Alessandro Cinque is a photojournalist currently based in Lima. His work delves into mining’s devastating impact on indigenous communities and their lands. Alessandro has especially been documenting environmental contamination and public health concerns among the communities of Campesinos living along Peru’s mining corridor. In 2017, during a working trip in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, he met a 53-year old woman who told him that she got cancer because the water in her village was highly contaminated. Since then, Alessandro has committed to photographing the effects of the pollution that permeates the crops, livestock, and homes of the people residing near mining sites. Alessandro’s attention to social and environmental issues affecting minorities has often driven his work. In 2017, he documented gold mining in Senegal and Kolbars smuggling goods at the border between Iraq and Iran. In 2019, while studying at the ICP in New York, he portrayed Williamsburg’s Italo-American community and traveled to Arizona to photograph the abandoned uranium mines in the Navajo territories. Alessandro is a Leica Ambassador. His photos were published in The New York Times, National Geographic, Reuters, CNN, Washington Post, MarieClaire, Libèration, LFI, Internazionale, L’Espresso, ecc. In 2019, his work on Peru won POYi’s Issue Reporting Picture Story first place. In the same year, he was selected as a “Finalist” at Eugene Smith Grant and Alexia Foundation Grant. In December 2019, Alessandro moved to Lima to become more acquainted with Peru’s culture and society. He began contributing to Reuters’ coverage of LATAM while expanding his project on the impact of Peru’s mining industry on Quechua populations. In 2020 he was the Winner of Focus on the Story Grant. In 2021, he is a recipient of the National Geographic Society’s emergency fund for journalist Covid-19 and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting fund.
