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Families in Europe
 In the Shadow

Four men and women photographers from Albania, Belarus, Italy and Germany travelled to some of the socially and economically weakest and most neglected areas of the European continent. Their aim was to come into contact with people who lives there so they can make their voice heard through photos, videos, stories. Wherever they are, the local populations live in isolation, abandoned and with no prospects…in the shadows. What stories did they gather? This site documents their journeys acting as a kind of logbook. Their photographic works are presented in an international touring exhibition starting in Milan and travelling to Rom, Minsk, Tirana and Halle. 

Mila Teshaieva©Mila Teshaieva
Andrei Liankevich©Andrei Liankevich
Jutta Benzenberg©Jutta Benzenberg
SardiniaSardinia ©Livio Senigalliesi
Livio Senigalliesi con Katarina Panchenja nel villaggio di Pagost, in Polesia, Bielorussia, 2018. Foto (particolare): © Maxim Kalesnik

L’Europa del futuro secondo Livio Senigalliesi
 Ascolto, empatia, cultura

Intervista al fotografo e giornalista celebre per i suoi lavori di “confine”: dalla caduta del Muro di Berlino alla Guerra del Golfo, dai giorni frenetici che portarono al crollo dell’Unione Sovietica fino al conflitto che dilaniò la Yugoslavia, senza dimenticare le collaborazioni con l’UNHCR e i reportage, negli ultimi 10 anni, sulle rotte dei migranti, dalla Grecia ai Balcani, fino all’Italia.

Residential area in Albania Photo: Jutta Benzenberg

"Unseen. Looking at Europe"
 Out of Sight, Out of Mind

While European cities like Berlin or Paris grow ever larger, there are regions in Europe that are characterised by a complete lack of prospects. But how do people in these out-of-sight areas live? At the invitation of the Goethe-Institut, four photographers embarked on a journey to Albania, Germany, Italy and Belarus in order to shed light on various life worlds and family stories. 

The Photographers

Each photographer will travel in their own country plus one of the other three so as to have a change of perspective. Jutta Benzenberg and Mila Teshaieva are going to Albania and Germany while Andrei Liankevich and Livio Senigalliesi will be in Italy and Belarus.

Jutta Benzenberg © Jutta Benzenberg

Albania
 Jutta Benzenberg

Mila Teshaieva © Mila Teshaieva

Germany
 Mila Teshaieva

Andrei Liankevich © Andrei Liankevich

Belarus
 Andrei Liankevich

Livio Senigalliesi © Livio Senigalliesi

Italy
 Livio Senigalliesi

The trips

 

Bitterfeld Wollfen Foto: Mila Teshaieva

Germany

In the case of Germany, the focus is on the Halle-Bitterfeld-Wolfen district.  As in the past, family life is marked by unemployment and no prospects.
 

Albania Jutta Benzenberg Foto: Jutta Benzenberg

Albania

Albania with its average age of 36 is a young country. One in three under-24-year-olds are out of work. The female photographers intend to investigate the conditions of life for young people and women in rural areas.
 

Sardinia Italy Foto: Livio Senigalliesi

Italy

The theme chosen for Italy centres on the declining Sardinian mining district of Carbonia-Iglesias. Here the European dimension comes into play as the EU started from the Treaties on the Establishment of the European Coal and Steel Company.

Belarus Foto: Andrej Liankevich

Belarus

What we find in Belarus, above all in several rural regions, are settlements along the rivers and on the moorlands in the south that are almost totally isolated and cut off from the influence of modern urban life. Their everyday existence is determined by nature and, in part, by pre-Christian pagan practices and rituals.

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