Peru: A Toxic State. With Alessandro Cinque
24.2.2022, 9:00 pm
As part of the exhibition “Scavando si impara. La lezione peruviana” (Learning by Digging: The Peruvian Lesson), Lab27 hosts the eighteenth event in the INCONTRI DI FOTOGRAFIA series with photographer Alessandro Cinque and Lab27 founder Andrea Bianco.
The talk will take place on Thursday, February 24 at 9:00 pm, as always streamed live on Lab27’s YouTube channel.
The Italian photographer, currently based in Lima, will discuss the exhibition project “Peru: A Toxic State” and the extensive investigation that led him over five years to travel more than 10,000 kilometers across 35 mining communities. The talk will offer a reflection on borderless neoliberalism and on the plundering carried out by a handful of corporate giants at the expense of local populations living in poverty—stripped of their water sources and deprived of their rights. Pollution not only kills livestock and undermines livelihoods, but also causes anemia, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and congenital malformations among residents.
This extreme tragedy nevertheless invites us to reflect on environmental issues that persist and poison our own territories as well—often silenced or concealed. It is a situation that is becoming increasingly unsustainable for younger generations, who are impatient to see those in power finally take responsibility for the damage caused by a model of development that is often indifferent to its consequences and long-term externalities.
Alessandro Cinque is a photojournalist currently based in Lima. His work explores the devastating impact of mining activities on Indigenous communities and their lands. In particular, he has documented environmental contamination and public health concerns among Campesino communities living along Peru’s mining corridor.
In 2017, he documented gold mining in Senegal and the smuggling of kolbars along the border between Iraq and Iran. In 2019, while studying at the ICP in New York, he portrayed the Italian-American community in Williamsburg and traveled to Arizona to photograph abandoned uranium mines on Navajo lands. Alessandro Cinque is a Leica Ambassador. His photographs have been published in The New York Times, NYT Lens Blog, Marie Claire, Libération, LFI, Internazionale, and L’Espresso.
In 2019, his work on Peru won first place in the Issue Reporting Picture Story category at POYi. That same year, he was selected as a finalist for the Eugene Smith Grant and the Alexia Foundation Grant. In December 2019, Alessandro moved to Lima to deepen his understanding of Peruvian culture and society. He began contributing to Reuters’ coverage of Latin America while expanding his project on the impact of Peru’s mining industry on Quechua communities. In 2020, he won the Focus on the Story Grant, and in 2021 he received the National Geographic Society’s COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalists.
Peru: A Toxic State. With Alessandro Cinque
24.2.2022, 9:00 pm
As part of the exhibition “Scavando si impara. La lezione peruviana” (Learning by Digging: The Peruvian Lesson), Lab27 hosts the eighteenth event in the INCONTRI DI FOTOGRAFIA series with photographer Alessandro Cinque and Lab27 founder Andrea Bianco.
The talk will take place on Thursday, February 24 at 9:00 pm, as always streamed live on Lab27’s YouTube channel.
The Italian photographer, currently based in Lima, will discuss the exhibition project “Peru: A Toxic State” and the extensive investigation that led him over five years to travel more than 10,000 kilometers across 35 mining communities. The talk will offer a reflection on borderless neoliberalism and on the plundering carried out by a handful of corporate giants at the expense of local populations living in poverty—stripped of their water sources and deprived of their rights. Pollution not only kills livestock and undermines livelihoods, but also causes anemia, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and congenital malformations among residents.
This extreme tragedy nevertheless invites us to reflect on environmental issues that persist and poison our own territories as well—often silenced or concealed. It is a situation that is becoming increasingly unsustainable for younger generations, who are impatient to see those in power finally take responsibility for the damage caused by a model of development that is often indifferent to its consequences and long-term externalities.
Alessandro Cinque is a photojournalist currently based in Lima. His work explores the devastating impact of mining activities on Indigenous communities and their lands. In particular, he has documented environmental contamination and public health concerns among Campesino communities living along Peru’s mining corridor.
In 2017, he documented gold mining in Senegal and the smuggling of kolbars along the border between Iraq and Iran. In 2019, while studying at the ICP in New York, he portrayed the Italian-American community in Williamsburg and traveled to Arizona to photograph abandoned uranium mines on Navajo lands. Alessandro Cinque is a Leica Ambassador. His photographs have been published in The New York Times, NYT Lens Blog, Marie Claire, Libération, LFI, Internazionale, and L’Espresso.
In 2019, his work on Peru won first place in the Issue Reporting Picture Story category at POYi. That same year, he was selected as a finalist for the Eugene Smith Grant and the Alexia Foundation Grant. In December 2019, Alessandro moved to Lima to deepen his understanding of Peruvian culture and society. He began contributing to Reuters’ coverage of Latin America while expanding his project on the impact of Peru’s mining industry on Quechua communities. In 2020, he won the Focus on the Story Grant, and in 2021 he received the National Geographic Society’s COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalists.
