Selected Work
Peru, 2024 · ongoing · B&W
Cusco · Sacred Valley · Queros
In the Sacred Valley and in the territories of Queros, between climate change and the resilience of Quechua communities.
Kenya, 2025 · ongoing · Color
Mau Forest · Narok County
Between the Mau Forest and Narok County, the contradictions of environmental policies and their impact on Ogiek and Maasai communities.
About
Molo, Kenya, 2025
Giordano Simoncini is a documentary photographer whose work focuses on the intersections of social inequalities, environmental transformations and land rights. His long-term projects take him across Latin America and Africa, where he investigates the relationships between land, identity, and power through sustained fieldwork.
His approach combines anthropological research with a strong visual focus, aiming to document forms of life and systems of relation that often remain unseen. He studied philosophy at Sapienza University of Rome, where he also began developing his photographic practice.
His work has been published by international outlets and magazines, including The Guardian, L'Oeil de la Photographie, and The Pictorial List.
Press & Recognition
2025
Runner-up, Landscape — The Photography Foundation × Leica
Exhibition at Leica Store, London
2024
Finalist, Project and Portfolio — Eyeshot Magazine Open Call
2024
Urbanphotoawards — Finalist, International Contest, category Projects & Portfolios
Work published in URBAN Unveils the City and its Secrets #10
2024
Life Framer — Winner, International Contest 'Youth'
Selected among the 20 winning photographs of the Life Framer 'Youth' International Contest
Contact
Available for documentary work, editorial assignments, exhibition projects, and collaborations with NGOs and humanitarian organizations.
Email giordano.simoncini@icloud.com ↗ Instagram @giordano_simoncini ↗Peru · 2024–ongoing · B&W
Bajo las Nubes is a long-term project initiated in 2024 in the Peruvian region of Cusco, between the Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River and the more remote areas of the Andean highlands, within the territory of the Queros community. The work explores how Quechua communities inhabit high-altitude environments — between 4,400 and 5,000 meters above sea level — within a landscape increasingly shaped by the effects of climate change, where glacier retreat, the gradual drying of pastures, and the disruption of agricultural cycles are placing growing pressure on ways of life rooted in a millennia-old balance between humans, animals, and land.
Within this context, Pachamama (Mother Earth) does not appear as an abstract idea, but as a lived cosmology in which material and spiritual dimensions are inseparable. Land, animals, bodies, and natural elements are not resources, but parts of a single vital system. Rendered in black and white, Bajo las Nubes traces a condition of balance that persists, yet is constantly under pressure.
Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River, Cusco, Peru. A mother and her son take part in the Compadres festival, a celebration that expresses the value of friendship within the community and its relationship with Pachamama. The goose-feather ornament held in the child's arms is associated, in local ritual practices, with the bond between the human and animal worlds and the cycles of nature.
Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River, Cusco, Peru. Two llamas remain in close contact in a high-altitude pasture. In the Peruvian Andes, these domesticated animals are an integral part of Quechua pastoral life and, like the communities who raise them, are increasingly affected by ongoing ecological changes.
Queros, Cusco, Peru. A group of children play in front of their home. In the background, the progressive melting of glaciers, accelerated by rising temperatures, reduces the availability of water and essential resources.
Sacred Valley of the Incas, Cusco, Peru. During the Compadres festival, a man in traditional clothing leaps as part of the celebration. Bodily movement is part of collective practices that express cultural continuity and a relationship with Pachamama.
Chahuaytire, Cusco, Peru. Two women share a meal based on potatoes, a staple for local families. In recent years, high-altitude agriculture has become increasingly fragile, and the diversity of potato varieties has progressively declined.
Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River, Cusco, Peru. In a remote landscape, a group of sheep grazes within its everyday environment. The isolation of these territories encourages deep adaptation among animals and a strong attachment to high-altitude spaces.
Sacred Valley of the Incas, Cusco, Peru. A Quechua shepherd climbs the steep slopes of the valley, carrying food for his family. In these areas, daily movement often involves long walks across rugged terrain.
Sacred Valley of the Incas, Cusco, Peru. A group of men in traditional clothing gathers during the Compadres festival, practiced voluntarily on some of the highest peaks in the region.
Highlands above the Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River, Cusco, Peru. In an isolated village, two women recover wool from sheep that have died within their flock. Livestock loss has become increasingly common.
Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River, Cusco, Peru. In a high-altitude landscape, animals pause near a small water source. In the Quechua Andean worldview, water, land, and animals form an interdependent system.
Chahuaytire, Cusco, Peru. A man bends over the fire in his kitchen while preparing soup for his family. Declining potato harvests linked to shifting climate patterns have made this staple increasingly uncertain.
Highlands of the Queros community, Cusco, Peru. At the base of a retreating glacier, considered sacred, a father and his son take part in a ritual connected to Pachamama, intended to renew their bond with the land.
Entrance to the territory of the Queros community, Cusco, Peru. Two children emerge among the rocks at the entrance to the village. The Queros communities are among the last to maintain a direct continuity with Inca-origin cultural and ritual practices.
Highlands of the Queros community, Cusco, Peru. In a remote landscape, a man leads his flock to pasture. At the center, a young lamb adapts to the movements of the group. In a context marked by frequent losses, new births represent continuity.
Chahuaytire, Cusco, Peru. Portrait of a Quechua man wearing traditional clothing during a community celebration dedicated to trees, practiced as a moment of relationship with the natural cycle.
Misminay, Cusco, Peru. Every morning, a woman climbs the surrounding slopes with her dog, crossing ancestral lands. Declining rainfall and glacier retreat are placing these territories under increasing pressure.
Chahuaytire, Cusco, Peru. During a day dedicated to trees, the reflection of a family appears on a makeshift surface illuminated by sunlight, capturing a moment of stillness within daily life.
Chahuaytire, Cusco, Peru. A young girl cries in front of her home. The progressive drying of the land is making living conditions increasingly difficult.
Maras, Cusco, Peru. A woman leads sheep back to the enclosure after grazing. The balance between bodies, animals, and land is becoming increasingly unstable.
Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River, Cusco, Peru. During the Compadres festival, a group of men takes part in a celebration that reinforces community bonds and the relationship with Pachamama.
Misminay, Cusco, Peru. A woman directs her flock under the intense highland sun. Pastoral life is increasingly threatened by ecological transformation.
Highlands of the Queros community, Cusco, Peru. During a celebration dedicated to trees, a vast landscape becomes a gathering space for the community.
Chahuaytire, Cusco, Peru. A man takes part in a ritual inside the sheepfold, a practice linked to care for the herd and its continuity.
Queros, Cusco, Peru. Portrait of a child during a community gathering. His family is among those who have recently moved to an urban center, returning here for ritual occasions.
Queros, Cusco, Peru. A father and his son take part in a ritual of purification. Water from a sacred glacier and ritual offerings mark a gesture that renews the bond with the land.
Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River, Cusco, Peru. A high-altitude landscape reflects the fragile balance between domesticated animals and the natural environment.
Chahuaytire, Cusco, Peru. During a day dedicated to trees, the face of a young girl appears from the back of a truck. A piece of confetti drifts through the scene.
Sacred Valley of the Incas, Cusco, Peru. During the Compadres festival, moving bodies trace lines along the horizon, echoing the profile of the surrounding mountains.
Kenya · 2025–ongoing · Color
Breaking Point investigates the contradictions of environmental and climate policies in the Rift Valley, one of the world's most important biodiversity hotspots and a territory shaped by a long co-evolution between human societies and ecosystems.
Through long-term fieldwork combining photography and journalistic inquiry, the project documents how initiatives presented as sustainable — participatory reforestation, forest management schemes, REDD+ programs, and carbon offset mechanisms — are, in practice, producing new forms of territorial dispossession, Indigenous marginalization, and ecological transformation.
The first phase, developed between February and March 2025 in the Mau Forest and Narok County, focuses on areas where land management models, global economic supply chains, and the rights of Ogiek and Maasai communities come into tension.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. A young Ogiek woman stands at the entrance of one of the last remaining patches of intact indigenous forest. She and her community can now access it only sporadically, under the constant supervision of a Kenya Forest Service ranger.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek woman pours milk for her grandchildren inside the house temporarily assigned to her on the edge of the forest. The availability and quality of this essential resource are steadily declining.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. A road cuts through the Mau Forest, revealing an ecological fracture. On the left, rows of exotic plantations; on the right, what remains of the indigenous forest.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. The face of an Ogiek man bears the marks of repeated intercommunity conflicts, triggered by the forced relocation of other populations into Ogiek territories.
Ndoinet, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek family, long integrated into the tea economy, finishes harvesting after a long day in the fields.
Mariashoni, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. A husband and wife stand at the center of what remains of their home — only its perimeter is left. In 2020, the Kenya Forest Service demolished it to evict them and make way for an environmental conservation project.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. Accompanied by a Kenya Forest Service officer, an Ogiek woman returns to the gestation cave where her mother and grandmother were born.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek woman allows a lamb to feed from its mother before milking her for the family. Milk is increasingly scarce, and its quality is deteriorating.
Ndoinet, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. The landscape opens onto a boundary shaped by intensive tea cultivation. Commercial plantations draw a sharp line between forest areas and lands inhabited by local communities.
Ndoinet, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. A woman cooks while holding her granddaughter in her arms. They escaped by only a few meters from the latest arbitrary redefinition of habitable boundaries.
Mariashoni, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. At sunset, an Ogiek child fills jerrycans at the only water source still accessible to his family. For these communities, water scarcity has become the new normal.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. After completing the centuries-old practice of honey harvesting in the heart of the indigenous forest, an Ogiek man extracts part of the harvest from a traditional bag.
Ndoinet, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek woman stands within the forest, which holds the highest concentration of sacred sites in the region.
Narok County, Kenya, 2025. A Maasai man shows one of the few forms of livestock keeping still possible today: animals kept in enclosed and controlled spaces.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. At sunset, a truck loaded with timber leaves the forest towards Molo.
Narok County, Kenya, 2025. Maasai workers are engaged in one of the few plots reserved for subsistence vegetable farming. The rest of the land is occupied by exotic fruit plantations imposed by the TIST program.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. The only cypress tree left standing after logging rises at the center of land temporarily allocated by the government to an Ogiek family.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. A family gathers around the house temporarily allocated to them by the government. Without land rights or ownership, their future remains uncertain.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek man performs the ancient ritual associated with honey harvesting in the forest.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. A centuries-old melliferous tree rises in the heart of the Mau Forest. Its presence is threatened by the transformation of the forest ecosystem.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek child holds her younger sister in front of the hut where they live. Under the PELIS program, without land rights and at risk of eviction, their future remains uncertain.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek woman warms milk for her children in her kitchen, at the edge of the forest.
Ndoinet, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An ox belonging to an indigenous breed, now increasingly rare, grazes beyond the boundary imposed on the community within the forest.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek woman stands inside the house where she has lived for several years under the controversial PELIS government program.
Mariashoni, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek family sits outside their home, rebuilt just two weeks before this photograph was taken. In 2020, their house was burned, leaving them without shelter.
Mariashoni, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. A group of Ogiek children play in front of a large lagoon. Once abundant with water, it has now nearly dried up due to climate change and exotic tree plantations.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek man shows a medicinal substance still used by the community. The decline of melliferous trees is progressively compromising these ancient natural remedies.
Ndoinet, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek woman stands beneath the waterfall descending from the sacred cave of Ndoinet, a central site in the community's spirituality.
Narok County, Kenya, 2025. A domestic scene from a Maasai family deeply rooted in tradition. The difficult transition from pastoralism to agriculture results in increasing isolation.
Ndoinet, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. In the morning, a group of Ogiek farmers prepares the first sowing of the season, delayed compared to previous years.
Mariashoni, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek woman sells bananas to a young Kikuyu girl at the Mariashoni market, recently affected by arbitrary boundary redefinitions.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. A dry cypress tree rises at the center of an abandoned plot. The family who lived there has already been evicted.
Narok County, Kenya, 2025. A group of Maasai workers involved in the TIST agricultural project. Carbon credits generated from biomass do not provide any direct benefit to local communities.
Mariashoni, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek woman, evicted in 2020 together with her husband and newborn daughter, has found temporary shelter but continues to live under the threat of further displacement.
Mariashoni, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. At sunset, two Ogiek children play in the only remaining water source. Exotic plantations consume up to four times more water than native species.
Mariashoni, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. Two Ogiek children play near the last water source. Exotic plantations, which consume up to four times more water than native species, intensify water scarcity already exacerbated by climate change.
Koibatek, Kenya, 2025. A group of Maasai and Ogiek workers pose in a community nursery. Indigenous melliferous trees have progressively been replaced by exotic species.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. An Ogiek woman, living in a house temporarily allocated under the PELIS program, takes care of the space as if it were her own.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. Aerial view of the last remaining tract of intact indigenous forest. This area is also experiencing progressive loss of native forest cover and increasing fragmentation.
Kiptunga, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. Two Ogiek brothers wait for their daily meal inside their kitchen, at the edge of the forest.
Mariashoni, Mau Forest, Kenya, 2025. At the edge of one of the areas most affected by the 2020 evictions, a donkey escapes from its enclosure and moves freely through the landscape, a silent presence within the territory.