt. Unsold camels are then hobbled and crammed into trucks for the 24-hour drive to Birqash. In addition to those from Sudan, there are camels from various parts of Egypt (including Sinai, the west and the south) and sometimes from as far away as Somalia. They are traded for cash or other livestock, such as goats, sheep and horses, and sold for farm work or slaughter. Smaller camels go for as little as LE750, but bigger beasts can sell for LE6000 and up.
© Antonino Condorelli 2020
The City of The Dead
Egypt, Cairo City
The City of the Dead is a millenary cemetery full of historical-artistic mausoleums and Sufi sheikh shrines located in the Eastern suburbs of Cairo. Its steady appearance over time and the stones, which impel fear on the Egyptians themselves, actually hide a microcosm full of life where entire families have grown up. Historical evidence shows that the cemetery has been inhabited since its first construction, but a massive movement of people occurred in the 50s with the phenomenon of the capital’s urbanization. Among (and in) the tombs people are born, live and die. The City of the Dead has a very active economy, walking among the tombs you can find shops and workshops, shoemakers, mother-pearl inlayers, lute makers, blown glass artisans and much more...
© Antonino Condorelli 2020
Killing The Tuna
Italy, Vibo Valentia
The Atlantic Bluefin tuna is a fascinating large warm-blooded fish that roams the world’s oceans. They are a highly valued prize in the world’s fishing industries and the estimated value of the Bluefin tuna catch in the Mediterranean is €300 million. The sheer value of this market has given rise to one of the more recent developments in Mediterranean fisheries – the tuna farm. There are now over 40 offshore tuna farms in the Mediterranean Sea. Each summer 20 to 30,000 tonnes of fish are caught in vast dragnets and towed to these farms. The fish are regularly fed until they reach the target size of around 250kg.
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© 2020 Antonino Condorelli