Meeting with the photojournalist Francesco Cito, in dialogue with Andrea Holzherr, Alberto Prina and Angelo Cucchetto
Francesco Cito was born in Naples on May 5, 1949, he moved to London in 1972 to devote himself to photography. Having become free-lance, he begins to collaborate with the Sunday Times, which dedicates the first cover for the reportage “La Mattanza” to him.
In 1980 he was one of the first photojournalists to clandestinely reach occupied Afghanistan by the Red Army. Here are the photos of the first Russian soldiers who were ambushed. In 1982-83 he made a report on the Camorra in Naples published by the major national and foreign newspapers. From 1983 to 1989 he was on the Lebanese front as Epoca's correspondent, the only photo-journalist to document the fall of Beddawi (refugee camp), Arafat's last stronghold in Lebanon. In 1984 he devoted himself to the conditions of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories of the West Bank (West Bank) and the Gaza Strip. He follows all the phases of the first "Intifada" (1987-1993) and the second (2000-2005). In 1989 he was sent to Afghanistan by the Republic's “Il Friday” and again clandestinely following the Mujahideen to tell the Soviet retreat. In 1990 he was in Saudi Arabia in the first Gulf War to follow Operation Desert Storm and the liberation of Kuwait. In 2002 he was among the few to enter the Jenin refugee camp, under curfew during the Israeli siege of Palestinian cities.
In 1995 the World Press Photo awarded him the third “Day in the Life” prize for the Neapolitan Wedding story and in 1996 the first prize for the Palio di Siena. In 1997 the Abruzzese Institute for the History of Contemporary Italy awarded him the "City of Atri" award for his commitment to his work on Palestine, while in 2001 the Leica Oskar Barnak Award marks him with an Honorable Mention for Sardinia reportage. In 2006 the FIAF associations awarded him the title of "Master of Italian Photography" and in 2009 he received the "Antonio Russo" award for war reportage. In 2013 he won the first Canon-Mondadori prize.
