What’s behind a cigarette? Over the last ten years, photographer Rocco Rorandelli has followed any useful track, from the most evident to the most intangible, to redefine the imagery of the tobacco consumption.
After his doctoral studied in Natural Science, and a life of service o documentary photography with his fellow partners of TerraProject collective, Rorandelli has embraced an extensive and stubborn visual enquiry across India, China, Indonesia, Nigeria and Europe, looking into the key points of the tobacco industry and uncovering its most secrets and contested issues.
From the sistematic deforestation to child and illegal labour, from aggressive marketing campaigns to the catastrophic enviromental impact, from the lobbiyng plots to the devasting impact on health, all the components in a business of incalculable incomes have been analysed in the several chapters largely pubblished by international press, one of which was worth a grant by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
Constantly on a quest for the news beyond the news, with an eye both participating and lucid and a strong composing awareness that always put the subject graphically and conceptually at centre stage, together with GOST books Rorandelli is now working at Bitter Leaves, a book on this both complex and needed work, accompained by texts and infographics curated by the uncompromising tobacco control advocate Judith Mackay: pre-sale Kickstarter campaign ends by May 1st.