Matilde Damele

I was born in Bologna in 1969 and I moved to New York in 1999 after a degree in English literature from the University of Bologna, with the desire to become a photographer. I took  a photography workshop at the International Center of Photography and, over the years I causally met famous photographers like Robert Frank and Saul Leiter who inspired me to pursue the genre of ‘street photography’.

I participated at several group shows and one solo show at the Empire State Building.

In 2015 I moved to London where I earned a master degree in photography at Central Saint Martins University.There I participated a various group shows and one solo exhibition. Exiles (2019), an experimental project which I started developing at the University, was awarded a prize by the Marlborough Gallery and after exhibiting it at Photo London, it was mentioned by the Guardian newspaper as one of the best works in 2019.

In April 2020 because of the Covid/19 pandemic I moved back to Italy and now I’m living in Rome where I continue developing my projects. 

www.matildedamele.net
https://www.instagram.com/matildedamele/

Women in Rome

My project on women in Rome is not yet defined as I want to leave it open to take shape while I’m developing it. However I intend to create a picture of the city of Rome and its romanità in the sense of its local cultural nuances, by choosing to focus on ordinary women who live here or are just temporarily part of the urban environment. I started photographing them alone in the streets and in public spaces and while they are relating to others, in order to capture a gesture, a movement that might reveal an attitude, an emotion or a state of mind. In my editing I look for those images which, besides the strength of the subject, reveal a reflection of the place and the moment in which I photographed them.