Opening Night - The New Faces of Africa
Photographic press coverage from the opening night of my exhibition “The New Faces of Africa”, which ran at the Boscolo Hotel in Milan form September to November, 2015.
“PRESS RELEASE: A unique journey that lasted five months, in the heart of Africa; a report on the trail of a proactive, vital and constantly evolving continent, able to look to the future; a photographer with a keen eye that captures the essence of the men, women and children of those lands and highlights their pride and desire to be leaders of a free and independent tomorrow.
Photographer and video reporter that has dedicated his profession to international investigative pieces and reports, Davide Scalenghe exhibits a selection of 20 photographs shot during the trip that has taken him to Morocco, Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, alongside Steve McCurry. The occasion was that of the documentary and photographic project that accompanied the shooting of the Lavazza calendar 2015 “The Earth Defenders” by the American photographer, a collaboration between Lavazza and Slow Food, and that Scalenghe turned into a film broadcast by Discover’s Real Time.
The main themes of Expo 2015 are those of the exhibition “The New Faces of Africa”: food and nutrition, basic human need, but also symbol of freedom where rural production is the sector that employs entire villages and that puts African men and women at the center of their own destiny.
Many such communities have grown considerably in recent years and have today achieved full autonomy: farmers are able to sell their product directly, without the intervention of intermediaries, increasing the direct gain for the maintenance of their household.
The New Faces of Africa
These are the photos featured in my solo exhibition “The New Faces of Africa,” which ran at the Hotel Boscolo in Milan from September to November, 2015.
“PRESS RELEASE: A unique journey that lasted five months, in the heart of Africa; a report on the trail of a proactive, vital and constantly evolving continent, able to look to the future; a photographer with a keen eye that captures the essence of the men, women and children of those lands and highlights their pride and desire to be leaders of a free and independent tomorrow.
Photographer and video reporter that has dedicated his profession to international investigative pieces and reports, Davide Scalenghe exhibits a selection of 20 photographs shot during the trip that has taken him to Morocco, Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, alongside Steve McCurry. The occasion was that of the documentary and photographic project that accompanied the shooting of the Lavazza calendar 2015 “The Earth Defenders” by the American photographer, a collaboration between Lavazza and Slow Food, and that Scalenghe turned into a film broadcast by Discover’s Real Time.
The main themes of Expo 2015 are those of the exhibition “The New Faces of Africa”: food and nutrition, basic human need, but also symbol of freedom where rural production is the sector that employs entire villages and that puts African men and women at the center of their own destiny.
Many such communities have grown considerably in recent years and have today achieved full autonomy: farmers are able to sell their product directly, without the intervention of intermediaries, increasing the direct gain for the maintenance of their household.
In partnership with LAVAZZA.”
Ethiopia (2019)
Angola (2019)
In 2019, I was commissioned by SOAS, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, to travel to Angola and Ethiopia to tell the stories of some of the construction, garment and textile workers I encountered. The commission was part of the wider project Industrial Development, Construction and Employment in Africa (IDCEA), a comparative analysis on employment patterns and outcomes in the infrastructure construction and manufacturing sectors in the two countries. The photos below are a selection of my portfolio from the Angolan leg of the trip.
EXHIBITION: Employment Dynamics in Africa (SOAS)
These 25 photos were featured in the exhibition and workshop titled Chinese Firms and Employment Dynamics in Africa. They were chosen for the specific purpose of the exhibition out of a set of pictures that I took in Angola and Ethiopia as part of the IDCEA (Industrial Development, Construction and Employment in Africa) project, commissioned by S.O.A.S., School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
The IDCEA team conducted 4 years of research on employment patterns and outcomes in the infrastructure construction and manufacturing sectors in Angola and Ethiopia, where large-scale surveys of workers and extensive qualitative research were conducted between 2016 and 2018.