NEW PORRAYMOS – GYPSIES IN ROME

GYPSIES

"New Porrajmos" - Gypsies in Rome, Italy

These are some of the pictures of my long term project on Gypsies in Rome and Italy. This work was publish by New York Times and exposed at Visa pour l’Image Festival of Photojournalism and at the Festival of Ethical Photography. Gypsies are always more defined as ”borderlines” and prejudice and the distance with Italian citizens is always increasing. This reportage shows the reality of gipsies life in Rome, into their shacks in old abandoned factories, under the motorways or along Tiber river. Their reality is made by continuous moving out ordered by the Town Council causing them many diseases. Scenes of life which tell the difficulties they have everyday, in precarious and extreme conditions they live in. At the same time the reportage describes their will to celebrate, religious event and life in itself, sharing something important. Many gypsies do not leave only on charity and thefts, but on regular jobs too. Most of them are musicians, or work on metal objects found all around (to sell), or rummage into the rubbish to find clothes and objects to re-use or re-sell. Others have manual jobs or are bricklayer. They are always looking for devices to go on in a town which doesn’t accept them at all.

Rome, Italy. View of the shack into the Factory. A mother and her child through the curtain of her shack. She lives there with her husband and four children. It has been built by him. In the entrance of the factory there’s something written on the wall: welcome, bienveue!!

Rome, Italy. Gypsies into an abandoned factory. This room without a roof is their house. In the entrance of the factory there’s something written on the wall: welcome, bienveue!

Rome, Italy. Gypsy man with his grandchild sleeping in his arms. He built a little shack in the abandoned factory. Here, gypsies are mainly Rumanians.

Rome, Italy. A young gypsy mother kisses her child outside her shack in the dusty streets of a roma camp. Rumanian Gypsies women in the dusty streets of a not authorized camp under the motorways.

Rome, Italy. Outside a shack in Collatina Vecchia roma camp.

Rome, Italy. Gypsies inside their shack into an abandoned factory. A gypsy couple is on the bed while a woman is standing in front of the mirror. In the entrance of the factory there’s something written on the wall: welcome, bienveue!

Rome, Italy. Not authorized gypsy camp along Tevere river.

Rome, Italy. Gypsies in a not authorized roma camp under the motorway.

Rome (Italy). Gypsy children playing under the motorway to the airport. They live here, in shacks next to Tevere river. Photo Marco Baroncini Nazca Pictures

Rome, Italy. Gypsies inside a shack into an abandoned factory. In the entrance, on the wall, it's written : welcome, bienveue!

Rome, Italy. Gypsy women in the dusty street of a not authorized camp under the motorways.

Rome, Italy. A gypsy child in a destroyed shack in Collatina vecchia roma camp.