THE BOOK THAT I RECOMMEND

PACO

Valerio Bispuri

Contrasto - 2017

Paco is the catchy name for one of the deadliest drugs. The book is the summary of Valerio Bispuri's 14 years of travels in the world of this drug in South America.

The photographs are correlated by texts by the writer Marco Lodoli and by the journalist César Gonzales as well as by the notes from the author.

Today we are examining, rather than a real photographic book, a long-term reportage proposed in book form. And although it took Valerio Bispuri several years to finish his work, I have to say that he was able to produce a reportage with a large number of images, without giving in to the quality of the image or the meaning of each single shot.

The use of Paco, a drug derived from cocaine waste mixed with all kinds of lethal substances including kerosene and glass dust, began in the early 1990s and has spread even more since the turn of the century in the disastrous suburbs of Buens Aires, where Bispuri's research begins and finds its development. The consequences, clearly evident in the images, are addictive from the very first intake and are devastating.

In Bispuri's photographs we can sometimes read the drama of the moments (as in the cover shot), in others the desperate rawness of the life of paco consumers, but also the experience of the photographer who manages to be absent from the scene, like any good reporter, and at the same time is emotionally involved.

U.S.

© immagine Valerio Bispuri

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

© Umberto Carlo Sommaruga

© copyright su testi e immagini, salvo ove diversamente specificato, Umberto Carlo Sommaruga