People nominee

The Li River's fishermen of China, have been practicing the same traditional method of fishing for thousands of years.

They utilise a combined technique -- on the one side they through a net in the water to gather fish and on the other they rely on their trained cormorants to catch the fish.

This way of fishing is becoming obsolete and the last generation of traditional fishermen is now in their 80s or more.

This project aims at capturing the traditional fishermen while doing their craft, knowing that once this generation goes, there will be no such fishermen on earth - sadly.

Gianfranco Merati (b. Asmara, Eritrea, Africa) is an Italian photographer based in London.


Gianfranco’s motivation as a photographer is that ‘beauty is everywhere’. He seeks to reveal it.


For the last decade he has been developing his photographic practice, through building skills and reflecting on projects. Influenced by living in Africa and then Italy, as well as time spent in other parts of the world, he photographed his surroundings. While travelling and living in different locations, he captured images that epitomized the place or documented encounters with people living there. During this period, he created several projects in Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan and China.


As his practice grew Gianfranco’s observation turned to investigation and he started developing abstract photography within a studio setting. Exploring the complex geometry found within nature, he has created many photographic series including projects revealing tessellating patterns within insects’ wings; magnetic fluid ‘pulled’ into rippling miniature landscapes; and the delicacy of flowers encased in ice.


Using both high tech methods and innovative use of basic means, each final image is exacting and verging on the unreal. This, despite the fact that Gianfranco does not manipulate his images to create any illusions in his work.