brides & widows

(a personal project focusing on the common social rules in relation to some of the most emotional aspects of our lives)

black and white are more than two colors, and are also more than the colors of my photography.

Black and white in our society are related to our deepest emotions, and that's why such definitive tones are used: the white is defined as the color that contains all of the other colors, while the black is the color that has none of them.

If you stop to think for a moment, about the commonly held representation of a bride or widow, your brain directly brings to your eyes specific images and related sensations: a bride is white, candid, pure, she reminds of a feeling of chastity and innocence; a widow is fully covered in black, and she has sadness on her face and gestures.

Similarly, there's also plenty of social rules about their behaviour. A wife must be pure, and a widow must be sad. In both cases there's absolutely no space for sensuality and femininity, that would cause a public outcry and shame.

In this personal project I've tried to challenge such common associations.

I've tried to imagine both brides and widows like women before all, with their extraordinary strength oriented towards the surface of the common sense and rules that lie in our brain for breaking the superficial tension and emerging in their whole femininity.