Blanco is a photographic project by Italian photographer Stefano de Luigi, whose purpose is to report on the blind condition worldwide of Onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness, and to inform about the battle with this disease, and when it is possible to prevent and cure it.
Onchocerciasis is the world’s second-leading infectious cause of blindness. It is caused by parasitic worms transmitted through the bite of the black fly which live in fast-flowing rivers, and along fertile banks where farming communities are often located.
The WHO (World Health Organization) have a project called “World Vision 2020”, which aims to put an end to the condition of permanent blindness by 2020. The journey ‘Blanco’ (since blindness is seen as a constant vision of white), starts in 2003 and ends in 2007, reporting on the blind conditions in four continents and the countries Liberia, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Thailand, China, Laos, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Lithuania.
Text by: Giovanna Calvenzi, Philippe Dagen, José Saramago
