Scratchcards
(Gratta e Vinci)
Italy, 2012
I travelled 1412 km through Italy because I wanted to find a way to express the political void I felt around me. I tried to photograph something very difficult to represent, the distrust of the Italians toward their political class: do we see more fate in politics or in a scratchcard?
I used only regional trains between Reggio Calabria and Domodossola on a line which exists since more than hundred years and that allowed Italians, millions of Italians, to emigrate, to the north of Italy, to the north of Europe in the hope for a better future. I wanted to ask them (and myself), if is easier to improve your life by winning one of those scratch cards or by doing something to actively change the current political situation. I asked this question to common people, the one that with the change, after paying the bills or after an espresso, they buy a couple of “Gratta e Vinci”, because “… You never know!” Because, as Adam Smith said: “Rarely even the more educated people consider crazy to pay a little sums in exchange of the possibility to win a much bigger one.” People who don’t have impossible dreams but who just want a normal life with a work, an house and the possibility to have a family.
Along the way I bought scratchcards myself. I won 41 Euros. I’ve spent 87.
