Patrizia Riviera

Born in 1956

Italy

https://www.patriziariviera.it/

date of insertion W.A.D. 06/2022

Biography

I am primarily a fine-art photographer with expressionist and pictorialist influences. I photograph to depict the emotional side of reality, rather than the objective side, and I use photography to tell a personal, intimate story.

In 1996 I started my first fine-art work “Unsure Feelings,” digging deep into my insecurity and giving it form. I went out with my camera looking for and provoking those attitudes of self-protection in which I recognized myself. It was not street photography, but the recognition of emotions that were inside me that I wanted to become real, in the illusory truth of photography.

The next project, “Close-Ups,” which began in 2000, was also the result of a performance. I would get so close to the face of the person I was photographing that it was as if I wanted to get inside him. But the closer I got, the more the distance from his identity increased, unable to bridge the loneliness.

In “I GIVE UP: The Last Journey. The Dream,” begun in 2002, my images began to have as their subject the Earth, which I photograph with a sense of nostalgia and loss, of respect and modesty. This work is also the result of photographic action. I would frame with the lens perfectly in focus and then blur completely, shooting only if the image still worked. I didn’t want to see, I wanted to feel what was happening inside me. 

“Eden,” started in 2007 and finished in 2018, is my first color project, and also my first without a human subject. It is a cry of love for the Earth, but it is also a realization that it is a Paradise where we are not allowed to live forever.

In “And What are You Looking for?” (2019-2020) I have returned to a black and white, dark, heavy, indecipherable. The subject is Renè Daumal’s Mount Analogue, a symbolic journey in search of answers to life’s questions.

I have always manipulated my photographs in the darkroom and/or in digital processing.

Parallel to fine-art photography I have also dealt with social reportage subjects, intended for book publication, interested especially in marginalization, loneliness, the sense of not belonging of all those who are generally not talked about, those who do not count.

I conduct expressive, educational and therapeutic photography workshops, mainly in psychiatric settings, and generally in the helping relationship, to foster processes of well-being and personal growth.

Curriculum

Selected Exhibitions:

2022:

SCULPTED, Italian Women Photographers Association, Quadriportico dell’Archiginnasio, Bologna*.

2021:

EDEN, New Post Photography Award, MIA Photo Fair, Superstudio, Milan

AND WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?, Minturno Photo Fest, Baronale Castle, Latina

SCULPTED, Italian Women Photographers Association, Real Palace, Milan *.

2020:

EDEN, Quarenghicinquanta Photography Space, Giacomq Gallery, Academy of Fine Arts G.Carrara, Bergamo

2018:

EDEN, Cascina Martesana Gallery, by Paola Riccardi, Milan, Photofestival 2018

2016:

I GIVE UP: The Last Journey. The Dream. Quarenghicinquanta Gallery, Bergamo

2010:

PORTFOLIO ITALIA, Italian Center for Fine Art Photography, Bibbiena (AR) *.

2009:

NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR SPECIAL PHOTO/8: Tout Seul, exhibition by Robert Delpire, Arles (40 Ans de Rencontres) *

2008: 

IN-FINISHED, Auditorium S.Sisto, Bergamo *

2006:

JOURNEYS OF THE MIND, Social Theater, Bergamo*

2005:

I PHOTOGRAPH BECAUSE I EXIST, by Gigliola Foschi, San Fedele Gallery, Milan *

CAPTIVI, youth@discomfort, by Gigliola Foschi, San Fedele Gallery, Milan *

2004:

CLOSE-UPS, Exhibition Hall, City Hall Building, Borgo Valsugana (TN)

AZIBUL, Photographic Crossings 2004, Azibul, Milan *

THE PLACES OF LIFE, European Prize Women Photographers, Medicee Stables, Poggio a Caiano (Prato) *

2003:

CLOSE-UPS, 6th Marghera Photography Festival 2003, Auditorium Monteverdi, Venice

CLOSE-UPS, Massenzio Art Gallery Rome

2002:

UNSURE FEELINGS, Villa Brandolini, Solighetto (TV).

FREELY in Patagonia, by Roberto Mutti, Auditorium S.Sisto, Bergamo *

2001:

VISITS FROM NEAR, Clarisse, Toscana Foto Festival, Massa Marittima (GR)

INVESTIGATING ON THE PRESENT, New Italian Photography, by Roberto Mutti, Photomesiac 2001, Museum of Modern Art Zilina, Bratislava, Slovakia *

FINDING ONESELF IN THE MIRROR. Fragments of feminine awareness, by Roberto Mutti, Ken Damy Museum, Brescia *

INTERNATIONAL TEA TIME: Images of Women, Images of Tea, by Women in Photography International, House of Photographic Art, San Juan Capistrano, CA, USA *

2000:

UNSURE FEELINGS, Toscana Foto Festival, Massa Marittima (GR).

THE CLARITY OF VIOLENCE, Triennale Palace of Milan *

1999:

INSECURE/MENT, Pavia Photography, by Enrico Prada

1998:

A SEVEN-ACT PIECE: Unlove, Benham Studio Gallery Photography, Seattle, WA *

TEN INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS, Uma Gallery, New York, NY *

1997:

UNSURE FEELINGS, Benham Studio Gallery Photography, Seattle, WA

YOUNG AND UNKNOWN, the New Italian Photography by Italo Zanier, Spilinbergo Photography. Book published by Federico Motta Editore/Craf. *

ASPECT DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE ITALIENNE, Académie des Beaux-Arts de Sambreville, Belgium *

1996:

ITALIAN WOMEN IN PHOTOGRAPHY, West Room Gallery of Yonkers, New York * ITALIAN WOMEN IN PHOTOGRAPHY, Benham Studio Gallery Photography, Seattle, WA *

* Collective Exhibitions.

Prix:

2020: NEW POST PHOTOGRAPHY? AWARD, MIA Photo Fair 2020, for “Eden”

2009: 2nd prize at the ROVERETO IMMAGINES INTERNATIONAL PRIZE, for “I Give Up: The Last Journey. The Dream.”

2004: THE PLACES OF LIFE,” European Women Photographers Award, Selected for “Close-Ups.”

2001: 4TH PORTFOLIO IN VILLA, 6th International Photography in Soligheto (TV), 1st Best Portfolio Award, with the publication of the monographic book of “Unsure Feelings” in spring 2002.

WOMEN IN PHOTOGRAPHY INTERNATIONAL’S 20th ANNIVERSARY JURIED EXIBITION, Honorable Mention winner in the “Images of Women” category, for “Café Florian”

1999: LE LOGGE, 1st Prize Best Portfolio of the Toscana Foto Festival in Massa Marittima (GR), for “Unsure Feelings”

Public Collections:

Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.

National Museum of Photography Cinefotoclub, Brescia

Municipality of Rivisondoli, Rivisondoli (L’Aquila)

Craf, Center for the Collection and Archiving of Photography, Spilimbergo(PN)