Until the early 21st century, the mining basin of the Nord- pas de Calais was one of the driving hearts of the French economy. Coal, steal and textile have created wealth for many generations. Nowadays the European rust belt runs along the A21 highway, on the Belgian border, from Bethune to Valenciennes. However with the coming of globalization and relocation, the working class once progressive,have moved to the right, towards sovereign and populist ideologies. The provinces in the north-east of Paris have become the stronghold of extreme right parties and many long-held leftish polling stations have fallen. Mapping the Rust is a photographic journey on the transformations of the industrial landscape but also the social, political and cultural changes that have followed. Rust, coal, populism, steel, work, textile, tools, trade unions and sovereignty, are at the centre of this investigation.
Michele Borzoni was born in 1979 in Florence, Italy. He graduated in 2006 at the International Center of Photography in the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program in New York. In 2009 he received the Tierney Fellowship. He is one of the founder of the collective TerraProject Photographers with whom he has been working since 2006. In 2010 he received the First Prize in the People in News Singles category of the World Press Photo Award and in 2012 he was selected by Photo District News as one of the PDN “30 new and emerging photographers to watch”. In 2019 he wins the Gabriele Basilico Prize for his project “Workforce”.
His work has been exhibited in collective and solo show in the Maxxi Museum in Rome, Institute du Monde Arabe in Paris, Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome, FotoIndustria in Bologna, and in many other cities including New York, Beijing, Yerevan, Madrid, Lianzhou, Seoul.
From 2006 he has been working with several Italian and international magazines.
Florence, Italy
Inshallah: Christians communities in the Middle East
Mapping the Rust
The New Normal
Workforce
Workforce. L’Artiere. 2019
2019. Gabriele Basilico Prize
2019. Aperture Photo Book Award, shortlist
2010. World Press Photo Award – First Prize in the People in the News Single Picture
2009. Tierney Fellowship
2007. Yann Geffroy Award, first prize
2019. “Workfroce”, Italian Institute of Culture. La Valletta, Malta
2019. “Inshallah”, Lector in Fabula, European Cultural Festival. Conversano, Italy
2014. “Parabole d’Oriente, il Cristianesimo alla sfida del nuovo millennio”, Complesso del Vittoriano. Rome, Italy
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