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Erika Zolli
Erika Zolli
Erika Zolli

Erika Zolli

Country: Italy
Birth: 1986

Erika Zolli is a photographer specialized in Fine Art. Currently she lives and works in Milan. She holds workshops of creative photography in Italy and in Spain. In her photos new worlds and new realities are created, in order to show and explore the invisible dreamlike dimension that lies in the human mind.

Her works have been mentioned in several magazines and newspapers including: Fotografia Reflex, Il Fotografo, L'Espresso, L'OEil de la photographie, La Repubblica, ANSA.it, Creathead (VICE), Art Parasites, Click Blog, Bored Panda, Fubiz, Creative Boom etc.

She won the first prize of the 'My City' competition organized by the European Environment Agency and the T2gE Conference award during the Transition to the Green Economy (T2gE) conference held in Bratislava.

Metamorphosis of Self: The art of Erika Zolli's Self-Portrait
Surreal, geometric and figurative photographic shots assemble the latest series by the Italian artist Erika Zolli.

In this new project, Metamorphosis of Self, the photographer shows a representation of herself made of symbolism that acts as a bridge towards a deep observation of conscious and unconscious feelings.

In these images, creativity intertwines with a dreamlike and surreal world: origamis that surround the subject, gears that move head and heart, crystal glasses that reflect a face, a silver metamorphosis taking place, and skies that connect with geometric shapes harmoniously.

"In this project, I wanted to create thirteen representations of myself. Each image expresses a concept that is fundamental to me: strengths and weaknesses which, through photographic art, are laid bare to be observed by an eye that retracts. The self-portrait invites us to get out of ourselves. During this process, we become foreigners ourselves, and through this movement, we want to identify by creating a sort of zone of blindness. Here, the opposition between sensible and intelligible overcomes and acts as a bridge between the two sides, allowing a better knowledge of one's unconscious. These thirteen images are characterized by vivid and strong colors to further enhance the subject which, despite being immobile and posing, maintains stability imbued with dynamic force".

Websites

www.erikazolli.it

@erikazolli

 

Inspiring Portfolios

Jesús Umbría Brito
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More Great Photographers To Discover

Mária Švarbová
Mária Švarbová
Slovakia
1988
Mária Švarbová was born in 1988; she currently lives in Slovakia. Despite studying restoration and archeology, her preferred artistic medium is photography. From 2010 to the present, the immediacy of Maria's photographic instinct continues to garner international acclaim and is setting new precedents in photographic expression. The recipient of several prestigious awards, her solo and group exhibitions have placed her among the vanguard of her contemporaries, attracting features in Vogue, Forbes, The Guardian, and publications around the world; her work is frequently in the limelight of social media. Maria's reputation also earned her a commission for a billboard-sized promotion on the massive Taipei 101 tower, in Taiwan. Maria's distinctive style departs from traditional portraiture and focuses on experimentation with space, colour, and atmosphere. Taking an interest in Socialist era architecture and public spaces, Maria transforms each scene with a modern freshness that highlights the depth and range of her creative palette. The human body throughout her oeuvre is more or less a peripheral afterthought, often portrayed as aloof and demure rather than substantive. Carefully composed figures create thematic, dream-like scenes with ordinary objects. Her images hold a silent tension that hints at emergent possibilities under the lilt of clean and smooth surfaces. There is often a sense of cool detachment and liminality in Maria's work. Routine actions such as exercise, doctor appointments, and domestic tasks are reframed with a visual purity that is soothing and symmetrical and at times reverberant with an ethereal stillness. The overall effect evokes a contemplative silence in an extended moment of promise and awareness—a quality difficult to achieve in the rapid pace of modern life. Maria's postmodern vision boldly articulates a dialog that compels the viewer to respond to the mystery, loneliness, and isolation of the human experience. Nevertheless, deeply embedded within the aqueous pastels, Maria's compositions hold to a celebratory elegance that transforms the viewer's gaze into an enduring reverence for life's simple beauty. Hasselblad Master 2018 Forbes 30 under 30 Winner of International Photography Awards 2016 Swimming Pool In the Swimming Pool is Maria's largest series yet, originating in 2014 and continuing to develop to date. Sparked by a hunt for interesting location, her fascination with the space of public swimming pools contributed to developing her visual style. Sterile, geometric beauty of old pools set the tone for these photographs. Each of them pictures a different pool, usually built in the Socialist Era, in various locations in Slovakia. There is almost cinematographic quality to the highly controlled sceneries that Maria captures. The figures are mid-movement, but there is no joyful playfulness to them. Frozen in the composition, the swimmers are as smooth and cold as the pools tiles. The colours softly vibrate in a dream-like atmosphere. Despite the retro setting, the pictures somehow evoke a futuristic feeling as well, as if they were taken somewhere completely alien. There is no disturbing emotion, there is no individuality in their stillness. The artificial detachment, created by Maria's visual vision, allows unique visual pleasure, unattainable in real life.
Marlou Pulles
Marlou Pulles
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Marlou Pulles is an Amsterdam City photographer, who explores themes of stillness and awareness. She studied Art History at the University of Utrecht, with a specialization in Dutch paintings of the 17th century. Inspired by the classical beauty of the food still-lifes of the famous painter Adriaen Coorte, she wanted to create images herself. She graduated in 2012 from Photography School Statief in Utrecht. Her still-lifes are aesthetic explorations of daily life objects. Placing the objects in an unconventional way, they become alive. About Shaping Blocks The abstract compositions she created consist of handmade wooden blocks from India, which are usually used as craft pieces for printing on textiles. Hit by the geometric beauty of these so called 'blockprints', which were designed by Nathalie Cassee , she searched in this series for balanced compositions. Playing with shapes, lines, colors and depth she wants to make still-lifes, that forces you to take your time and to see the individual elements in a different way. The compositions seem to float, and are constructed like collages. The movement that arises connects the blocks and the new aesthetic shapes radiate tranquility.
Geert Broertjes
Geert Broertjes
The Netherlands
I try to look at the world as open and honestly as possible. No prejudices about people and not take things for granted. I'm a sensitive person, which means that I use my feelings as a guideline for everything I do. I think more with my heart than with my head. As a photographer I'm fascinated by the diversity of people. What are their motivations, on what do they base their choices in life and what is their purpose. This fascination began at an early age, when I was traveling with my parents through Europe. I used the old camera from my grandmother and I was immediately intrigued by this medium. After high school I studied Media & Information Management. But I soon realized that this was not for me and that my interest in photography was still there. So I began to study photography at the Photo Academy in Amsterdam where I graduated end of 2013. One of my strengths is that people quickly feel comfortable with me. 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He shared his grief with his girlfriend, who became a recurring theme in this series. But even this relationship ended, a couple of months after his mother passed. Broertttes photographed the process instinctively. It was only afterwards that he noticed the coherence of his work. It became a poetic story about love, loss and grief. The beautiful photographs, all shot analogue in raw black and white, reveal the dark feelings he experienced during this intense period in his life. All about One Year About Project K In March 2019 Geert had been suffering from abdominal pain for a while and it was getting worse. He had a rectal bleeding on the toilet and lost two liters of blood. After a few days in the hospital the doctor came with bad news. Geert had a tumor in his colon. They told him that he could not be saved anymore because the cancer had already spread to his lymph nodes, liver and lungs. After a second and third opinion in different hospitals the image was drastically adjusted. 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To represent radiation, 4x5 inch film was irradiated in AMC hospital: the square in the middle of the film symbolizes Geerts' colon tumor which has the same size. Lastly, we partially burned some negatives to represent the surgery. With this series, we wanted to visualize the world you live in as a patient, and the huge contradiction in the treatments: it is made to make you better, but it breaks you down as well. Project "K" is about the fucked up reality in which strength and vulnerability play the lead role and hope is the constant factor. We are Geert Broertjes & Lotte Bronsgeest "Lotte explores the vulnerability of the body and the transience of life play an important role in her work, in which she always searches for the point where beauty meets confrontation. People are often quick in their judgement about each other, basing their opinions on the clothed body. Lotte is intrigued by discrepancies between opinions and reality." "Geert is fascinated by the diversity of people. 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Ylva Sjögren
Ylva Sjögren
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Bernard Plossu
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Cedric Roux
Cedric Roux
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My name is Cedric Roux (France, 1982). I'm from Paris. I photograph the impermanence of things in this moving world. I try to show what people don't take the time to see, and that despite all the comforts we can enjoy in this day and age, our overall equilibrium is fragile and everything hangs by a thread. I'm a Leica Ambassador since 2023 and I released 2 books : My Wonderland (2022, sold out) & Before Rebirth (2024) The featured images are about this feeling of "fragility' and takes place in USA.
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Chris Steele-Perkins
Chris Steele-Perkins
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At the age of two, Chris Steele-Perkins moved to England from Burma with his father. He went to school at Christ's Hospital. At the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he studied psychology and worked for the student newspaper; he graduated with honors in 1970 and started to work as a freelance photographer, moving to London in 1971. Apart from a trip to Bangladesh in 1973, he worked mainly in Britain in areas concerned with urban poverty and subcultures. In 1975 he worked with EXIT, a collective dealing with social problems in British cities. This involvement culminated in the book Survival Programmes in 1982. He joined the Paris-based Viva agency in 1976. In 1979 he published his first solo book, The Teds; he also edited the Arts Council of Great Britain's book, About 70 Photographs. Steele-Perkins joined Magnum Photos in 1979 and soon began working extensively in the developing world, in particular in Africa, Central America and Lebanon, as well as continuing to take photographs in Britain: The Pleasure Principle explores Britain in the 1980s. In 1992 he published Afghanistan, the result of four trips over four years. After marrying his second wife, Miyako Yamada, he embarked on a long-term photographic exploration of Japan, publishing Fuji in 2000. A highly personal diary of 2001, Echoes, was published in 2003, and the second of his Japanese books, Tokyo Love Hello, in March 2007. He continues to work in Britain, documenting rural life in County Durham, which was published as Northern Exposures in 2007. In 2009 he published a collection of work from 40 years of photographing England - England, My England. A new book, on British centenarians, Fading Light will be published at the end of July. Steele-Perkins has two sons, Cedric, born 16th November 1990, and Cameron, born 18th June 1992. With his marriage to Miyako Yamada he has a stepson, Daisuke and a grand-daughter, Momoe. Source Magnum Photos
Aljohara Jeje
Aljohara Jeje
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Aljohara Jeje can be described as a distinguished and versatile artist with a rich background in product design, art photography, and medieval artistry techniques. She demonstrates a dedication to lifelong learning through her diverse educational pursuits, including courses in Art History, Comparative Religions, and Ethics. Aljohara's passion for the arts is evident in her continuous exploration and mastery of various artistic disciplines. Aljohara’s practice delves into the exploration of societal and cultural dynamics, drawing inspiration from historical contexts and contemporary shifts. Her work is deeply rooted in storytelling, using visual narratives to convey intricate layers of meaning, engaging deeply with history, culture, and contemporary challenges, inviting viewers to reflect on the complexities of the human experience. Her artistic voice is unique, stemming from her keen observations of her surroundings. She has the ability to translate these observations into art, making her a versatile artist. With sensitivity and a critical eye, her art practice is a multidimensional exploration of societal issues, using a variety of visual techniques and mediums to convey her messages. Aljohara’s name and award-winning works are increasingly well-known and commissioned in and outside the region due to her wide range of expertly crafted fine art. Notable accolades such as recognition from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture, her 'Allard Photography Prize for International Integrity' and shortlisting by prestigious institutions like The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are fine examples. Beyond her artistic achievements, Aljohara is actively engaged in enriching cultural discourse, through workshops, talks, publications, and participating in international forums, demonstrating her steadfast dedication to fostering communication through the arts. AAP Magazine AAP Magazine 38 Women
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Call for Entries
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