Stefania Figuccia Palermo, Italy
Stefania Figuccia was born in Palermo, Sicily, in 1984. After studying Fine Arts, she moved to Madrid to study Photography at Blank Paper School and to learn how to live out of an island. Currently she lives between Madrid and Palermo, working as freelancer photographer and as coordinator in a creativity and publicity school. After many years now, she didn’t learned yet how to live far from the sea.
Stefania Figuccia was chosen by photographer Bernardita Morello
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Laatikkomo’s interview with Stefania Figuccia April 25th, 2017.
L: Where are you from? What cities, and/or countries have you lived in – or what places have influenced you?
SF: I´m from Palermo (Sicily). Over the last few years I´ve also lived in Valencia and Madrid. I think the place that has most influenced my character and as a consequence my photos, has been the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean together with the culture, climate and landscape represents both luck and the limitation of being able to have such strong roots.
L: What is your earliest memory of photography?
SF: As happens to many people, my first photographic memory is strongly linked to family photographs that started on holidays to the beach. Moments of free time and celebrating birthdays.
L: You use a combination of tactile textures in your images. What is your main focus for the compositional content of an image?
SF: I´ve been working on this project for 4 years and I´ve come to the point where I follow a mood rather than an idea. In every photograph I try to capture a moment that hangs between magic and danger, between the hope of balance and the consciousness of instability and change. I am in a phase of trying not to repeat myself, which is the danger of spending so much time trying to chase this vision.
L: Photography is often used to preserve or talk about memory and nostalgia. How do you consider your work with regards to things and events of the past?
SF: The choice of a project´s theme tends to show our most intimate thoughts and is connected with the past and with memory, it defines us. So my work, whether I want it or not, talks about the past and how this influences today and tomorrow. Therefore the past is no longer the past and is continuously shown in the present moment.
L: The relationship between people and situations portrayed in your images creates a kind of narrative. Do you also tell stories through other mediums such as writing or drawing?
SF: I like to write stories and sometimes draw, however I´m not very good and I normally keep it to myself. I also love cinema and music. I think that these influences help me form a way of creating parallel worlds.
L: The subjects have a playfulness about them. What role does experimentation and play have in your work?
SF: The truth is that although some images have a surrealistic touch or perhaps appear posed, it´s all part of everyday situations or moments from short journeys, excursions or chance meetings.
L: What is one of the most important questions that you ask yourself, or would like to inspire others to ask, through your photographs?
SF: Where do we have to go to find a bit of serenity? The question is as easy as this.
L: Could you list five or more words related to the work you are showing in Laatikkomo?
SF: Dreams, choice, danger, suspense, instability.
Thank you so much Stefania!!