Alessia Morellini

068 PH • Modena, Italy

AK: Please introduce yourself: What is your name, where are you from, what do you do?

AM: Morellini, Alessia (born in 1985),I live and work in Modena, Italy. My life is animated by two passions: photography and travel. While attending university, I began as a self-taught photographer to capture the solitary and aseptic scenarios of the Po Valley, and then moved my research beyond the national borders. I work as freelance photographer in the commercial field, but my passion remains travel photography.

AK: What is your relationship with photography and how did you get into it?
AM: I'm a self-taugt photographer. I immediately gave up on the idea to enroll in Academy, but I decided to deepen the discipline by consulting essays and photographic books by various authors; first of all Luigi Ghirri.

AK: What do you think triggers you to photograph in a certain moment? Is it planned or solely driven by intuition?

AM: In my case it was a gradual discover through the old camera of my father (I know it's sound like a clichè), at the beginning it was a joke with him but, when I did my first travels and then saw the result of the films, it all changed and I started planning small projects instead of just taking random photos.

AK: What is the story you want your pictures to tell?

AM: I want to transport a sense of calmness and quietness into this frenetic and chaotic world; a small pause, a refresher for the eyes of the observers.

AK: Which city would you like to visit the most, and why?

AM: It's not a particular city, it's a macro area: the western part of America; with his desolated landscapes, the colour of the desert, it's magical atmosphere.

AK: What is your personal relationship to cities and how do you perceive them as places in general?

AM: They give me a real charge, I'm curious to discover every single corner of them, and I always plan journeys in cities different from each other for capturing all the shades.

AK: What is the driving force behind creation?

AM: The curiosity and the hunger of discovering new places, meet new sources of inspiration, learn new type of editing.

AK: Which project did you never finish?

AM: It's not a real incomplete project but, last year when I visited Jerusalem I decided—in some spiritual places like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—to put away my camera; I didn't want to interfere with this particular magical moment for the faithful and didn't want to lose the power of those scenes I witnessed solely with my eyes.

AK: What is that «one thing» you have never managed to photograph and is now gone for good?

AM: During this last two years I became more confident and certain of my skills, I pushed away my shyness and made pictures of a various spectra of a person.

AK: If you could travel back/forth in time, what advice would you give your younger/older self?

AM: I would tell to myself to take my time and to not rush because quality is more important than quantity.

AK: What do you prefer saying: «to take a photograph» or to «make a photograph», and why?

AM: I prefer the term «make» because it suggests a sort of creation, an artefact which you created using your own skills.

AK: What is the most interesting experience you have had while photographing?

AM: During a journey through Istanbul I was making some photos in the old Souk while a small group of Chinese Tourists asked me if I was willing to pose as their model... well, maybe it is not that interesting of a situation but, it's a fun fact ☻︎

AK: If it wasn’t for photography, what would you be interested in doing instead?

AM: I want to work in a library ☻︎

AK: How would you describe one of your pictures to a blind person?

AM: I think that my pictures are like a caress on your face, a whispered kind word, or a walk on sand.

AK: What are you currently working on, and—if there is—what is your next project or journey?

AM: I am planning a journey through Morocco, I really miss the calmness of the desert as much as the chaos of the Medina.

AK: Thank you, Alessia!

Editorial Notes:

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Photography: Alessia Morellini (2020)
Location: Modena, Italy

Links: Website, Instagram