I am from the analogue generation – digital alone just doesn’t do it for me. Originally from Italy, I got into photography when I moved to London in the 90s. I used to spend hours in the darkroom, learning to print my own black and white photographs, totally captivated by what felt like a magical process.
I often say that I discovered collage during the lockdowns, but thinking about it, I always had it in me: when experimenting with photography I often shot double exposures and in the darkroom I used to play around with sandwiched negatives and juxtapositions.
So, when after years of creative stalemate I re-discovered collage, it was almost a lightbulb moment and collage quickly became an obsession. Apart from being extremely therapeutic, it allowed me to bring together my longstanding passion for photography (I could finally put to use my forgotten pile of black and white prints!) and gave me the desire to shoot new images digitally, which I could then incorporate in my analogue collages. I also felt compelled to rummage through my family’s photographic archives and found myself delving into childhood memories – an intuitive exploration that became an ongoing process of self-discovery.
In the same way as I mainly use photographs which have a personal connection, I prefer to prepare and hand paint most of my collage papers using a variety of techniques, as they feel more individual to me, but I also like the irreplaceable colour and texture of vintage paper.
Dry pressed flowers and leaves are another recurrent theme in my artworks: their beautiful fragility paired with their intrinsic inevitable decay suits my style and the urge to express the sense of underlying vulnerability that I felt when I was small and still do, as an adult.