Monzino

I was born in Puglia, in southern Italy.
I live and work between Bari and Milan.
My artistic nickname is Monzino.
For about ten years I worked as a DJ in radio and clubs in Bari and Milan.
But I was looking for a better tool to express myself, so I quit my job as a dj to follow my passion for photography.
My work comes from my existential condition: loneliness, emptiness, places without people, the flow of time, the cycle of life and death, the fragility of life, the vanity of man are the themes I explore.
It’s my inner, lonely journey through life. Photography serves me as a means to contemplate the complexities of my human condition. To deepen and accept the enigmatic nature of existence, to live with my moods. Through my lens I create a visual representation of these themes.
I use photography as therapy.
To achieve my goal, I have sometimes used contexts that I define as "containers" (as in the case of "(The fish market) Il mercato del pesce or "Il mare racconta: la mattanza (The sea tells: la mattanza)", not to document them but to create “existential" photos.
In my pictures the human presence is absent or rarely present.
Some of my artistic influences: Kaos by Joseph Koudelka, W. Eugene Smith, The Velvet Underground, The Jo...

self-taught

The most important solo exhibition

2013
IL MARE RACCONTA: LA MATTANZA
(THE SEA TELL: THE MATTANZA)
IL MERCATO DEL PESCE
(THE FISH MARKET)
VANITAS
(VANITAS)
Mudima, Foundation for contemporary art, Milan, Italy

1998
IL SETIFICIO
(THE SILKY FACTORY)
Collegno municipality, Turin, Italy

1995
IL MERCATO DEL PESCE
(THE FISH MARKET)
Encontros da Imagem, International Photography Festival, Braga, Portugal

1994
IL MERCATO DEL PESCE
(THE FISH MARKET)
Il salto del Salmone, Art Gallery, Turin, Italy

1993
DITTICI
(DIPTYCHS)
Ken Damy, Contemporary photography museum, Brescia, Italy

The most importanti group exhibitions

1999
VENEZIA IMMAGINE
Exhibition of historical, modern and contemporary photography, Venice, Italy

1993
Young Italian photographers, Milan, Italy

1993
PHOTOSALON
International biennial of photography, Turin, Italy

1993
EXPERIENCES IN MOTION
Milan, Italy