Massimo Mastrorillo photographed the consequences of the tsunami in hard-hit Banda Aceh. At the same time, he noted that in the rest of Indonesia there was likewise a struggle to survive, for instance in the slums along the railway line in Jakarta or in the small Catholic community of Saint Egidio, which has to maintain itself in the middle of the largest Moslem nation in the world. Even aside from the effects of the tsunami the natural environment also takes a battering. In Pekambara oil extraction causes immense damage to the environment. Seeing that, Mastrorillo suggests in INDONESIA 2005: JUST ANOTHER DAY (2005), one almost gets the impression that with the tsunami nature is wanting to take revenge on man.

Since 1998 Massimo Mastrorillo (Italy, b. 1961) has been doing geographic and social photo reports for European journals such as Espresso, Geo France and Panorama. He photographed the lives of the Kurds in Turkey, the economic crisis in Argentina and the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Credits photos: Production of Roma Fotografia Festival, Su Palatu and S. Egidio Community

One of the photos from these series won Mastrorillo first prize in the category Nature, Singles at the World Press Contest 2006.