Michele Spatari is a documentary photographer and videographer based between Johannesburg and Barcelona.
About
Michele Spatari is a documentary photographer and videographer based between Johannesburg and Barcelona.
His documentary practice has been shaped by his architectural background and it is focused on the study of bodies and space: how politics, religions and social rituals shape contemporary societies.
His first long-term project Rising Water about public showers and housing crisis in Turin won the 2018 Canon Italy Young Photographer Award - Multimedia and has been exhibited at Cortona On The Move Festival, Geopolis - Centre du Photojournalisme, Lumix Festival, among others. In 2019, he has been selected by Canon as the Italian representative in Visions from Europe, an artistic residency for Matera European Capital of Culture 2019. In 2020, Michele has been assigned a grant by Cortona On The Move Festival to document the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa: the final project has been exhibited internationally and it has won the 1st Prize at the 2021 WARS Photography Award. In 2021, he has been chosen as one of the few under 30 to join the Canon Ambassador Program. At the beginning of 2022, he produced and shot a short documentary on a Spanish dial a poem emergency initiative that is reshaping the meaning of experiencing art into a weirdly intimate practice. During the same year he covered in Ethiopia the conflict on the Tigray and nothern regions and the drought in the Somali region, as well as the 2022 Kenyan General Elections.
Since 2019, he is one of the main contributors in Southern Africa for AFP – Agence France-Presse.
His work has been featured on various international media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, Le Monde, Libération, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, El País, Internazionale, amongst others.
Michele has also worked for UNICEF, FAO, WWF - World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, European Commission, FIFA, FactStory, AFP Services. As a videographer, DP or camera assistant he has worked with CNN, Vice News, FIFA, African Development Bank, AFPTV, VOA, and more.