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Paolo Verzone Born in 1967 in Turin. Lives in Paris. Paolo Verzone is unclassifiable, which he likes. Coming from the world of journalism, where he continues to work, he has known for a long time that the printed page is not the only place to present his vision or point of view. Thus, alone or with his collaborator Alessandro Albert, he has launched into large scale projects, with series which look in depth at today world. The most remarkable, one which spanned years, is clearly the way in which, in Italy, Lithuania, France and Finland, bathers are represented on the seafront. Intimate and strict portraits, part of a tradition which allows for a smile, indeed laughter, they represent characters which become a reflection, funny but not always joyful, of our society. The “leisure society” is neither in place or voided of its own caricature… 
See the photographer's map...
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Portfolio
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Portraits
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Stories
 | Christian Boltanski exhibition in the Grand Palais of Paris (2010) On 13 500 square metres in the Grand Palais’s nave, Christian Boltanski, a major contemporary artist, offers a monumental installation created especially for this show.
"Personnes" will be an opportunity for him to work on his favourite themes : death, life, chance... |
 | On the road to Sanaa, Yemen (2009) Paolo Verzone went to Yemen in March 2009 to document the situation of the Somalian refugees.
Leaving a country devastated by civil war and horror inflicted by the war lords, Somalian people are hundreds to cross the Gulf of Aden towards Yemen. The crossing is 30 km long, but precarious sailing conditions force Yemenite coast guards to watch this area where they also fight piracy.
The refugees’ suffering has just begun when they have reached Aden. They are lead to a first reception centre in the Karaz camp before going to the Aden suburb, in Basaten district, or to UNCHR centre (United Nations Refugee Agency) of Sanaa.
During the new registration process -organized by the Yemen... |
 | Chessboxing goes Russia (2009) The Siberian Chess Boxing Organisation (SCBO) in cooperation with the World Chess Boxing Organisation (WCBO) proudly present:
Chessboxing goes Russia – first tournament in Krasnoyarsk
When Nikolay Sazhin won the world championship in the light heavyweight division in July 2008 it was obvious that Russia would play an im portant role in chessboxing. Sazhin returned with the belt and the vision to spread this sport in Siberia. As a consequence the SCBO was founded by the champion, Roman Lavrenov and Vladimir Makarov.
The idea of chessboxing originates from the comic “froid equateur “(literally ‘cold equator’) by Enki Bilal. Chessboxing was initially conceived by the Dutch artist... |
 | Iceland economic crisis (2008) Paolo Verzone gives us a visual walk in an Iceland falling prey to an economical crisis which increase a crepuscular atmosphere of the insular North.
First state to have to pay for the crash of the financial markets, Iceland had to face to his own bankrupt. The photographer crosses those dreary plains, hostiles and uninhabited. Each picture carries its own absence: we can see that human absence is a metaphor of the humanity’s absence of financial exchanges. |
 | Turin (European Works) (2008) I tried to look at Turin in manner of a foreigner visiting the city for the first time, to hide my origins, to forget that I am Turinese. In vain, because Turin is a part of me: this was the place where I built my visual alphabet. I rediscovered traces of this alphabet while reflecting on ‘European Works’. A Turinese citizen may remember the time when everyone had a relation or a friend who worked in the vast Fiat factories; or – as a fresh arrival from Romania, Morocco or Albania –
he may be helping to construct the city’s European identity today. Each carries in him the notion of work and construction, in the widest sense of the terms. |
 | Viktor & Rolf China Dolls (2008) Dutch Dare...
Famed for their extravagant collections and their high-concept catwalk shows, the radical Dutch designers Viktor and Rolf have taken the fashion world by storm over the last fifteen years.
The centrepiece of The House of Viktor and Rolf exhibtion at the Barbican Art Gallery is a 6-metre-high doll's house. Populating the house are some fifty specially designed dolls, each about 70 centimetres tall and wearing an exquisite, hand-made perfect replica of a signature Viktor and Rolf piece.The dolls are even made up and have their hair styled to look like the model who first wore the clothes at the catwalk show or photo shoot.
Commissioned from a traditional dollmaker,... |
 | Michel Platini, President of UEFA (2008) Paolo Verzone followed Michel Platini wherever he went at the end of January. The UEFA president's schedule was at the time mainly filled by an official visit in Russia for the final of the Independent States Community and Baltic countries Cup in St Petersburg. |
 | Ceasefire in Beirut (2006) Lebanon, Beirut, 15th August 2006.
first 3 days of ceasefire.
Dahiyeh, Haret Hreik, Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut after 33 days of israeli bombing. |
 | Syriana (2006) Paolo Verzone starts his story with panoramic views. Syrian desert landscapes are enduring the same treatment than the painted walls of the city. Then Verzone leaves the panoramic to come back to a more intimate and more precise photography. |
 | Heya TV, Lebanon (2005) There is a Lebanese channel, Heya ( in Arabic, She) which, from the Chrisitian district of Hazmieh, is takling to at least 15 millions women. A fair number of them are living in the most conservative countries of the Arabic peninsula where they can't drive, can't vote and are considered like little nothings when they wax their eyebrows.
What is good in Heya is that, more than the usual carnival of feminine shows on health, fashion, decoration and cooking, it is also talking about the doubts, facing the taboos. Tocuhing core sensitive issues. |
 | Beirut (2004) In 2004, Paolo Verzone worked on the lebanese capitale, he dealed with life there and its inhabitants. 15 years after the civil war between christians and muslims in Lebanon, difficulties concerning Beirut are a reflect of the situation in the whole Near-East. Paolo Verzone manages to show a lighting city. Situated between Syria and the Mediterranean sea, the city is the place where roads and cultures meet.
The place remains the souvenirs of fightings and also shows a sweet way of life. |
 | Atlantic City (2000) Atlantic City, town of 40,000 souls, is the other American city for gambling.
But, unlike Las Vegas, dream and excess are not so much of the trademark of this small seaside resort near New York.
Buses operate daily, offering with the way-return ticket, 10 dollars to gamble. Big-time gamblers are elsewhere…remain week-end gamblers, seeking for some big thrills. In the 12 casinos of the seaside walk, people go in and out. Some of them to find a pawnbroker who will accept the family watch for some bills; these bills would soon get in the cashier’s desks of the gambling institutions.
The city pumps money: it’s its raison d’être since 1976, when New-Jersey voters have accepted the first... |
 | Peshawar (1994) |
Books
 | Sorprendente Torino Il libro “Sorprendente Torino” è un percorso fotografico attraverso una Torino inedita, sconosciuta, contemporanea ma incredibilmente reale; una Torino ricca di contraddizioni suggestive dalla dimensione umana inaspettata, una città a cui ci si affeziona e a cui la Maison Hermès è ormai visceralmente legata da dieci anni. Text by: Giuseppe Culicchia Publisher: SilvanaEditoriale (2007)  |
 | Volti di Passaggio Siamo in una via di Mosca, subito dopo il colpo contro Gorbacev. Alcuni russi, scelti dal caso, sono invitati a posare davanti alla macchina fotografica a banco ottico di due giovani torinesi, Alessandro Albert e Paolo Verzone. Marina Miraglia Text by: Marina Miraglia Publisher: Peliti (1992) 64 pages Size: 21x24 cm ISBN :8885121136
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Awards
2009 - World Press Photo - 3rd Prize stories Sports Features
2001 - Canon Giovani photography Award
2001 - World Press Photo Award
2000 - Foundation Studio Marangoni Award , Florence.
2000 - "Attention Talent Photo" Award - Gallery Fnac Paris
1992 - Kodak Award of European Panorama, Arles
Corporate
 Biography
Biographie de Paolo VerzonePrix et bourses 2000 Premio per un progetto Fotografico 2000 Attention Talent Photo 2000, Fnac Gallery, Paris - France 2001 World Press Photo 2001 Best Portfolio of the Canon Giovani Fotografi Expositions 2008 European Works, Cité de l'Architecture, group exhibition – Paris and Brussels 2007 Sorprende Torino, exhibition on the Piazza Castello, Turin - Italy 2005 Paris Photo, VU' Gallery, Paris - France 2004 Exposition Fotografia Festival Internazionale of Rome - Italy Parutions Danseurs Balinais, Géo Italie Rebbeca Gomperts, Della Repubblica Viktor&Rolf, Amica Portaits à la Commission Européenne, Amica Michel Platini, Le Monde 2 Michel Platini, Le Temps Bibliographie 2008 European Works, group publication, Filigranes Editions 2007 Sorprendente Torino, Silvana Editoriale 2005 Quotodiano al Femminile, Ed. Lines Corporate Alenia Spazio Boston Consulting Group Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie de Paris La Vilette Coca Cola Commission Européenne Conseil Régional d’Île de France CNP Assurances CSA Deutsche Bank Egis Finmeccanica Hermès HSBC Max Havelaar Nestlé Novexel Olivetti Orpea Procter&Gamble Proskaeur Rose SAP Telecom Italia Victor&Rolf Contact us... |
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