Marco Vernaschi
Born in Italy in 1973, Marco Vernaschi is based in Buenos Aires since 2005.
In February 2012, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture name Marco Ambassador of Italian Excellence in the World, for his achievements in Arts and Humanities.
Marco is currently working on BIOPHILIA, a large project blending photography, video and theater. His last work, Placebo, was exhibited in 2011 at the 54th Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale) Italian Pavilion, in St. Petersburg at the Karl Bulla Historical Photography Foundation and in Rome, at the MACRO Testaccio Museum.
In 2009 Marco began working with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, documenting the major illegal activities behind narcoterrorism. In the Project West Africa’s New Achilles’ Heel, Marco focused on cocaine trafficking, in Guinea Bissau, documenting how criminal networks led by Hezbollah and Al Qaeda control drug trafficking in Africa, giving insight on the aftermath of this phenomenon at a social and political level.
Again for the Pulitzer Center, in 2009, Marco started an international campaign to raise awareness on Maternal heath, with the project Dying for Life, revealing the dire situation of maternal mortality in the Sub-Saharan African region. In 2010 Marco worked at his third project with the Pulitzer Center covering Child Sacrifice and organ trafficking in Uganda, revealing the business behind this fraudulent phenomenon.
Through 2006 and 2008 Marco worked in Bolivia, documenting the early stages of President Evo Morales’ new policy on coca crops, showing how the indigenous people living in the Chapare region are forced by the circumstances to deal with drug trafficking on daily basis. The resulting story, “Bolivia: Broken Promises”, was described as unprecedented by the New York Times.
In 2006, Marco covered the tin war in Bolivia’s Altiplano, documenting the fratricidal conflicts among miners and its aftermath with the documentary “Condemned to Repeat”. In 2005 he covered “The Bitter Taste of Salt” on the daily struggle of the Quechua salt-miners living in the northwestern salt flats of Argentina.
Marco’s work is published in several major art magazines, including EYEMAZING, and La Lettre de la Photographie. His documentary works have been featured worldwide by STERN, TIME Magazine, National Geographic, GEO, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine and Sunday Times Magazine, among others.
- “Ambassador of Italian Excellence in the World” - Ministry of Culture 2012
- Placebo - 54th Biennale di Venezia 2011 - Italian Pavilion
- World Press Photo 2010 - 1st Prize - Stories
- PULITZER Center - Grantee 2008 through 2010
- PGB Photo Award 2010 - Overall Winner - "Best Picture of the Year"
- PGB Photo Award 2010 - 1st Prize "Picture Story of the Year"
- Lens Culture International Exposure Award 2009 - Overall Winner
- ASME Award 2011 - Finalist
- ICP Infinity Award in Photojournalism 2010 (Nominee)
- SONY PHOTO AWARD 2010 - Current Issue (Finalist)
- ODP Award for Human Values 2009 (Finalist)
- FUJIFILM Prize - New Talents - 2005
- FIP - Young Photographer of the Year 2004
- Nando Peretti Foundation Grantee 2002
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