Giovanni Lo Curto, was born in Palermo in 1983. He is a self-taught photojournalist and photographer based in between Germany, Cuba, Greece and Italy. His work focuses on contemporary social, political, religious and economic issues. He explores the relationship between human identity, memories and places. He sees a strong link between the perception of oneself and the way people remember and store personal and shared memories — making an inextricable link between personal identity and the surrounding environment. He prefers to work on long-term documentary projects because it gives the best opportunity to represent the complexity of a story fully and allows him to bond with his subject. The idea is to have a mutual exchange with the subject that lasts beyond the time of the reporting. After living and traveling in South America and Middle East for many years, Giovanni moved to Berlin in 2010. There, his work has been published several times in magazines and newspapers such as ND, TAZ, FHZZ, CONTRASTE, Cargo, Chorzeit. He has been commissioned to produce two books, “Il Collezionista di baci” for Modadori Electa and “Die moderne Stadt Berlin-Lichtenberg- Ein Architekturführer” for Berlin Story Verlag. In 2018, he was selected to study with the VII photo agency in their Warsaw-based Masterclass. In addition to his freelance photojournalism projects, he works as a freelance photographer and photo editor and collaborates with the non-profit Stadt Museum Lichtenberg and Luna Park. There, he documents and organizes cultural photographic projects. Additionally, he supervises a darkroom and photo studio in the Weinmeisterhaus youth house. There, he leads free analogue and digital photography workshops for young people.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS, CONTRIBUTIONS, EXHIBITIONS & AWARDS:
2019 Photo exhibition »Zuflucht Hoffnung – Bilder aus dem europäischen Exil« in Museum Lichtenberg
2018: LUMIX Festival für jungen Fotojournalismus - Open Portfolio Wall with the reportage "La Isla-Cuban Diaries".
2017-18 Neues Deutschland online and print edition publications of “Greece Unrest,” “The Golden Death” and “Wem Gehören die Minen von Chalkidiki” reportages
2017-18: Photo exhibition "Selbstorganization und Wiederstand" showing the photos of the Documentary reportage "Greece Unrest". Berlin 29.04/01.06, Rostok 06.11/30.11, Berlin 01.02/28.02.18, Hanau 20.05.18/20.05.19 in DGB.
2016: Photo exhibition "Die moderne Stadt Berlin-Lichtenberg" in Rathaus Lichtenberg 21.10.16-02.12.16
2015 Cargo magazine: stories “The Projectionist.” and Chorzeit: stories “Begegnungschor”
2016: Photo exhibition " The Last Tribe of Europe" in Filmrisz from 09.09.16 to 09.12.16.
2015: Photo exhibition, in Museum Lichtenberg Berlin "Pionierbauten innovativen Bauens in Lichtenberg /aktueller Zustand" Thema: Architecture photos of 1900-1930 innovative buildings.
2014: Photo exhibition in Museum Lichtenberg Berlin “widerständig und widerspenstig – Jugendkultur in Lichtenberg von 1960–1990” contributor with 5 Photos of the Roma memorials.
Bibliography:
2018: "Muschelscherben" with Lyrics By Ulrike Eifler. Self published. Photos from my Reportage "Greece Unrest".
2016: "Die moderne Stadt Berlin-Lichtenberg - Ein Architekturführer" Berlin Story Verlag.
2014: “Il Collezionista di Baci” Mondadori Electa.
2018-19: VII Masterclass in Warschau.
2007: Bachelor in “Foreign languages and Italian L2 for international and intercultural relations”, from “Università degli Studi di Palermo - Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia”, main focus: Arabic and Islamic studies. Graduated with first class honor with a dissertation: “al-Andalus and its representation in the Spanish school books”
LANGUAGES
Italian, Spanish, English, German, Arabic/modern standard, Syrian Arabic