A photographic journey into an unprecedented migration crisis

Valentina Tamborra is a 35 year-old photographer born in Milan, Italy, where she currently lives and works. Her photography, largely consisting of reportages and portraits, is a successful attempt to combine storytelling with pictures.

Within a wider range of projects and exhibitions spanning mainly the years 2016 and 2017, she devoted much of her latest works to the cause of migrants, by reporting through photographic diaries her firsthand experiences in some of the most crowded and unsafe refugee camps.

From the Dandora dump – Nairobi, Kenya – to the hotspots of Ventimiglia, at the border between Italy and France, and Moria, on the island of Lesbos, the photographer collects and tells us about the stories of thousands of refugees living in inhuman conditions.

From Ventimiglia to Lesbos

Ventimiglia

From September to December 2017, Valentina works on a project entitled La sottile linea rossa (The thin red line), developed in cooperation with Médicins Sans Frontière – MSF. She witnesses and documents the stories of refugees that she describes as being “stucked in a limbo” in Ventimiglia, at the border between France and Italy. A tiny strip of land where “never-ending dramas, unfulfilled hopes and shattered dreams are part of their daily lives”.

Passo della Morte – the bridge marking the beginning of the long, deadly route from Italy to France

The bridge under the SS20 highway – hundreds of people living on the banks of the river

Hope – looking forward to a better life. On the other side, France is a promised land.

Lesbos

As her photographic journey continues, Valentina is committed to reporting on the astonishing living conditions of refugees in the hotspot of Moria – Lesbos, where about 6000 migrants live in a camp of a maximum capacity of 2000. The shoots, collected in one of her most recent exhibitions – Lesbos: Stories of migrants, depict and appalling situation where people struggling to survive are constantly seeking for asylum or waiting to be returned to their countries of origin.

Inside Moria’s camp

The 70 year-old grandpa desperately waiting for a healthcare provider. “Doctor” is the only English word he learned

Outside Moria’s camp

The Dandora dumpsite

Ventimiglia
“I went to Nairobi – Kenya and thanks to Amref Health Africa social workers I documented the story of the children living in dumpsites and their re-birth thanks to recycling materials found in the garbage to make musical instruments”. Valentina Tamborra summarizes in a nutshell her astonishing visit at the Dandora dumpsite, Nairobi, where she contributed to the social workers’ rescue operations and followed the kids inside Amref centres, where they receive education, healthcare and practical assistance.

CHOKORA – The singing tin

It’s pronounced “Cho ko rah” and in Swahili means trash.
This is the name given to the Nairobi street kids.
Kids who live in the trash, or to better say: survive.
From the immense Dandora dumpsite to Dagoretti slum and Amref HW, we’ll tell their stories and a tin one.
It’s a story of re-birth, childhood that can be finally lived, hope.
It’s the story of a piece of garbage which becomes music, play,
new life.

Kibera – one of the largest slumps in Kenya