Beyond the Borders


First time I came to Lampedusa, 3 years ago, I documented the arrival of 20.000 immigrants escaping from their homeland thorn apart by war and riots. What really hit me during my stay was the reaction of locals while they were assisting at this invasion. These people, during the past 20 years, have been welcoming desperate human beings in search for a better life with solidarity and silence. Lampedusa inhabitants are a small community that showed me great respect for uman dignity and how it is possible to pursue pacific coabitation. These islanders are simple people, with souls deep as their sea, that fronted the desperation of the immigrants not with fear, but with an helping hand.

Lampedusa is the most Southern Italian island. It is very small, just 6.300 inhabitants. Today the island is one of the most important gate of access to Europe for immigrants coming from the African continent. First time I came to Lampedusa, 3 years ago, I documented the arrival of 20.000 immigrants escaping from their homeland thorn apart by war and riots. What really hit me during my stay was the reaction of locals while they were assisting at this invasion. These people, during the past 20 years, have been welcoming desperate human beings in search for a better life with solidarity and silence.  Lampedusa inhabitants are a small community that showed me great respect for uman dignity and how it is possible to pursue pacific coabitation.  These islanders are simple people, with souls deep as their sea, that fronted the desperation of the immigrants not with fear, but with an helping hand. That’s why Lampedusa has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Price, a fair recongnition of their long time effort . Soo many stories should be told, stories of hope, stories of love, most of them truly tragic. This time my focus was on on islanders and on Lampedusa as a border territory. The following images are the diary of the people I met during these years, places I visited, houses I entered and of what Lamedusa and its inhabitans mean to me. This work is my small contibution to give back to people who has been giving so much for years without nothing in exchange.