Bolivia

Italy Interplast project

Federico Saredella For several years, you’ve been following the movements of doctors who work with the Italy Interplast project, an organization that operates in developing countries, and whose volunteers specialize in reconstructive plastic surgery, intervening to remedy serious defects, burns, cancer, and all kinds of facial trauma; you document their work with your photos. […] the photographs that you take for Interplast Italy document […] faces disfigured by birth defects, by mutilation, by war, which are going to treated, are captured before and after reconstruction.


Carlo Orsi Entering the operating room and encountering this reality, which was new to me, was very hard. I remember the first time so well, in Tibet. It was a shock: there was blood everywhere and seeing these children who were so marked left me unable to react. Then, after three or four days, I went into the operating room, what I saw had become “normal”, acceptable… Perhaps it was due to the fact that I hadn’t slept for three nights, and that I wanted to get out and to do my job, since I was there to work. Now, I’m not saying that I’ve gotten completely used to it all, there are still things that I can’t watch and sights that I don’t know how to handle. I really like photographing people before and after the interventions. I like to accompany them home, talk to them, get to know their families...


(No Photoshop e altre storie: una conversazione con Carlo Orsi, in Carlo Orsi. No photoshop, edited by Federico Sardella, catalogue of the exhibition at Raffaella De Chirico Galleria d’Arte, Turin, October 6 - November 18, [Turin: Raffaella De Chirico Galleria d’Arte 2011], 7-8)

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Child with bandages outside the pediatric ward, 2010
Municipal Hospital, Camiri (Bolivia)

Bolivia


Italy Interplast project

Federico Saredella For several years, you’ve been following the movements of doctors who work with the Italy Interplast project, an organization that operates in developing countries, and whose volunteers specialize in reconstructive plastic surgery, intervening to remedy serious defects, burns, cancer, and all kinds of facial trauma; you document their work with your photos. […] the photographs that you take for Interplast Italy document […] faces disfigured by birth defects, by mutilation, by war, which are going to treated, are captured before and after reconstruction.


Carlo Orsi Entering the operating room and encountering this reality, which was new to me, was very hard. I remember the first time so well, in Tibet. It was a shock: there was blood everywhere and seeing these children who were so marked left me unable to react. Then, after three or four days, I went into the operating room, what I saw had become “normal”, acceptable… Perhaps it was due to the fact that I hadn’t slept for three nights, and that I wanted to get out and to do my job, since I was there to work. Now, I’m not saying that I’ve gotten completely used to it all, there are still things that I can’t watch and sights that I don’t know how to handle. I really like photographing people before and after the interventions. I like to accompany them home, talk to them, get to know their families...


(No Photoshop e altre storie: una conversazione con Carlo Orsi, in Carlo Orsi. No photoshop, edited by Federico Sardella, catalogue of the exhibition at Raffaella De Chirico Galleria d’Arte, Turin, October 6 - November 18, [Turin: Raffaella De Chirico Galleria d’Arte 2011], 7-8)

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Mother and her two daughters sitting at a table where the doctor decides what kind of surgery to perform, 2010
Municipal Hospital, Camiri (Bolivia)
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Two people under a tree in the middle of the hospital courtyard, 2010
Municipal Hospital, Camiri (Bolivia)
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Monument dedicated to Che Guevara, 2010
La Higuera (Bolivia)
104-012-01
Small sculptures, one representing the Last Supper, and a note on a shelf, 2010
Gutierrez (Bolivia)
104-012-15
Preparations for New Year's Eve, 2010
Ipita (Bolivia)
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Rainaldo Changaray Vaca, 2010
Karaguatarenda (Bolivia)
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Doctor sitting with his back to the camera, initials HMC (Hospital Municipal de Camiri) on his shirt, 2010
Municipal Hospital, Camiri (Bolivia)
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Brother Tarcisio, head of the Escuela de la salud del Chaco, 2010
Gutierrez (Bolivia)
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Doctor playing with a toy car in an operating room, 2010
Municipal Hospital, Camiri (Bolivia)
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Kid undergoing surgery, 2010
Municipal Hospital, Camiri (Bolivia)
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Girl with amputation undergoing surgery, 2010
Municipal Hospital, Camiri (Bolivia)
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Doctor carrying a little girl on a stretcher out of the “black zone”, 2010
Municipal Hospital, Camiri (Bolivia)
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Girl with burns and amputated arm on a bed, 2010
Municipal Hospital, Camiri (Bolivia)