About

Sofia Podestà (1991) is a photographer based in Rome, Italy. She graduated at the Art History faculty of the University of Roma Tre in 2018, with a thesis on the photography of Luigi Ghirri, Guido Guidi and Vittore Fossati. She studied photography through the filter of Art History to have a more cross-sectional vision.

In 2018 she was selected to attend the Summer School by SISF and the Advanced training at MAXXI museum in Rome.
She received in 2019 the award GIOVANI CREATIVI, for the category of photography, as one of the best twelve Italian creative talents under 30. In 2021, she was selected by the Central Institute for Cataloguing and Documentation and Italian Ministry of Culture to document the cultural heritage of Southern Italy, as part of the PON (Piano Operativo Nazionale) project Itinerari Digitali.

Her images are a personal collection of places that are represented like objects in a catalogue or album: frontal and centred as much as possible, always at a certain distance and without being distorted by false perspectives. But this mapping or cataloguing of the landscape is only apparently aseptic: it is rather a proposal to attempt to look at anonymous places or, on the contrary, known realities with an affective gaze, which leaves the spirit of the place intact, stripping it of what is superfluous.

She is represented in Rome by Von Buren Contemporary art gallery.

STUDIES
2018 Advanced training at MAXXI museum
2018 Summer School Sisf in Pieve Tesino, Trento
2018 Workshop // Vittore Fossati at Officine Fotografiche with ICCD, Rome
2018 MA in Models and languages of Contemporary Photography, Università di Roma Tre, Rome
2016 Internship at MACRO Museum, Rome
2015 BA in Contemporary Art - Università La Sapienza, Rome

PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS
2022 Kairos • Thirthyone Design Management, Rome
2022 Kairos • Von Buren Contemporary, Rome
2019 DESERTICA, curated by Tayisiya Libokhorska • Sinestetica, Rome.
2018 Emotional landscapes • Medina Gallery, Rome.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Romagna tin bota • Galleria comunale Ex Peschiera, Cesena, Italy
2023 Niente in particolare. Beyond the Landscape: Women and. Contemporary Photography in Italy, curated by Agnese Purgatorio • Fann wa Chai gallery, Amman, Jordan
2021 ImagiNation Paris • ParisPhoto off, Joseph Turenne Gallery, Paris, France
2021 Niente in particolare • Italian Embassy, Amman, Jordan
2020 Segni Particolari • Museo Civico di Castel Nuovo - Maschio Angioino, Naples, Italy
2020 Segni Particolari • Roma Smistamento, Rome, Italy
2020 Group show curated by Michele von Büren • RvB Arts, Rome
2019 Mirabilia • Sinestetica, Rome.
2019 GIOVANI CREATIVI • Palazzo Massimo, Rome.
2018 Medina fotografia • Medina Gallery, Rome.
2016 The Adventure Handbook Photo Exhibition • Goodspace Gallery, Sydney.
2016 The Adventure Handbook Photo Exhibition • RVCA Gallery, Melbourne.

COMMISSIONS
2021-2022 Progetto PON "Itinerari digitali" a project of ICCD (Central Institute for Cataloguing and Documentation)and MiC (Italian Ministry of Culture) to document the cultural heritage of Southern Italy.

AWARDS
2020 PhC Capalbiofotografia International Photography Festival • Special Mention
2019 Giovani Creativi • Best Italian talents under 30
2018 Premio Medina Fotografia

COLLECTIONS
ICCD - Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione
MiC - Ministero della Cultura
Private collections

LECTURES
2021 Find your way in landscape photography, webinar at Daisie
2019 Incontro e confronto tra creativi, Talk at Palazzo Massimo in Rome, promoted by Giovani Creativi
2019 Host at Premio Ciack #InLombardia by Regione Lombardia at Belvedere di Palazzo Lombardia, Milano
2019 Lo sguardo di Luigi Ghirri, lecture at Sinestetica , Rome
2018 Elementi della natura nelle fotografie di Fossati, Ghirri e Guidi | Storia della fotografia - La ricerca junior in Italia, Terzo seminario nazionale, Università degli Studi di Firenze, curated by Prof. A. Frongia and Prof. T. Serena, promoted by SISF

SOFIA PODESTÀ

Photo by Simone Galli