This series of photographs narrates Giovanna Silva's life among the Italian army in Afghanistan, while she worked on a commissioned project in honor of Italian journalist Maria Grazia Cutuli.
In 2010, Giovanna Silva was asked to photograph a school in Afghanistan dedicated to Italian journalist Maria Grazia Cutuli, who was killed in a terrorist attack ten years before. Silva was housed at the Italian base in Herat, a western province of the country. She lived there for two weeks in close contact with the military personnel, moving around with them and seeing the country from their standpoint. Her photos convey the feeling of that trip, with its sometimes claustrophobic aspects: the landscape revealed through the window of a vehicle, or gaping open under the blinding sun. The book recreates this narrative, moving from aesthetic visions of dim interiors and bodies in camouflage to open horizons full of light, but also rife with conflict.
Giovanna Silva (born 1980 in Milan) is an Italian photographer, writer and publisher. Her photographic books have been published by Mousse, Hatje Cantz, and Nero among others. Her work has been shown at the 10th and 14th Venice architectural biennales, MACRO in Rome, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice, the Triennale in Milan, the American Academy in Rome, FRAC Orléans, c/o Berlin, the Biennale de Rabat 2019, and the Italian Cultural Institute in New York. She is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Humboldt Books and the co-founder of San Rocco magazine. She teaches Photography at NABA Milan, IUAV Venice's master in photography program, and ISIA Urbino.
