Mohamed Keita: Rome 10/20
Mohamed Keita was born in the Ivory Coast and at the age of 14, he had to leave his country in the midst of the civil war and start, alone, a very long journey through Guinea, Mali, Algeria, the Sahara, Libya, and Malta to finally arrive in Italy in March 2010, at the age of 17, at the Termini station in Rome, a place where he will live in solitude and poverty for a few weeks.
In Rome, thanks to his attendance at the Civico Zero day center for minors, he discovered and developed an innate vocation as a photographer, thus starting to tell the reality that surrounded him. The first series of photographs of him portrayed the place where he initially lived for three months: the Termini station, with its patrons, makeshift beds made of canned goods, and large plastic bags full of clothes.
He thus began a long journey that led him to exhibit at the FOTOGRAFIA – International Festival of Rome, at the Italian Cultural Institute in London and New York, the Pecci Center, and in many other places.
Since then Mohamed as a photographer has traveled extensively in Italy and Europe went to Poland, returned to Malta, Kenya, and even Mali where he opened in Bamako, in the Kanadjiguila district, KENE | Space a photography laboratory for street children, bringing with them equipment and creating courses and thus providing the tools to first tell about themselves and their world.
From his arrival in Rome in 2010 to today, Mohamed has above all created a very strong bond with the city, which he has traveled far and wide on foot; from the more peripheral districts to the places preferred by tourists. Ten years of photographs of Rome and of the souls that travel his streets, every day traveled for tens of kilometers by Mohamed in search of new visions, people, lights, places, and atmospheres.
The rewards
You can participate in this project in many ways. The most direct is to buy a pre-order copy of the book, which will be sent as soon as it is printed (and will be signed by Mohamed!). Each higher reward will help us achieve the desired result faster by giving us the opportunity to publish Mohamed’s book.
The publisher: Punctum Press
Punctum is a platform for books, exhibitions and photography productions, founded in 2003 and based in Rome. We publish works by Italian and foreign authors, especially contemporary ones and also by newcomers. We take ideas and visions to transform them into tangible, original and rigorous projects, attentive to the balance between the value of the project and its final form. Among the published authors: Roger Ballen, Olivo Barbieri, Mark Cohen, Marco Delogu, Patrick Faigenbaum, Pieter Hugo, Graciela Iturbide, Anders Petersen, Alec Soth, Guy Tillim, Paolo Ventura
About the Author
Born in the Ivory Coast in 1993, at the age of 14 he left his country in the midst of the civil war and crossed alone Guinea, Mali, Algeria, the Sahara, Libya and Malta to arrive in Italy in 2010, in 17 years. Thanks to the attendance of the day center for unaccompanied minors Civico Zero, of Save the Children, in Rome, he discovered an innate vocation as a photographer and thus began his artistic career.
He lives and works in Rome as a photographer and also as manager of the photography workshops for minors within Civico Zero. In 2017 he opened a photographic laboratory for street children in Bamako, Mali in collaboration with Pianoterra Foundation Onlus, Rome.
His works have been exhibited in many cultural contexts, both in Italy and abroad, such as at the French Institute in Krakow for Refugee Day, 2017; the Italian Cultural Institute in London, 2017; the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, 2016; The International Photography Festival of Rome, curated by Marco Delogu, in the 2016 and 2015 editions, the Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome, 2014; and the Chamber of Deputies of Rome, 2012
