The making of the photographic exhibition " Uomo e Macchina. Arbeit in der Toscana " by Pino Bertelli.
A backstage story.
The project: Robert Laube from the industrial museum of iron and steel , Henrichshuette in Hattingen, Ruhr Area, Germany is invited to Piombino, a small steeltown in Tuscany, Italy. Piombino is in a crucial moment for the city and for the workers protesting on the streets: the factory is closing down, searching for a buyer, deep in depth.
Henrichshütte is one of the several german industrial museums of Landschaftsverband Westfalen Lippe. LWL
Sabine Korth gets him to meet Pino Bertelli.
An idea is born, negatives are researched, printed and shipped. The author Pino Bertelli
is interviewed in his studio. He travels with his wife to Hattingen
and shoots a body of work " The New Pott ". The people of Hattingen, 30 years after the shutdown of their steel mill. How are they living today, how did life go on? Is there a chance after the immense lost of working places? Bertelli and his wife and documentary, together with the LWL are producing a slideshow, which will be shown first during the exhibit in Hattingen and the travel to other locations.
The main show with 70 portraits of people on their workplace in Tuscany from around 2000, integrated with images which show Piombino and tell the story of the authors life in the time span from 1957 to 2015 opens in may 2015.
The exhibition and the photo project are part of the ongoing cultural exchange
“Toscana – Ruhr Industrial Culture“ between Hattingen and Piombino.
A book containing all pictures, essays from the partners in the cultural exchange and an interview between Pino Bertelli and Sabine Korth is coming out in 2015.

The backstage story is told by Sabine Korth from Toscana Foto Project, Piombino
https://toscanafotoproject.wordpress.com
All photographs are from Sabine Korth, Annette Hudemann, LWL and Andreas Muck Photo Bochum.
Published by Sabine Korth, fotokorth@gmail.com