July 13, 2016 8:52 AM
About this project:
The world’s most violent game: Florence’s Calcio Storico
The “Calcio Storico”, historical football, is a medieval ancestor of a fusion between modern rugby, street fighting and football. Dating back to the 16th century and still played every summer in Florence.
Four teams, formed by 27 players each, named after four colors (white, red, green and blue) and representing respectively the four neighborhoods of Santo Spirito, Santa Maria Novella, San Giovanni and Santa Croce, face each other every year in the beautiful setting of Santa Croce square under a merciless Tuscan sun, using each part of their body. For injured, no substitutions are allowed, that’s why the players, even if with broken bones, keep playing in the field for those endless 50 minutes of the game.
There are a few rules, but choking, punching and head butting are allowed, making Calcio Storico a unique sport experience of medieval brutality.
Bio:
Clara Vannucci is an Italian documentary photographer mostly focused on the Criminal Justice System. After the degree in graphic design, at the University of Architecture of Florence, she decided to move to New York City where she became an intern at Magnum Photos and the assistant, for over two years, of the photojournalist Donna Ferrato.
Her stories tell the prison system of both Italy and US: with Crime and Redemption, a reportage about theatre in Volterra’s prison, she shows how the method of acting in prison can be a useful tool to changing the way the criminal mind works.
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In NYC, with the help of Donna Ferrato, she took pictures in the Rikers Island Jail, developing a project about the Battered Women Section of the biggest US jail.
She has been awarded two yearlong residency at FABRICA, where she developed her third project about the criminal justice system: Bail Bond. Bondsmen, defendants & bounty hunters. Bail Bond is a visual tale set in contemporary New York. By weaving together stories of bondsmen, defendants and bounty hunters, the reportage sheds light on an unexplored edge of law and order in the US, a place where crime and security collide and amalgamate.
She teaches photography to the inmates at the Maximum Security Opera Prison. She is represented by Daria Bonera DB for Corporate and Advertising and she’s freelance for several magazines and newspapers, mostly covering editorial, commercial and travel assignments. Her clients and publications include The New York Times, TIME, L’Uomo Vogue and New York Magazine, Salvatore Ferragamo, Luisa Via Roma.
