People without a permanent place of residence: an Italian photographer has created a unique project about the life of Gypsies

Since the time when the Roma people left India about 1500 years ago, they have been constantly subjected to discrimination and severe persecution. Many people do not know that the term "gypsies", which everyone is used to using, is an ethnic insult. The Italian photographer traveled through the Roma camps for two years and created a unique project that reveals the culture and worldview of this ancient people. This photo series shows the uniqueness of Roma and encourages people to delve deeper into their history and real life.

Get acquainted with the works of the photographer and find out why he was so interested in the topic of people without a permanent place of residence.

There are many stereotypes and prejudices against the Roma people. Italian photographer Marco Ponzianelli (Marco Ponzianelli) began traveling to the gypsy camps around his native Rome in 2016. For two years, he got to know the Roma people from the inside, imbued with their culture and uniqueness and created a photo project "Your Gypsy is a person" to show society the value of the life of a nation that everyone used to despise.

The photographer wanted to show a visible image of the Roma, who are constantly at the center of racist debates and money scandals. On the one hand, the Gypsies were constantly scapegoats, and on the other-they themselves were to blame. Marko wants these people to regain their honor, identity and discard all prejudices.

The most difficult thing when creating a photo project was to get inside the camps and find a common language with the people who lived there. It was difficult for the Italian to gain their trust.

The atmosphere in the places of residence of Roma is very tense: everything can change in a second. Some gypsies, whom the photographer has known for several years, still think that he is a policeman and wants to deceive them.

Roma know that they are not liked, so they are very careful with people who are not from their environment. They were genuinely surprised why the photographer was interested in their life. There were moments when Marco was thrown out of the gate, threatened and threw stones at him.

The Roma living in Rome are different from others, because the geographical location, historical and cultural ties, social and political conditions characteristic of the Roman territory have affected their way of life.