Cryptic Venus

• Photographer
  Nicoletta Cerasomma
• Prizes
  Gold in Portfolio/Fine Art, 2nd Place winner in Portfolio

The main characters and subjects of this project are women from Lucca, feminine figure that shaped their lives based on their will. Doing so, they deprived themselves of their own identity in order to become symbolic icons the reflection of the society they lived in. What I want to represent is their stories and plumb the depth of their legacy that still affects our cultural heritage. Starting from the idea of community, this project aims to dig the stereotypes and their emblematic function, seeking especially the deepest fear men have to face during their lives and the necessity of belonging.

Nicoletta Cerasomma is a pop surrealist photographer, based in Lucca, Italy, with a background in staged photography. Her work is bound to an ambiguous and cinematic image-making between reality and imagination. As visual artist, her approach to photography aims to provoke contemplation and a new redefinition of commonplaces through a playful revelation of the bizarre and the uncanny. She is most known for her series "Cryptic Venus", created in 2020, which depicts women placed in suggestive scenarios.