Fabio Ponzio (born September 11, 1959) is an Italian documentary photographer, winner of the "Leica

Oskar Barnack Award The Leica Oskar Barnack Award, presented almost continuously since 1979, recognizes photography expressing the relationship between man and the environment. It was known as the Oskar Barnack Award when presented by World Press Photo between 1979 an ...

" 1998.

Biography

Ponzio was born in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

in 1959. His interest in photography began in 1976, during a trip to the Balkans. He worked for the Italian and international press from 1980 to 1987. In December 1987, Ponzio embarked on a photographic odyssey around remote parts of Central and Eastern Europe. He photographed

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, Germany,

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, Russia,

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

and

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

, traveling by car with a tent, a stove, a sleeping bag, a

Leica Leica may refer to: Companies * Ernst Leitz GmbH, later divided into: ** Leica Biosystems GmbH, a cancer diagnostics company ** Leica Camera AG, a German camera and optics manufacturer ** Leica Geosystems AG, a Swiss manufacturer of surveying and ...

camera, three

Nikon (, ; ) is a Japanese optics and photographic equipment manufacturer. Nikon's products include cameras, camera lenses, binoculars, microscopes, ophthalmic lenses, measurement instruments, rifle scopes, spotting scopes, and equipment related to S ...

cameras and 100 rolls of film. In 1989 Ponzio was in

Central and Eastern Europe Central and Eastern Europe is a geopolitical term encompassing the countries in Baltic region, Northeast Europe (primarily the Baltic states, Baltics), Central Europe (primarily the Visegrád Group), Eastern Europe, and Southeast Europe (primaril ...

to document the fall of the communist regimes. On June 28, 1989, he was in

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

to listen to

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Милошевић, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugos ...

give the famous

Gazimestan speech The Gazimestan speech ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Govor na Gazimestanu, Говор на Газиместану) was given on 28 June 1989 by Slobodan Milošević, then president of Serbia, at the Gazimestan monument on the Kosovo field. It ...

, which laid out the ideology and programme that would lead to the tragedies of the

Yugoslav wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

. Following 1989, Ponzio documented "the transition from communism to the consumer free-for-all that followed the first flush of freedom." In 2003 he travelled to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

with a friend, the writer . Thus began a series of trips to the southern

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

and

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

. In 2007 he was commissioned by

MAXXI MAXXI (, 'national museum of 21st-century arts') is a national museum of contemporary art and architecture in the Flaminio neighborhood of Rome, Italy. The museum is managed by a foundation created by the Italian Ministry of Culture. The buildi ...

(Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo) in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

to document the Italian landscape. This project gave rise to a series of travels in Western Europe in 2008, in search of the identity of another Europe. In 2020, ''East of Nowhere,'' a synthesis of twenty-two years of work, was published by

Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

in the UK and the United States.

Vince Aletti Vince Aletti (born 1945) is a curator, writer, and photography critic. Career Music industry Aletti was a contributing writer for ''Rolling Stone'' from 1970 to 1989. He was the first person to write about disco, on 13 September 1973, in ''Disc ...

,
Questa non è una fotografia di moda. Fabio Ponzio
, ''Vogue Italia'', N° 838, 29 June 2020. (Text in both Italian and English.) Accessed 18 December 2020. It was shortlisted for the

Aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

's 2020 photobook awards. In 2021, a French-language edition was published by Actes Sud.

Publications

*''East of Nowhere.'' London:

, 2020. . With an introduction by Ponzio and a preface by

Herta Müller Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was born in Nițchidorf (; ), Timiș County in Romania; her native languages are German and Romanian. Si ...

.Page about ''East of Nowhere''
Thames & Hudson. *''A l'est de nulle part.'' Arles: Actes Sud, 2021. .Page about ''A l'est de nulle part''
Actes Sud.

Awards

* 1991 – European

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...

Award of Photography, Arles (France) * 1993 – ''Mother Jones'' International Fund for Documentary Photography, San Francisco (CA, United States)"The Mother Jones Photo Fund Winners", ''Mother Jones'', January–February 1994, p. 15.
Here
at Google Books.) * 1998 – Leica

, Arles (France)

Notes

References

External links

*
Steve Harp: "Fabio Ponzio – East of Nowhere", ''PhotoBook Journal'', 31 May 2020 Sean Sheehan: "Everyone Waiting for Godot", ''The Eye of Photography Magazine'', August 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ponzio, Fabio Photographers from Milan 1959 births Living people