User:Ernestobazan

Ernesto Bazan was born in Palermo, on the island of Sicily in Italy in 1959. He received his first camera when he was 14 years old and began photographing daily life in his native city and in the rural areas of Sicily. Photography has been more than a profession: a true passion, a mission in his life.

At the age of 19, he went to to New York to study photography at the School of Visual Arts from where he graduated in 1982.

Bazan has published several books: The Perpetual Past, Passing Through, The First Twenty Years, Island, Molo Nord.

In 2008, his new publishing house BazanPhotos Publishing recently released his new book BazanCuba on 14 years of life and photography on the island.

He has had exhibitions in Europe, Latin America and the United States. His photographs have been collected by collectors and museums among which MOMA and ICP in New York, SFMOMA in San Francisco, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Durham, the South East Museum of Photography in Daytona, the Fondazione Italiana della Fotografia in Turin, the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris and the Musee Rattau in Arles.

From 1992 to 2006, he lived and photographed the island of Cuba documenting the unique time in Cuban history called The Special Period. This body of work has given him the privilege to win some of the world most prestigious photographic awards among them The W. Eugene Smith grant; the Mother Jones Foundation for Photojournalism, the World Press Photo and two fellowships from the Alicia Patterson Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation.

In 2002, Ernesto Bazan created his own photographic workshops providing special emphasis in Latin America. Teaching has become his ruling passion. Several hundred students have studied with him in the last six years.

He lives with his wife Sissy, his twin boys Pietro and Stefano and their three dogs Diva, Ono and Charlotte in Veracruz, Mexico.