Cinque ENG

2nd CLASSIFIED MASTER AWARD 2021PERU, A TOXIC STATE - ALESSANDRO CINQUE

With this long-term project, the photographer has been investigating the dramatic consequences of neocolonialism in Peru, focusing on the lives of indigenous peoples forced to share their land with large mining multinationals.

This project is a journey of 5 years covering 20,000 kms and 24 mining communities, showing the impact of a government that violates the rights of indigenous people in the name of profit. This reportage shows the impact of these mines on the environment and on the indigenous communities. Due to the corruption of the local government they receive no benefits from the mining profits and continue to live in poverty.

Alessandro Cinque is a photojournalist currently based in Lima.

In 2017, he documented gold mining in Senegal and Kolbars smuggling goods at the border between Iraq and Iran. In 2019, while studying at the ICP in New York, he portrayed Williamsburg’s Italo-American community and travelled to Arizona to photograph the abandoned uranium mines in the Navajo territories.

Alessandro is a Leica Ambassador. His photos were published in The New York Times, the NYT Lens Blog, MarieClaire, Libèration, LFI, Internazionale,L’Espresso. In 2019, his work on Peru won POYi’s Issue Reporting Picture Story first place. In the same year, he was selected as “Finalist” at Eugene Smith Grant and Alexia Foundation Grant.