Synopsis:

The Greek island of Leros was for 20 years and more the site of the world's most notorious and brutal asylum for the insane. The Magnum photographer Alex Majoli has chronicled its inmates and their return to a sane world and integration into society, the work of the famed Italian psychiatrist Franco Basaglia. Leros raises a number of questions. How could such a regime have existed? And how could anyone have survived it? This book was given the Judges' Special Recognition in the best books category of the International Pictures of the Year Awards 2003 and included in the PDN Photography Annual 2003 in the best books category.

About the Author:

Alex Majoli is a member of the Magnum Photographic Agency. Recognised for his work in the Balkan wars of the 1990s and his social reportage, he was born in Ravenna in 1971. He became a full-time photojournalist for the Grazia-Neri Agency in 1990. He has contributed to Newsweek, the New York Times Magazine and National Geographic. In 2003 he was the recipient of the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award for Photojournalism. He lives and works in Milan and New York.