Interview with Valeria Mongelli. The hard duty of documenting grief
An endless battle between people and corporations looks like something granted by the default world order: cinematically-arrogant and insidious villains are selflessly seeking ways to gain dominion and protect their wealth, joyfully harming humanity at the same time. And the level of unscrupulousness of a corporation in this story with the south-Italian steel plant Ilva brings such a comparison to the top of mind.
One of the largest steel producers in Europe has a rich track record of ecological, environmental and labor scandals. In May this year, the story finally takes a logical and fair turn—the villains receive what they deserve:
An Italian court on Monday sentenced the former owners of the Ilva steelworks, Fabio and Nicola Riva, to 22 and 20 years in jail respectively for allowing it to spew out deadly pollution.
Once the largest steel producer in Europe, the factory emitted a lethal cocktail of carcinogenic dioxins and mineral particles for more than half a century, that medics say caused a surge in cancer in the adjacent city of Taranto.
Wrapping up a trial that lasted five years, a Taranto court also handed prison terms to 24 ex-managers at Ilva, consultants and local politicians, including the former head of the Puglia region, Nichi Vendola, who received a 3–1/2 year sentence.
— Reuters, May 31, 2021
Valeria Mongelli feels duty-bound to document and show this story from, probably, the most emotionally difficult side—the grief of mothers who have lost their children, workers at the plant, to the criminal ignorance of the corporation.
Zak Dimitrov speaks to Mongelli about her personal perception and attitude towards the difficult but socially important work she does.
Zak Dimitrov: First of all, I’m interested to know how you choose what documentary projects you photograph? Is it something that you see on the news or perhaps a word of mouth from the local people?
Valeria Mongelli: It is something in between the two. I read local and international news, of course, but I also try to get in contact with local people wherever I am.
I choose to tell urgent issues, mostly focusing on women empowerment, politics, and the environment. When I feel a story has good potential, both from the visual and narrative points of view, I start working on it.
ZD: The Steel Plant Mothers is quite an emotionally difficult body of work, do you ever feel down or somehow affected by what you photograph?
VM: I did feel affected by the stories of the steel plant mothers. It is so unfair if you think about it: why should a young boy or girl die in such a horrible way because of industrial profit?
Some of the women I portrayed cried in front of me while telling their stories, and I sometimes felt it was difficult to keep photographing. That is something every photojournalist has to deal with: what is the right moment to stop pressing the shutter?
ZD: Do you have any techniques to dust off any emotions from previous projects in order to move on to the next with a fresh mind?
VM: I try to tell myself that we, as photojournalists, cannot do much to change things. All we can do is to document and spread the story around, so that it is going to be more difficult for people to say: « I did not know ».
Once a story is published, I focus on the next one, trying to convince myself that I did everything in my power to change things. That is not always easy. Apart from this, I try to keep a good mind-body balance, which also helps to approach new work with a fresh mind.
ZD: How do you see your projects existing in the physical world, apart from on the screen — do you make photo books/zines, or do you prefer working with exhibition spaces?
VM: I never published a book — this is something on my to-do list. I held a few exhibitions in galleries and cultural spaces. Currently, with “photograp.her”, a collective of female storytellers I am part of, we are holding a collective exhibition in Zaragoza. The theme is «Women and the land».
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