Photo © Simone Sapienza
People - NOMINEE: Simone Sapienza
Charlie surfs on Lotus flowers
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Charlie surfs on Lotus flowers is a project focussed on the relationship between the history of Vietnam and its contemporary society and culture through evocative, metaphorical, daily life pictures.
Almost 40 years after the win of the Viet Cong troops (ed. Victor Charlie) and the American debacle in the Vietnam War, this country has radically changed its ambitions and dreams. In fact, supported by a young and energetic population, Vietnam is earning more than a chance to become the next Asian Tiger to rise from the ranks. Like its national flower – the Lotus – Vietnam is going to rise above the surface of its recent muddy-water past to bloom with remarkable beauty.
Using the four elements as main interpretation, the project recalls the exotic, stereotyped, picture with which Vietnam is still often identified from the same West the new Vietnamese generation is looking at.
This contrasting scenario entails a character ambiguity that plays a main role in this current limbo where Vietnam, still veiled by the power of its Communist dictatorship, swings between past and future, traditions and ambitions. Capitalism rules by now, but the show must go on.
About author:
Simone Sapienza (Catania - Italy, b.1990) got into photography in 2011. After he won Ragusa Photo Festival in 2012, since 2013 he's studying Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales, Newport.
In 2014 he has been amongst the winners of PDN Edu and he has been nominated as “Moving Images Photographer of the Year” at Lucie Awards 2014, New York.
Finally, in 2015, he has got a 2nd place at “Tabò Prize” – Fotoleggendo Festival 2015 as well as received a Honorable Mention from the Photographic Museum of Humanity as finalist of the New Generation prize.
Simone actually lives between Siracusa (Sicily, Italy) and Cardiff (Wales, UK) and he's the co-founder of Gazebook – Sicily Photobook Festival.
Almost 40 years after the win of the Viet Cong troops (ed. Victor Charlie) and the American debacle in the Vietnam War, this country has radically changed its ambitions and dreams. In fact, supported by a young and energetic population, Vietnam is earning more than a chance to become the next Asian Tiger to rise from the ranks. Like its national flower – the Lotus – Vietnam is going to rise above the surface of its recent muddy-water past to bloom with remarkable beauty.
Using the four elements as main interpretation, the project recalls the exotic, stereotyped, picture with which Vietnam is still often identified from the same West the new Vietnamese generation is looking at.
This contrasting scenario entails a character ambiguity that plays a main role in this current limbo where Vietnam, still veiled by the power of its Communist dictatorship, swings between past and future, traditions and ambitions. Capitalism rules by now, but the show must go on.
About author:
Simone Sapienza (Catania - Italy, b.1990) got into photography in 2011. After he won Ragusa Photo Festival in 2012, since 2013 he's studying Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales, Newport.
In 2014 he has been amongst the winners of PDN Edu and he has been nominated as “Moving Images Photographer of the Year” at Lucie Awards 2014, New York.
Finally, in 2015, he has got a 2nd place at “Tabò Prize” – Fotoleggendo Festival 2015 as well as received a Honorable Mention from the Photographic Museum of Humanity as finalist of the New Generation prize.
Simone actually lives between Siracusa (Sicily, Italy) and Cardiff (Wales, UK) and he's the co-founder of Gazebook – Sicily Photobook Festival.