War Landscapes ; A photo project by Alfredo Macchi

War Landscapes is a project based on an exhibition and a photo book with about 100 black and white images taken in fifteen years of work in major conflict areas of the world.

I took a lot of photos of despair, screaming and pain but for this book I chose images of landscapes, places marked by the destruction and the effects of war. A way, I hope, to reflect away from the noise and excitement about all conflicts of “modern times”.

Pictures range from the ruins of Kabul in 2001 to the gutted houses of southern Lebanon in 2006, the ghost town of Libya in revolt in 2011 to the refugee camps in South Sudan and Iraq in recent days. Battlefields, skeletons of aircraft, concrete walls, fortresses and military posts: mixing the landscape genre and reportage to reflect not on a particular conflict but about all wars.

The photographs collected in the book War Landscapes were taken in 15 years sent the major conflicts of the planet, but images are made especially for myself. When I am at the forefront there is always confusion, screams, pain, blood. Then, comes the silence, a space that I dedicate to myself, almost always marked by fatigue, loneliness and frustration at what they see and that I could not stop, but just tell. At such times I pick up my camera and snap: interesting faces, situations that I want to remember, landscapes that strike me, for the charm and atmosphere, or simply that excite me. So in this book I chose almost exclusively landscapes, in the almost complete absence of people, except for a few pictures, which appear in passing, as part of the panorama and are never the subject.

The photos in the book were taken at times in film, with cameras at cheap price, especially in the early years. Then over time I began to leave with professional digital cameras. In the book I ordered the photographs not for countries ranging from Afghanistan to Iraq, from Lebanon to South Sudan, but for themes: ruins, battlefields, trenches, squares, streets, etc .. It ‘a way to show what is the war in its results, the same everywhere, whatever the cause of the conflict, who have started, the reasons: the result is always destruction, deaths and new hatred.

Some say that the great empires have become such by the war. It is not true. The war does not build, but destroys it. It destroys the lives of men, their homes, their monuments, their cities. And the nature, the landscape, the beauty. The great civilizations that have developed because of culture, peaceful coexistence, to the foresight of those who governed them. The war has always been a step back in history. The ruins that rise over the fields of battle are proof. [Official Website]

The book War Landscapes printed in May 2015 has already received several awards:

Silver medal for the category at PX3 Prix de la Photographie de Paris

First place for the category at IPA International Photography Awards

Short listed at NYPF New York Photo Festival

The volume (size 22 x 29.5 cm, hardcover, 120 pages, text in English and Italian, preface by writer Ettore Mo) is sell on the best online international libraries.

About Alfredo Macchi

Alfredo Macchi, journalist and photographer, was born on June the 25 th 1967 in Sorengo, Lugano (Switzerland) and actually he lives in Rome. He covered some of the most important events of the last 20 years as special correspondent and he has been in many war areas: Kosovo, Afghanistan, Middle East, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon, and South Sudan.