2013-05-20T21:42:44-04:00 Rosie Scammell http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=rosie-scammell Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Rosie Scammell Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2189034 2012-11-25T17:06:06-05:00 2013-01-25T05:12:01-05:00

Rosie Scammell http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rosie-scammell/ World Press Photo exhibition vies for attention with an innovative project exploring European identity.



The Lumina International Photography and VideoArt Festival will run until 16 December in Lucca, a walled city close to Pisa and Florence. The programme includes talks and workshops with editors and photographers covering everything from ethics to printing.

While the travelling World Press Photo exhibition boasts the most striking images from events around the world, as the economic crisis continues to put untold stress on society it is the European Photo Exhibition Award (epea) which gives the festival its distinct character.

Twelve photographers were picked by curators from the Körber-Stiftung in Germany, Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca in Italy, the Fritt Ord Foundation in Norway and Portugal's Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and tasked with creating photo essays on social themes.

Displayed in the newly-converted church buildings owned by the Italian foundation, the essays are diverse not only in their subject but also in the photographer's approach to the topic. Large prints and heavy frames have been chosen for Italian photographer Gabriele Croppi's black and white images of the continent's metropolises, for example, while Swedish photographer Hannah Modigh has created a more intimate essay by pinning her shots of teen life to boards around a single bed.

Journeys play a repeated part, telling of a common character among Europeans who are prone to crossing borders. While Davide Monteleone followed migrants from North Africa on their dangerous passage to Europe, fellow Italian Pietro Masturzo's portrayal of his trip to Odessa, Ukraine, is a fascinating, personal tale. Clutching a letter written by his grandmother in 1937, Masturzo goes in search of his heritage and completes the work with a montage of images which read like a graphic novel.

Another country on the periphery of Europe, Romania, is the subject of German photographer Frederic Lezmi's essay. Lezmi shoots familiar scenes - the seaside, a market stall, people chatting outside an apartment block - to give an insight into a country far from the minds of its European neighbours.

A couple miss the mark, such as Linn Schröder's work on the reality behind clichés of the US seen in Europe. The German photographer's shots are technically excellent, yet add little to the complex debate on European identities. Images of plain objects in the bathhouses of Istanbul, by Portuguese photographer Catarina Botelho, may be better suited to a modern art gallery than the epea project.

Another photographer with an artistic rather than documentary style is Isabelle Wenzel, from Germany, who has taken to the studio to shoot portraits based on Greek columns. Here the result is playful and imaginative, with female figures contorted to create statues for a contemporary Europe.

The diversity of the essays succeed in encouraging contemplation and moving thoughts away from budgets and Brussels to the people of Europe. Just a few streets away, in the 16th-century Villa Bottini, the World Press Photo exhibition has a more forceful impact. The images retell a year in photojournalism and at times appear too brutal to print, depicting the extent of human suffering from events such as the tsunami which struck Japan in March 2011 and the Arab Spring.

Although distinct in purpose and content, the two exhibitions and their photographers come together through Lumina's series of events across the city.

The epea exhibition is open from 3.00pm until 7.30pm from Monday to Friday and from 10.00am until 7.30pm at weekends, at Piazza S. Martino 7, until 6 January. Free entrance.

World Press Photo is open daily from 10.00am until 7.30pm until 16 December, at Via Elisa 9. Tickets cost €6 or €3.50 for students under 25, schools, groups of 15 or more and people over 65.

More information on the festival can be found at: www.luminafestival.it]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2139865 2012-11-16T19:00:00-05:00 2013-01-16T05:12:01-05:00

Rosie Scammell http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rosie-scammell/
Within the hour myself, a young American couple and Giulio will be running around in the woods after a loveable hunting dog, but beforehand must be given a quick education over the moreish appetizer.

"White are more strong-flavoured, closer to a nut and more intense," he says of the most expensive variety of truffles, found among tree roots in particular parts of Italy, which in his experience range from €2000 ($2480) to €5000 to per kilo. "November and December are the best months for the white truffle, but I prefer the bianchetto which grows in January and February."

Black summer truffles are passed around and their smoky scent inhaled. They are no bigger than a conker, resemble volcanic rock and are a comparative bargain at €200 to €300 per kilo.
Giulio first hunted for truffles with his grandfather in Piedmont, famed for its white truffle, but only returned to the practice in recent years and gained a hunting licence in 2008 after years running food and wine tours in Tuscany.

Fruitful foraging

With an education steeped upon us Giulio is up and summoning his hunting partner Eda; a six-year-old Lagotto Romagnola dog whose brown and cream curly hair obscures her eyes but stays clear of her valuable nose. Eda looks more suited to running after sticks than thousands of euros, but Giulio is full of praise.

"Buying an expert dog is complicated because a truffle hunter never sells, or they sell it for €20000 because a dog like Eda can extract 100 kilos each year," he says. "My teacher called me [in 2008] and said an important truffle hunter in Siena has had a stroke and must sell at least three of his best dogs." After much negotiation Eda arrived in Giulio's home in the municipality of Bagno a Ripoli, nine kilometres from Florence. Historically pigs have been used, but dogs are now commonplace are they are less destructive and less likely to eat the prize.

Eda jumps in the boot of the car enthusiastically and soon we are trundling up a country lane with Florence's cathedral watching from a distance. Giulio stops on the edge of a wood a few minutes away and picks out his vangeto, a long wooden pole with a sharp trowel on the end to pluck the truffles from the soil.

Truffle hunters are protective of their hunting ground, and while surveying the hillside Giulio admits that competition can be fierce: "It depends on whether you are a gentleman or not; if two rude truffle hunters were to meet there could be trouble." But he reassures us that this particular wood, despite its oak trees and fertile soil, has largely been overlooked by others.

Soon Eda is away, nose to the ground under Giulio's firm direction. A seemingly undetectable movement and he is racing towards the dog, shouting orders at her to stop and us to go. There, nestled between the trees is a black nugget. A moment of digging and there is another. Praise and dog treats pour down on Eda before she is put to work again; up steep slopes guided by the map etched onto Giulio's mind.

Loyalty to her master wavers on occasion and Eda can be heard crunching a truffle, to Giulio's evident annoyance. But the hour-long hunt is a success and the hunter leaves with a pocket full of autumn black truffles. They are smaller than usual after a rainless summer but a wet September will have a positive effect in November. Giulio also goes in search of white truffles by arrangement on private land, although on these occasions without excitable visitors in tow.

The gastronomic reward

Within a few minutes we are back in Giulio's truffle house, Eda excused, sipping on prosecco while the hunter offers instruction in how to polish up the truffles. They are first shaken in water, ridding them of the Tuscan soil, before being dried and carefully dusted with a metal brush. One last wash and they are then wrapped and refrigerated until delivered to local restaurants or gourmands globally.

While out picking up these new supplies Christina, Giulio's wife, has been preparing a delectable truffle lunch. With each of the five courses she explains the locality of the ingredients, the dish and the cooking methods. Her creations, which she insists are no different to the food she and Giulio eat regularly, have proved so popular that she is now writing a recipe book.

In honour of the furry forager, the starters are an 'Eda roll' and a white pizza. The former is mozzarella and truffle pesto wrapped in soft pastry and dusted with truffle flakes. Alongside sits the small pizza, covered lightly in mozzarella and drizzled in truffle oil and shavings.
The sensory impact is overwhelming. Much can be said of the hundreds of Tuscan restaurants bustling in Florence below, but flavours rarely flourish as they do at this table. There is little time to linger, as soon another dish is upon us; a hot soup of zolfino beans - the colour of cannellini beans yet half the size and particular to Tuscany. The broth is spiced with onions and truffle shavings; the oil remains on the table and much constraint is needed to stop every dish being doused.

The prosecco is replaced with a Morellino di Scansano, a sangiovese-based red wine from southern Tuscany which comes as a welcome change to the over-peddled Chianti Classico. It pairs perfectly with the next plate: home-made gnocchi rolled in butter and coated in slices of truffle.

For even the most gluttonous of truffle enthusiasts the meal could come to a contented end at this point, but still cutlery sits on the table. Christina arrives with the main course; chunks of beef fried with virgin olive oil and truffle shavings.

When it seems that no more space can be found for further indulgence, Giulio calls over for a balsamic vinegar tasting. The three types are from the Emilia-Romagna region north of Tuscany, where in Modena balsamic vinegar is taken as seriously as truffles in Florence, and aged by years. The 12-year, with notes of honey, is poured over cream-flavoured gelato to complete the two-hour lunch.

Those able to think of ever eating again can take home bottles of balsamic vinegar, which is a passion of Giulio's rather than produced by him, in addition to honey, oil and pesto produced at the truffle house.

The truffle tour costs €160 per person, although an alternative programme which replaces the lunch with a picnic is €75. The latter includes the introductory session, hunt and lesson on cleaning truffles. Giulio's tours are scheduled by request and can be booked any day of the week, each month apart from May.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1228566 2012-01-24T14:46:26-05:00 2012-03-25T05:12:01-04:00

Rosie Scammell http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rosie-scammell/
"It has become a symbol of resistance against any kind of dictatorial rule," says Balazs Nagy Navarro of the protest camp, pitched outside the office of state-funded MTV.

The camp -- a clutter of Thermos flasks, blankets and printed news reports from around the world -- was set up on 10 December, in response to a news report that blocked out the face of Zoltán Lomnici, former head of the Supreme Court.

"We knew that behind the scenes there was systematic manipulation and distortion of information but normally it's much harder to detect. Everyone knew that something was wrong," says Navarro, accusing the broadcaster of seeking to erase Lomnici from the public domain.
Within days an inquiry was called and concluded by MTV; three journalists were reportedly held to account. But as the head of the television and filmmakers union TFSZ, Navarro took members' complaints to the top, demanding a new inquiry: "The three journalists said they didn't admit to anything; they had just been asked in general how they made the news report. The people they held responsible had minor roles, because the reporter did everything under instruction," he explains.

With their demands refused, Navarro and his colleague Aranka Szavuly went on strike, surviving on tea, juice and soup in Hungary's bitter winter. Navarro speaks of a "character-killing campaign" that swiftly followed, with statements issued by MTV to the press and within the broadcaster's building.

Five days into the hunger strike Gábor Élő, the director of news for MTI, the newswire that serves MTV, was fired. The head of news for MTVA, which oversees the state-funded channels, was given a different job within the organisation. Navarro himself lost his job on 27 December; he says he was given a host of reasons, from creating a conflict of interest to violating strike laws.

But the 44-year-old journalist does not dwell on his unemployed status; instead he has called for the sacking of four senior employees at MTV:"The people they held responsible had minor roles," he says, "There has been some progress because someone has been fired [Élő], although they have never acknowledged official that is because of the hunger strike."

Navarro is adamant that his protest is not born out of "a special hatred against the government", yet says that the situation has worsened considerably since prime minister Viktor Orbán came to power, as leader of the conservative Fidesz party, in 2010.

"There has always been very strong meddling in public media by the government, left or right, using it for propaganda. But what they [the government] has done over the past year and a half has made things worse - it was not just that they tried to influence the news; they have tried to distort information and falsify facts."

"I would say its almost unprecedented -- these are the worst years since the changes in 1991," when the last Soviet troop left Hungary.

Despite some movements at the senior level, MTV has tried to remove the hunger strikers since its inception, according to Navarro.

Now silent, a speaker sways in the air just out of reach of the protesters; for days in December it played a relentless record of festive songs. Behind the glass of the recently-closed entrance to MTV, movable yellow floodlights still stand where the protesters say they were shone on them continuously. MTV staff were not immediately available to comment on the purpose of the speaker or lights.

As the camp has been pitched on private property the police cannot clear it, although one female hunger striker recalls the night men came to fence them in, laughing as she remembers her fellow campers fighting them off in their pajamas.

But behind the humour is a very real fear among Hungarians of the power the state is holding over the media. The 10 or so journalists that have participated on the strike have been joined by more than 20 civilians of all backgrounds, many of which are part of the Solidarity organisation. Some have been on hunger strike for more than three weeks, although Navarro has recently asked his supporters for just a "symbolic" fast of one or two days, fearing the health implications of any longer period.

What started as a two-strong strike has grown far beyond the thirty-something that now take shifts outside the MTV offices; on 2 January tens of thousands of people gathered in Budapest to protest against a new constitution that was criticised as being undemocratic.
For Navarro, the sea change must not only occur at the political level: "The journalist and the whole profession is also responsible for this. There is a need to clear out not just the political sphere, but also our profession."

"I understand you may be scared, but if your boss is telling you to falsify reports, it is your professional consciousness that decides whether you will fulfill these orders or not. It's not a dictatorship -- they won't kill you. You could lose your job, but you could protest -- if more journalists would have done this, we wouldn't have this situation now."]]>