Spartak is a village located 3km North of Donetsk; before the war there were about 5,000 inhabitants living there, today only 45. Spartak seems a place that survived a nuclear holocaust. The 45 survivors have been living in Spartak for three years without light, running water or gas and at nightfall they take refuge in the subsoil in makeshift bunkers. The whole area has been mined and some disused houses have been used as military posts. Military and civilians are thus able to cohabit closely in the same battered patch of land sharing daily the same dangers and the same discomforts.
Giorgio Bianchi was born in Rome in 1973. In his photography Giorgio has always paid particular attention to political and anthropological issues, and has undertaken a freelance career to focus on a combination of long-term personal projects and client assignments. He has covered stories in Syria, Ukraine, Burkina Faso, Vietnam, Myanmar, Nepal, India, and throughout all of Europe. Giorgio has won several international prizes and has received many public recognitions, and his pictures are regularly published in newspapers and magazines, both paper and online.
