Interview: Elena Prosdocimo
Luca Curci talks with Elena Prosdocimo during ROME INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR 2022, at Medina Art Gallery.

Elena Prosdocimo is a fine art, fashion and portrait photographer living and working in Italy. An art lover from a young age she always knew that she would work within the creative industry. Photography changed her life when she picked up a camera and from that moment she was hooked by this medium that translates thoughts and imagination into tangible form. Inspired by fairytales and nature, Elena’s storytelling pictures reminds us that there’s magic in the most ordinary of spaces and beauty in every face.

Luca Curci – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
Elena Prosdocimo – I come from Veneto and I was brought up in a family that was passionate about art and culture. From an early age, I was able to explore various forms of art, and I eventually attended the Liceo Artistico in Vittorio Veneto, a high school with a strong focus on art, where I realized that my future form of expression would be photography. At the age of 18, I moved to Rome, where I first approached cinema to then change setting, entering definitively into photography. This journey has formed me; in particular, the people I met made me grow personally and artistically. Thanks to them, I learned to understand myself, to turn inward, and then to tell my story through images.

LC – Which subject are you working on?
EP – My photographic production currently is inspired by hidden, imaginative realities, symbols and their resonance within our collective consciousness. I believe that photography has the power to resurface realities that are hidden to us. This often comes at a price, which is not only our effort, but also our willingness to put our thoughts and emotions into our artistic creation. What moves my actions in my case are: nature, as the embryonic and pure cradle of sacred beauty; fantasy; as the imaginative reality that gives birth to wonder; and the figure of the woman, as the search for her timeless and eternal traits. The result is a continuous quest toward an enchanted and immortal beauty.

LC – How did you get to photography? Do you remember why you took your first professional photo?
EP – I have always had the need to create my own world, a wonderland, a romantic and intimate place, ideally a fairy tale, but not necessarily a happy one, but a place where the impersonation of time and fear is present, where the divine is tangible and where surreal landscapes are admired. I have found photography, set creation, and digital processing to be excellent allies in representing glimpses of this reality. I consider my “photographic baptism” to be a project realized in 2014 in which, for the first time, I concretized in an image part of a reality that I feel is mine. In this photo, a girl becomes one with nature inside a basin with a waterfall, resembling a pearl inside an oyster, forming a golden spiral in the frame.

LC – According to you, what makes a good photo? Which details do you focus on?
EP – During my production, the key word I visualize in my mind is Atmosphere. I need to feel like that shot could be real in some other world; even if a model is wearing horns or wings, my goal on set is always to make the scene believable, while remaining surreal. Credibility is key, which is why, over time, I have involved more and more professionals from different specific fields, such as makeup, set design, styling, etc., who had my same vision and need.

LC – When you take photos, are you usually inspired by the situation or do you find inspiration in yourself?
EP – My inspiration comes from beauty in all its forms: a place illuminated in a special way, the traits of a face, a work of art. All the nuances that can evoke a magical and intangible world. While shooting, I try to merge all the aspects I have at hand bringing them toward my personal idea of beauty, that is as close as possible to the concept of the divine and transcendent.

LC – What do you think about the concept of this exhibition? How did it inspire you?
EP – Certainly, the MIXING IDENTITIES section fits perfectly with my Archetypes project in which I depict the archetypes of the hero in the form of a warrior, and the prophet in the form of a saint.

LC – Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?
EP – Yes. Art is sharing, and sharing is real when it is visible and tangible in everyone’s eyes. This opportunity fosters visibility of one’s art and it is a great showcase for artists, also thanks to the care of the organization behind it.

LC – Did you enjoy cooperating with us?
EP – Of course! It has been extremely formative.

LC – What do you think about ITSLIQUID Platform?
EP – I think it is a very good initiative to support and sustain mainly emerging artists who are taking the first steps in the art market.