Hate Hurts, an important project by expat photographer Cinzia D’Ambrosi

Cinzia D’Ambrosi is an expat Italian photographer who uses photography to connect, feel, understand and denounce. I talked to her especially on one of her most important project, Hate Hurts.

 

Cinzia D’Ambrosi left her native Italy at age 18, and never went back. She has lived in Iceland, Germany, Spain, and has her current home in London, though she is constantly travelling for her work. Cinzia has followed her father’s love for photography in becoming a photographer, but she has developed her very personal way of using the camera.

Cinzia believes that photography offers a unique way to connect to people, to enter their lives and get to know them from the inside. It can also act as a powerful means of denunciation, because it exposes realities that would be otherwise unknown.

hate hurtsPassionate about themes like injustice, racism, discrimination and violence, Cinzia lets herself be guided by her emotions when choosing the stories to document. “Once I discover something I believe has to be denounced, I work to gain trust in the people I want to photograph. I live with them, talk to them. This allows me to see their lives from the inside, and give the right angle to my photos”.

This is how Cinzia worked with war widows in Kosovo, with women at risk of home eviction in London and, lately, with refugees and asylum seekers. She was in Greece for a photography residency when the flux of refugees reached its apex. She witnessed first-hand the physical, bureaucratic and psychological violence these persons are subjected to.

I was living in Athens, where lots of refugees would flow every day. I witnessed so many episodes of violence on them. Police would beat them harshly. Activists of Golden Dawn (far-right Greek party) would arrive and add to that. This filled me with rage and a sense of powerlessness”. Cinzia decided to talk to the refugees and collect their stories.

This is how her project Hate Hurts was born. Hate Hurts witnesses what is happening today with these important migration fluxes. It collects stories of refugees who have been subjected to violence in their search for better life conditions. In describing what is going on in this area, and the degree of violence the whole process of seeking refuge in a safer land implies, Hate Hurts investigates and shows facts as they are.

When all this is over”, says Cinzia, “the project will have gone through all the injustice, violence and suffering these refugees have been subjected to, and hopefully, it will stay as proof of what must be avoided if we want to create a better world”.

 

hate hurts

 

I asked Cinzia how she reaches refugees who have been subjected to violence. She told me she follows a precise methodology: she contacts associations that help them, contacts lawyers that protect them, and finds out whether any of them have gone through discriminatory or violent treatment. She talks to people and goes to the places where refugees gather – like the harbour in Athens, the bus terminals, etc.

She sometimes puts herself at great risk to talk to the refugees and photograph the harshest moments of their transitions. State police are not keen on having someone taking pictures when confrontation between them and the refugees arises.

Still, Cinzia continues her work. She has been collecting and sharing stories for her Hate Hurts project in Italy, Greece, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Iceland. Hate Hurts has gained international support and several prizes. It is an on-going work that involves talks, discussion on the role of photography and is regularly exposed at different venues – it has recently been selected for the European Month of Photography in Bulgaria.

 

Article by Claudia Landini
August 2018
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Photo credit ©Cinzia D’ambrosi

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