It seems that for 50 years the wooded area of Tosa Maidan, among
the heights of the enchanted Indian Kashmir, has been cursed. A land
rich in pastures, used for centuries by local populations to integrate a
local economy based on sheep farming has been changed by the
Indian army in the field of ballistic testing of artillery. Thousands of
unexploded ordnance scattered over the years have caused dozens of
deaths and hundreds of injuries , so much so that wandering in
Shanglipora is easy to find people with obvious mutilation caused by
explosions. Among them there is those who was bringing the cattle to
pasture , the one playing in the woods as a child or the one collecting
firewood or medicinal herbs. Everyone has an accidental victim of
artillery military as a relative or friend . In April, the contract of
concession of Tosa Maidan is formally expired, while the army has
called for the renewal , the population of surrounding villages has
been mobilized in order to clear out the field of exercise and recover
the area involved . Meanwhile, the issue has begun to affect the
various political factions separatist active in Kashmir , making it a
repertoire of anti- Indian rhetoric .
Born in Rome, Fausto Podavini lives and works in his hometown. After graduating in electronics, he obtained a Master of reportage photography at the John Kaverdash Academy in Milan.
He first started his photographic journey as an assistant and studio photographer to get always closer to photo reportage.
Leaving the studio photography to devote himself exclusively to reportage, he took up a carreer as a freelance and made reportages, through working with various NGOs in Italy, Peru, Kenya.
In 2009 he started a collaboration with the Collective Photo WSP, permanently joined in 2010. There, in addition to his photographer role aimed to the realization of common projects, he also worked as a professor of photojournalism.
In addition to various reports made in Africa, South America and India,he carried out important works on Italian social realities such as a report on sport for disabled people, another in a juvenile detention center, and a project on Alzheimer's for which he won the first prize of the World Press Photo 2013 in Daily Life section.
He is currently pursuing several photographic projects both in Ethiopia and in Kashmir.
He has been member of MIFAV University of Tor Vergata in Rome and of La Presse photo agency.
He has published in both Italian and foreign magazines and over the years received numerous awards of international fame such as the World Press Photo, PDN Photo Annual, World.Report Awards, Kolga, Vilnius Circle Of Life, Winephoto, Sony Awards and exhibited in numerous cities such as Rome, Milan, Perugia, Paris, Barcelona, Tbilisi, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, Brooklyn, Buenos Aires.
