• Francesco Cocco

Stories

In Limbo

The fear of a past that cannot be erased and the hope of a future in Italy. These are the phrases that are often uttered by asylum seekers, men and women who have left everything to seek a new life in our country. They are sentences that become images, strong images of the life lived during the long journey from their countries to Italy. And here, after the fear, after finding survival, they fall in waiting. Waiting for a document that allows them to live. And waiting often hurts more than rejection. Waiting destabilizes, empties, extinguishes hopes, destroys projects, immobilizes. And this is how thousands of asylum seekers in Italy live every day.

Virus

Covid-19 is putting collective and individual resistance to the test. Our country has been isolated, sick people have been isolated, health workers have operated and still operate in isolation, facing in turn extreme physical and psychological exhaustion. Going through this time and trying to understand from the inside of hospitals what the Virus is and what its effects are, was like living in two worlds, the “inside” one and the outside one of pseudo normality.

Portfolio

clandestine-immigrants-immigrati-clandestini Algerian clandestine immigrants rescued by the Coast Guards patrol boat. Lampedusa, Italy, 2003
clandestine-immigrants-immigrati-clandestini-2 Liberian clandestine immigrants waiting to be transferred in a temporary stay centre. Lampedusa, Italy, 2003
cocco_portfolio2021_004 Reception Center in Keego. Adjara, 16 years old. Because of arranged marriages several young women are obliged to marry men they don't even know, most of the time older than them. Some of these girls decide to have an abortion, some others choose to keep the baby, but they are often accused of disobedience and abandoned by their own families. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 2017
pardon-and-justice-grazia-e-giustizia Sant'Anna district penitentiary. Prisoner sunbathing in the courtyard. Modena, Italy, 2002
prisons Opera Jail. Common area: the laundry. Milan, Italy, 2002
san-vittore San Vittore jail. Free time zone in the 2nd wing. This courtyard is reserved to prisoners under close surveillance. Milan, Italy, 2004
cocco_portfolio2021_022 San Camillo Hospital, Pediatric Ward. A young couple is waiting for a medical visit with their child. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 2017
cocco_portfolio2021_001 A general view o​f the city. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 2017
burkina-faso-febbraio-2017-ouagadougou-ospedale-san-camillo-reparto-pediatria-nascondino-burkina-faso-february-2017-ouagadougou-saint-camillus-hospital-department-of-pediatrics-hide-and-see Saint Camillus Hospital. Department of Pediatrics. Hide and seek. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 2017
cocco_portfolio2021_019 Health Center, sanatorium run by CCM (medical collaboration committee). Portrait of a woman of Muslim religion. In Ethiopia over 25 million people are Muslims, Islam is the second religion in the country after Christianity. Most Muslims are of Sunni origin. Anole Village, Bale Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, 2016
cocco_portfolio2021_006 Luke Hospital. Maternity ward. A woman hospitalized with her two children. Wolisso, Ethiopia, 2016
febbraio-2016-etiopia-sulla-strada-da-addis-abeba-verso-goba-regione-delloromia-february-2016-ethiopia-on-the-road-from-addis-ababa-to-goba-oromia-region On the road from Addis Ababa to Goba. Oromia region, Ethiopia, 2016
cocco_portfolio2021_017 Health Center, sanatorium run by CCM (medical collaboration committee). Portrait of a woman of Muslim religion. In Ethiopia over 25 million people are Muslims, Islam is the second religion in the country after Christianity. Most Muslims are of Sunni origin. Anole Village, Bale Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, 2016
cocco_portfolio2021_018 Health Center, sanatorium run by CCM (medical collaboration committee). Portrait of a woman of Muslim religion. In Ethiopia over 25 million people are Muslims, Islam is the second religion in the country after Christianity. Most Muslims are of Sunni origin. Anole Village, Bale Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, 2016
cocco_portfolio2021_014 ST. Luke Hospital. TB and HIV patient ward. A terminal AIDS patient, also suffering from Tuberculosis. Wolisso, Ethiopia, 2016
cocco_portfolio2021_016 ST. Luke Hospital. TB and HIV patient ward. A patient suffering from Tuberculosis. Wolisso, Ethiopia, 2016
cocco_portfolio2021_027 Goro Health Center, 30 kilometers from Wolisso. A ten-year old child suffering from malaria. Goro, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2016
cocco_portfolio2021_023 St. Luke Hospital. Child in his room. 120 km from Addis Abeba, healthcare services are provided by Doctors with Africa Cuamm. Wolisso, Ethiopia, 2016
cocco_portfolio2021_021 Po Valley, Lower Modena. The 2012 Emilia earthquake was a seismic event consisting of a series of tremors located in the seismic district of the Emilia Po Valley, mainly in the province of Modena. Italy, 2015
cocco_portfolio2021_028 The tribute to the Bolshevik leader, donated by the USSR and now a tourist attraction, was one of the very few monuments to the father of the October Revolution to be placed in a public place in Western Europe during the Cold War. Cavriago, Reggio Emilia, Italy, 2015
cocco_portfolio2021_029 Po Valley. Fog near Carpi, Modena, Italy, 2016
cocco_portfolio2021_011 Po Valley, near Modena city. Italy, 2015
cocco_portfolio2021_010 Po Valley, lower Modena area. Lakes of Campogalliano, Modena, Italy, 2015
cocco_portfolio2021_030 Po Valley, lower Modena, near Mirandola, Modena, Italy, 2016
nero A Sudanese immigrant employed as seasonal worker in a greenhouse. Casal di Principe, Caserta, Italy, 2004
26-giugno-2015-%c2%93-questo-posto-%c2%93-pianura-padana-campagna-nei-pressi-di-correggio-reggio-emilia-june-26-2015-this-place-po-valley-countryside-near-correggio-reggio-emilia Po Valley. Countryside near Correggio, Reggio Emilia, Italy, 2015

Francesco Cocco, Recanati, 1960.
He began photographing at a very young age during countless trips to Asia and Africa. Since 1989 he has turned his gaze and interest to the universe of children with particular attention to the difficult and complex reality of those who live on the margins of society. Recurring themes of his works are identity and relationships between society and individuals.
In 2002 he began a documentation work about living conditions in prison, culminating in the exhibition and book “Prisons” (Logos 2006), that was presented at Visa pour L’Image in Perpignan (2005) and at Les Rencontres d’Arles (2006).
Since 2003 he is represented by the Contrasto agency. In the same year he also collaborated with MSF on a project about immigration in Italy, which then became a book, “Nero” (Logos, 2007).
In 2006 he took part in the project “Beijing In and Out” and in 2007 he worked in Cambodia for Action Aid. This work was then published in the book “La ruota che gira” (Contrasto).
In 2009 his work in Afghanistan, in collaboration with Emergency, was among the finalists of the Photoespaña Ojodepez Human Values Award.
In 2016 he was in Ethiopia with the AIDS/Aidos Observatory and in 2017 he went to Burkina Faso to document International Cooperation projects related to violence against women, children and HIV.
In 2019 he returned his attention to a theme that has always been dear to him: the phenomenon of migration in Italy. Thus, he developed a work in the C.A.S., centers of extraordinary reception for asylum seekers. In particular, for a few months, he followed a group of operators of the social cooperative “Dimora d’Abramo” in the province of Reggio Emilia, engaged in assisting refugees.
2020 – 2021 He documented the “Virus”, the Pandemic related to Covid _19. A block of images taken inside Hospitals, Covid-Rooms, Intensive Care Units to try to organize an archive, a diary that will also become a document of a period of alienation, desperation, suffering and isolation but also of love and hope.

Carpi, Italy

More info

Stories

In Limbo
Virus

Books

Solo in Italia. Contrasto. 2008
La ruota che gira. Contrasto. 2007
Nero. Logos. 2007
Prisons. Logos. 2006