The bull jumping ceremony is one of the most spectacular ceremonies in Southern Ethiopia. It is
celebrated by Hamer community, one of the 82 Ethiopian ethnic groups. The leaping over the bulls is
a ceremony to determine whether a young Hamer male is ready to make the social jump from youth to adulthood. The bull-jumper
is the main actor of the ceremony but he is not the only one, also women and Mazha are protagonists. Women are whipped by
Mazha, men who have recently bull-jumped; the whipping causes bleeding and intense pain but the women look upon it as a sign
of strength, loyalty and obligation toward the bull-jumper and the future family, scars on their back always will attest their loyalty.
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.
