Sara Romani is an Italian artist based in Boston, Massachusetts. She started her artistic studies at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan with a Major in Theater and Set Design. In Milan she received her BA with honor cum laude. She then moved to Boston to pursue graduate studies and she graduated in May 2014 from the Photography Department at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she also worked as Lecturer. Her chief interest is in Still Life Photography, but she has been experimenting also with other themes and media, including 16mm film and video installation. Contemporary artists, such as Tacita Dean, Laura Letinsky, Rinko Kawauchi, and Vik Muniz, influenced her creative process, and scholars such as Norman Bryson, Victor Stoichita, and Joseph Amato shaped her way of thinking about art. Sara’s work has been Photo L.A., the Los Angeles International Photographic Arts Exposition, which will also showcase one of her works in January 2015. Her work has been featured in online and printed magazines, such as recently awarded the second prize by an international jury for the Emerging Focus Barcelona Competition. This competition was organized in conjunction with Photo L.A., the Los Angeles International Photographic Arts Exposition, which will also showcase one of her works in January 2015. She is currently living and working in Cologne, Germany.
From Within and Without
This body of work expresses my fascination with the myriad ways that photographs translate
reality and how they invite us to question our knowledge of what is actual. I am drawn to the paradoxical
work of the camera: it both renders lived experience faithfully and yet yields unexpected moments of
surprise by deeply transforming what I see. These photographs stem from my attempt to understand the constitutive elements of still life photography (such as the depicted object and its surrounding space) and their blending of representational force and formal values. I construct scenes that exist only for the camera by combining cut out segments of my own photographs with real objects. The overlapping of textiles and other materials creates disorienting volumes. I physically build on multiple visual experiences. I select and transform portions of real space to create flat surfaces that intertwine with depths. I compose unusual perspectives to subvert gravity and manipulate the boundaries of the frame. Taking advantage of the distortions created by the camera, the familiarity with ordinary details in the picture is interrupted by the ambiguity of the construction. Starting from domestic spaces and mundane objects of everyday life, my photographs stand on the fine line between abstraction and figurative representation, awareness of represented reality and pure aesthetic pleasure. My training in set design and education in theater influences my way of looking through the camera: my photographs are created as unstable stages, where shapes and light are assembled, sometimes with figurative references, sometimes with atmospheric plays of light. The series of pictures ‘From Within and Without’ is an ongoing project started in January 2014.
In addition, Sara participated in national and international art exhibitions and juried shows including ‘Freedom to Create’ hosted by Walt Disney Company in Milan (Italy), CT+6 juried by Susan Cross, in Hartford CT, and juried by Martha Schneider, to mention few. LENS 2014 International Juried Photo Exhibition in Chicago IL Creative Quarterly Journal, The journal of Art and Design, Winner Photography Student Competition CQ34, #34 in Spring 2014 and F-Stop Magazine, Juxtaposition Issue#56 in January 2013.
To view more of Sara’s work please visit her website.