CRIME OF PASSION

• Prize
  Silver in Editorial/Photo Essay
• Photographer
  Mauro De Bettio

I started working on this project a year before setting foot into this incredible piece of land known as Bangladesh. Even though I had a strong passion to start this project, it wasn't easy on me. During that time I always felt restless and I had the feeling that I wasn’t prepared or capable of using the right amount of delicacy to tell the story of this devastating act, in its simplicity and anonymity, of this invisible and silent weapon. Today, acid attacks are reported in many parts of the world, mainly concentrated in South Asia. Bangladesh, with the highest number. These people I had the fortune to know and then shoot, are just some of the many heroes that demand justice by removing the veil and speaking out. Proudly showing their faces. They are the real symbol of a cruel fate that is changing. Souls that found the courage to reclaim their lives, defeated violence, victimization, depression and despair with the courage to step into new roles as change agents and role models for others. Their strength and resilience are a source of inspiration for all the victims of all forms of violence, showing that anything is possible when you face something with the courage from within. Their determination and fortitude are extraordinary examples of how every challenge can be converted into opportunity.

Born and raised in a little village in the Italian Alps, now based in Barcelona, Mauro already felt from young age the desire to tell. “Although it is difficult to express, I think that the photograph represents my way of speaking and what I try to do through my language is to capture the sense of what I breathe and touch with my hands. Not only in appearance but also, and especially, in the essence; trying to express nuances and subtleties contained in a single frame. I think that’s part of my personality and my work fully expresses what I am. My story, my soul”.