Every year thousands of refugees arrive in Italy. But once they get here: where do they go?
This reportage gets to the heart of reception centers in Pistoia, by spying and describing the lives of these men in search of hope.
Pakistan, Gambia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Pistoia. There are nearly seventy people which today are in reception centers for refugees in Pistoia, in particular at Le Piastre, Collina, Massa e Cozzile, managed by “Gruppo Incontro cooperative sociale” and the consortium “Co&So”. There are young men/adults which are just waiting for a positive answer to their asylum request. Most of them are running away from war, dictatorships and from all contradictions that characterise their countries. The project’s objective is not to dig in the suffering and hardships of their journey that brought them up to here, but it is to simply represent them as human beings in their full dignity.
Simone Margelli was born in Pistoia in 1987 and he discovered photography at the age of 16 years after buying an SLR camera Petri.
In his street pics, photography and documentary has found a way to be able to express themselves in complete freedom to analyze the man and the environment in which he lives. Between December 2014 and January 2015 he realized a documentary on the reception centers for refugees called “Take Refuge”. Together with non-profit association IVES he has produced “Who’s afraid of homo?”, A photographic project against homotransphobia, opened in the month of May 2015 at the Biblioteca San Giorgio di Pistoia.
