Artist
Zoe Mannella
Zoe Natale Mannella was born in 1997 in London and raised in the south of Italy. She is a self-taught photographer whose projects investigate questions of intimacy and sexuality, particularly in relation to women. Her work combines elements of reportage with an interest in staged photography.
Taxídi
Places I went on holiday with my friends: Puglia, Pantelleria, Panarea, Koufonissi. Taxídi is the Greek word for ‘trip’; it represents my personal journey through women’s bodies and expression. It was born in 2018 when on holiday with some friends in Puglia, in the south of Italy. I wasn’t previously aware of the energy a group of female friends could generate – the spontaneousness of nudity, the joy of sharing our own beauty. It felt like an epiphany. Since then, I’ve investigated that same lightness and strength in every woman I portrayed. Every summer I get the chance to capture those same bodies changing and interacting with new perspectives and new points of view. Despite the passing of time, I like to keep these pictures together – like a never ending diary, charged with bodies and pieces of summer.
Nido
Nido, the Italian word for ‘nest’, is inspired by a scene from the 2019 film God exists and her name is Petrunya. It is built on the idea that the bed and its sheets are the most intimate place where anyone can hide, express themselves and feel home. These restricted spaces create framed bodies and sudden intimacy between the people they guard. I'm always in search for places in which I can be closer with my subjects. This setting – so daily and so precious – gave me the chance to break down the physical distance that people build around themselves. The sitters and I are together in the nest; we touch, we interact, we show, and we hide.
Water
Religion and patriarchal society have turned nudity into a taboo. We were taught that being naked is shameful because it manifests sexual desire. Water aims to subvert these misbeliefs. Its images – featuring self-portraits of myself and some of my closest friends – portray female nudity in the most natural and anatomical way. We were born naked, and our body is our life companion. We live through it, we sweat through it, we move in it – and it doesn’t necessarily carry a sexual drive. Here’s a naked woman swimming; do you feel ashamed while watching? Is it porn? Is it erotic? The overexposure is a way to scream it out loud: it’s all in your mind.