Fluster Magazine

Stefania Sammarro is a young Italian photographer based in Calabria (Italy). She is passionate about photography, digital and analogue . She writes on her own blog as well as on magazines about photography and cinema.
She got a degree in Dams (Art, Music and Performance’s Disciplines) at the University of Calabria and currently she is studying Publishing. She is an ardent fan of fantasy books, fairy tales and unreal stories. This unconditional passion for the “mystical” is reflected on her photography; portraits, mostly female ones, uncover her romantic side, her deep emotions.

Interviewed by Nassia Katroutsou

Edited by Chiara Costantino

 

Introduce yourself to us. Who’s the person behind the camera?

I’m Ania, I live stories, sounds and visions. I don’t prefer talking about me but I expect others to find me. I am inspired by my memories, nature and atmosphere created through music and film. I like thinking that photography takes shape together to my being, to my way of thinking. Photography is not an art that merely capture reality as it is. It allows you to turn it into a vortex of mirrors. Reality and fiction mix constantly in a photograph. The eye does not just play, but recreates colors, souls, emotions and sensations separated from time and reality. Photography is as an expression of the soul. Protagonists of my photographs are mostly female figures, sometimes seem only visions, lost souls, represented in domestic gardens: soul is the only protagonist of my shots, in which, as a director, I am present. Wind is the ideal companion of my journey.  A photography is life and death at the same time. I love the dreamlike: the art ranges from portrait, reportage and street photography, in constant search of situations, emotions and faces, unique projection of my inner life, expressing myself in every shot. Warm and isolated cold spaces, the quiet of sounds in an atmosphere of dream.

When did you take up photography and why?

I always took pictures. During parties or dinners with friends I was the only one who was always ready to capture every moment. When I went out I focused on details. I watched and I imagined my reality. It started by chance and then I became interested in photography in 2006.  I spent my teenage years photographing my friends and it ended up doing my first photography course, from here there was no turning back.

You experiment a lot with female portraits. Who are they and how do you choose your models? what do they mean to you?

My photos are addressed to the female figure because for me she is everything. The woman is life, she is love, she is hope. The feminine vision in my mind represents purity and fragility: the woman in my pictures is the crack of the soul from the date it is crumbling in places or in gardens. The models chosen are not professional models. They are faces that can better express myself, Laura and Deborah are the visions that I use most frequently, in addition to being my cousins, it takes just one look to understand each other. They are dreaming but fragile souls, their vitality comes out even looking at them only from behind or while sleeping.

You play a lot with colour and light. I personally found your photograph “silence” very poetic. What is your idea behind this technique?

I love contrasts, I live in black and white, light and shadow. My life is full of color and darkness. Every time I see a subject I recreate it in my imagination. “Silence” is a shot created by chance. I was in the woods near my home, sun was setting and everything was dark. I tried to create an escape route, defined by light.

Tell us more about the landscapes you present on your photo stream, where are those places and what made you wonder among their streets and paths?

My photo are taken especially in my country, Calabria. I have travelled a lot but only in this place I could realize what I really wanted. I feel so much my belonging with the territory, its villages, its people.

Nature plays a significant part in your work. What is the connection between nature and your photographs?

Since my childhood I always had a connection with nature, wind, rain, moon and stars. I remember listening to the wind all the time when I was on the street, as a matter of fact I still do that. I believe that many things are falling down inside of us. I have always believed to be from Avalon, the land of Druids.

If you were to choose one photograph, that includes your photographic personality, which would that be and why?

There isn’t a particular photo, all my photos evoke an emotion unique to me. Surely I love my portrait “Sleep of enchantment”, which was the photo of initiation.

What are you dreams, your aspirations on photography?

I hope I can continue my  professional and interior journey. I hope my visions can get to the top.

Is there any other form of art that would help you express yourself other than photography?

I have danced for several years. Dancing is like talking in silence. You say a lot without saying a word. I also love theater, a place that not only offers a complete fiction of life but, at the same time, shows life itself. 

Give an advice to female artists out there. What would you tell them?

Believing in themselves, because it is never wrong. Being able to say their ideas, to believe strongly in what they do, to listen and listen themselves, to listen to their heart because it knows everything.

(Images © Stefania Sammarro)

More about Stefania Sammarro’s work

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Nassia Kapa, aka Nassia Katroutsou, is an independent self-taught Greek      photographer based in London, UK. Restless in mind and passionate in heart, she only    realised her genuine obsession with photography, when her need for self-awareness  and repositioning in life was of vital importance. She has participated in local  exhibitions in Athens, Greece and her work has been hosted among Greek and  international photography related web pages and magazines. Nassia Kapa is an escape  exit for Nassia Katroutsou, and her main target is to experience life to it utmost limits, using photography as a vehicle.