News

THE PRIME MINISTER’S PHOTOGRAPHER

The Italian photographer Antonello Zapadu has been invited to participate in the 16th International Jury of CZECH PRESS PHOTO 2010. His photographs of the naked Mirek Topolanek in Berlusconi’s Villa Certosa in Sardinia caused a stir in the media last year and he was labelled a paparazzi. However, his professional career until then had indicated that in fact he was more of an investigative photojournalist engaged in serious social and political problems of the contemporary world. At least his stories on the banditry in Sardinia, cocaine trade and narcomafia in Colombia, the political atmosphere in South Korea, the oppression of South American Indians just as his dogged pursuit of the wastefulness of the home grown political elite indicated it.

So: Paparazzi or an investigative reporter?
Let the visitors to his exhibition called

“THE PRIME MINISTER’S PHOTOGRAPHER ANTONELLO ZAPPADU”

answer for themselves.

The exhibition will be opened to the public on the 8th October in the Roman-Gothic rooms of the Old Town Hall in Prague, on the same day as the International Jury of Czech Press Photo 2010 starts their work.

Apart from the photographs from the infamous series “Villa Cartosa”, which remained in his possession after the rest was confiscated by the police, Zappadu will show some of his key reportages “Bandits in Sardinia” and “Report from Colombia”.

The exhibition will be opened from 8th October to 10th November, daily from 10am to 6pm.

Czech Photo o.p.s., the exhibition organisers, thus continue in the tradition of introducing photographers - members of the International Jury Czech Press Photo competition. Up-to-date there have been exhibitions by Frank Fournier (USA), Nikolai Rachmanov (Russia), Peter Korniss (Hungary), Sergei Maximishin (Russia), Andrej Reiser (Czech Republic), Hans-Joachim Ellerbrock and others.

ANTONELLO ZAPPADU

He lives and works in Sardinia, Italy. He started his photojournalistic career at an early age when he decided to follow in the footsteps of his father, Mario Zappadu, who was a reporter for the Italian national television station RAI. In Sardinia he made a few stories about local banditry. He also photographed for national and international press agencies in India and in Moscow when Leonid Brezhnev died. He captured the dramatic turn of events on the 38th parallel in South Korea, he did a story on Hiroshima on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the atomic bomb attack on the city; he searched for the last cannibals of the Aukasa tribe in Ecuador and documented the conflict in the Andes. In July 2001, the Daily newspaper Unita published his South American story about the enforced switch to the dollar currency and the protests by the Indians against the privatisation of water. As war photographer he came into direct contact with Colombian rebels and photographed several stories about the cocaine trade. In April 2007, he photographed the former Italian opposition leader, Silvio Berlusconi, in the company of five lovingly posing girls in the park of the Villa Certosa in Sardinia. The distribution of the photographs, first published in the daily newspaper Oggi, was banned by the Office for the Protection of Personality Rights but thanks to the importance of the story it was subsequently published by all international daily newspapers. In 2009, Silvio Berlusconi, this time as Prime Minister, impeached Antonello Zappadu and accused him of interfering in his private life. He lodged a criminal notice with the State Representation of the Italian Republic in Rome and the Office for the Protection of Personality Rights. Antonello Zappadu was accused of taking over ten thousand photographs over three years documenting Silvio Berlusconi’s lifestyle and his unauthorised use of Italian aeroplanes and the services of the army – all with tax payers money. Zapaddu’s computers, cameras and some disputed photographs were confiscated.  Some of these pictures were later published by a South-American news agency, which managed to avoid Italian censorship, and by the Madrid daily newspaper El Pais. Alongside the Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, the former Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek also appeared in the photographs taken during his holiday at the Villa Certosa. After the photographs were first published by the Madrid daily, 4,500 other newspapers followed suit with 200 international television stations commenting on them. Bogota daily newspaper, El Espectador, and Israeli radio station Giz called Antonello Zappadu an investigative reporter of international importance and gave him the biggest credit for journalism in 2009. From 2004 to 2009, Zappadu was the photo editor of the Italian publishing group El Polis (19 publications with national coverage). Then he was sacked “with good reason” during the repercussions following the publication in El Pais. He met his wife Susan during one of his photographic trips to Colombia; they have three children and over one million pictures from Colombia.

BERLUSCONI VERSUS ZAPPADU or how much did the paparazzi cost me?

“If we talk about Sardinian paradise, property business certainly doesn’t cross our minds. Especially if the land smells of Mediterranean flora, is rich in pink granite and has a building ban on it. But Silvio Berlusconi and his Estate Agency Idra Immobiliare succeeded in bypassing the latter in Punta Lada thanks to a deal involving the hilly terrain surrounding Villa Certosa. After the busy summer of 2009 and the infamous photo story by Antonello Zappadu, which immortalised the prominent Italian citizen frolicking with a few television hostesses and the naked former Czech Prime Minister Topolanek, the Italian Prime Minister left the limelight to secure privacy. But Idra’s accounts speak clearly: 24,5 million Euro for interest free financial help to purchase the land around Villa Certosa, and an income deficit of 7,6 million Euro. Paradoxically, this is the exact amount that the Italian Prime Minister paid for the photographer’s “Canadian joke”. The purchase of the surrounding terrain, rich in myrtle and pistachios, is probably not going to serve as the perfect fortification of the Prime Minister’s residence intended for his “well-deserved rest” because some say that the Villa Certosa remains exposed to the eye of a good quality telephoto lens through which indiscreet pictures can still be taken. ”

REPORTS FROM COLOMBIA

Colombia was named after the Italian seafarer Christopher Columbus who in fact never saw it. However, it is a country with many stories attached to it; in this case it is in connection with rebels, cocaine and narcotics. In reality the whole problem is much more complex and Colombia is not only about drug trafficking but primarily about a war which nobody wants to talk about; or more precisely a war nobody is allowed to talk about. My photographs want to tell a story about the many controversial aspects of this amazing country full of captivating atmosphere – music, hard work, water, smiles and love, which are qualities I immediately noticed. But they also want to speak about what I discovered later – the violence. To be able to do my work I need military escort. I have to hide, I have to sleep in garages and not use hotels. The reason for all this is cocaine and its terrible consequences. The consequences are not only the drug dependency but also the contamination of the soil, underground water and vegetation by petrol and acids needed for the refinement of drugs. That’s the Colombia I don’t like. But it is the Colombia I have speak about.

BANDITS IN SARDINIA

In the last 135 years, bandits have kidnapped 370 people in Sardinia, an average of 2,7 abductions a year. The first known kidnapping dates back to the end of May of 1875; the victim was the highbred Antonio Meloni Gaja from Mamoiada, a small village in the heart of Sardinia. The first foreigner to be kidnapped was an Englishman, Carlo Wood, on the 13th of May 1890. The ransom demand was 100.000 liras, but in the end the bandits got only 1270 liras. On the 25th of July, two other foreigners were kidnapped in Aritzo: Jules Paty Louis and Regis Pral. Jules Paty was released on the 21August but the kidnapping of Regis Pral, the son of a very rich industrialist from Valence, created a diplomatic incident between the one-time Prime Minister, Francesco Crispi, and the Sardinian authorities. Crispi ordered that the affair should be resolved in any-which way, but in the end Regis Pral got his freedom, without the ransom being paid, thanks to Giovanni Corbeddu Salis, one of the most ruthless bandits in the region. The prefect, Marongiu, promised to give Corbeddu Salis whatever he wanted in exchange for helping to rescue the kidnapped man. Corbeddu Salis succeeded but refused a reward and became a defender of the oppressed, being successful where ministers, prefects and police had failed. But in 1946, there were already 28 kidnappings. It was a huge increase and a bad year for the island’s public image.
In 1992, a 7 year-old child was kidnapped in Costa Smeralda: his name was Farouk Kassam and he was an Arab. He was released after 177 days in captivity where he suffered a mutilation of his left ear. The ransom for his release was 5.300.000.000 of liras (2.737.000 Euros).

VILLA CERTOSA

The story of Villa Certosa can be divided into two periods: before Antonello Zappadu’s photographs and after them. Before, this imposing residence was Silvio Berlusconi’s most popular retreat among his other residences. Here he conducted wild parties with friends and intimate meetings with heads of governments. And suddenly, all that came to an end. Villa Certosa is located in Punta Lada, not far from the charming Porto Rotondo, in one of the most beautiful spots on the Sardinian coast where on the land of 90 hectars are hidden artificial lakes, swimming pools, parks with butterflies and other villas, a football pitch, waterfall and a volcano spewing lava controlled with a remote. Berlusconi acquired this charming residence at the end of the 1970s. As a former TV magnate he conducted many property deals here, among them the purchase of the Villa Monasterio from his colleague Gianni Onorata, the owner of the Sardinian TV channel La Voce Sarda. Berlusconi immediately renamed it Villa Certosa. In 2004, when the law started looking into the planning permissions for the building of a jetty in a protected area, the government argued with a state secret – the jetty was supposed to be important for the Prime Minister’s security. Then another prosecution started in connection with the construction of a summerhouse and other buildings. The accused was an agent from Idra Estate Agency, which works for Berlusconi. But nothing was going to stop the Prime Minister’s desires. One his favourite pastimes are fireworks.  He organised a show in August 2004 and the British Prime Minister and his wife Cherie were overwhelmed by the pyrotechnic display, just as they were by Berlusconi’s hair net, which he uses to protect his new hair implants. But the most famous show is still the explosion of the artificial volcano, which he presented on the occasion of the national holiday Ferragosto in 2006. Berlusconi was complaining that journalists spoiled his show by leaking it before but the local people, who don’t even read newspapers, raised an alarm and called the fire brigade. Vladimir Putin, whose friendship makes Berlusconi proud, was also a guest at Villa Certosa, and not only once.  The first time he arrived on a cruiser with a launch pad in 2003; the last time was in April 2008, immediately after Berlusconi’s election victory. Another of Berlusconi’s friends, G.W. Bush, never made it there despite the fact that after Berlusconi’s visit to Bush’s ranch in Texas, the Italian Prime Minister said that the President of the United States has to come to Villa Certosa.
When in 2007 Antonello Zappadu photographed Silvio Berlusconi in the park of the Villa Certosa in the company of lovingly posing girls, all hell let lose. When two years later the Czech Prime Minister Topolanek appeared in Zappadu’s pictures in Adam’s attire, more hell let lose together with heated discussions from which people found out about Berlusconi’s wild parties with many girls, even girls like the under-age Noemi Letizia, about the alleged use of government planes for the transport of private guests and many other things. According to recent media reports, Berlusconi’s estate agency bought more land around Villa Certosa for astronomical prices to prevent curious cameras from disturbing the Prime Minister’s privacy. However, it now seems that something’s gone wrong in the Prime Minister’s relationship with the villa.