Mattia Zoppellaro: Appleby

The Appleby’s Horse Fair takes place every year in early June, when 10,000-15,000 English and Welsh Gypsies, Scottish and Irish Travellers gather to buy and sell horses, meet with friends and relations, and celebrate their culture. It is held outside the town, along the river Eden, near to Gallows Hill (named after the public hangings that were once carried out there). Irish Travellers, also called Pavees, are a traditionally itinerant ethnic group who maintain a set of traditions. They are predominantly English speaking, but the origins of this nomadic group are far from known. There are several assumptions that are difficult to verify, given the oral tradition of this people. Some say the Pavees derive from an ancient nomadic people, the Tarish; others say they descend from landowners who have lost their possessions as a result of the conquest of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell and the fami

Mattia Zoppellaro was born in Rovigo in 1977. He studied photography at IED in Milan from 1997 to 2000. In 2002, after two years working experience at the Photography department of Fabrica, Mattia moved to England, where he started shooting for several music magazines and record labels. Between assignments, Mattia develops different projects from social reportage (Irish Travellers, Kosovar Refugees, Western Africa Witch Hunters, Hackney’s Homeless, Maximum Security Prisons in Italian North East), to entertainment (Sicilian Religious Ceremonies, Milan Porn Fair) and youth culture features (European Rave Parties, Mexican Punks, Dakar’s Hip Hop Scene). He is now living between London and Milan.

Mattia’s work has been published in Rolling Stone, VanityFair, Sunday Times Magazine, and The Financial Times Weekend, among others. To view more of Mattia’s work, please visit his website, www.mattia-z.com