The Bird Man

Giuseppe is 70 years old. He is originally from Calabria, Italy. He has lived in France since the 18th August 1970 but never gave up his Italian citizenship.

He lived in a pleasant apartment in the oldest yet most up-to-date neighbourhood in Paris, the Marais. He worked in a bank. He paid his taxes. He had children.

Nine years ago, after retiring, he started feeding the pigeons near his apartment.

He had no idea that because of this simple and harmless act, that even his flat would be taken away from him. Giuseppe was thrown out of his home because, regardless of all intimidation, he kept feeding the neighbourhood's pigeons.

He started living in a car.

But this was only the beginning.

Giuseppe has been subjected to several assaults, both verbal and physical.

If the first have eroded his soul is not known.

However the latter surely left him with severe health issues.

Every morning Giuseppe wakes up before sunset and starts walking toward his feathered friends who await him punctually in different spots of the city until dawn.

Giuseppe feeds them more than 70 kilos of grain daily , the equivalent in value of his meagre pension.

He has a thirteen thousand euro fine which he is paying and will be paying for until 2025.

Sparrows are fed brioches, more nutrient than normal bread.

At the end of the day he takes the sick pigeons he has found along his way to an organisation that takes care of them.

He gets back to his van, lets go of the bag he has dragged, for almost twenty hours and falls to sleep. Giuseppe asks for justice: asks to be given back the apartment which was unjustly taken away from him, asks that those who have thrown him out on the streets be prosecuted for abusing their powers, and that his story not be forgotten and that the pigeons, like himself, may live in peace in the world’s most romantic city.

Text and photographs: Nevia Elezovic

Captions are all words spoken by Giuseppe