Daria Martinoni

“The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight.” ― John Berger, Ways of Seeing

Drawn By The Light - Photograph on archive paper 117 x 78 cm

"I am a non-professional photographer working and living in Zurich, Switzerland. As a Geographer, I use photography to playfully (de-)construct urban spaces, to spatially re-stage urban contexts, and to play with our perception of space and reality.

I exploit the geometry of the built urban environment, and I play with perspectives and angles to create a sense of direction and an impression of depth. I use the design elements of reproduction, reiteration and repetition - created by experimenting with long shutter speeds and several zoom settings or camera positions in one exposure - to “compress space” and remove all context and sense of scale. The thus created compositions become like another world where subjects merge and transform to become new geometric structures. This procedure creates a moment of irritation, but also conveys a sense of calmness in the chaos, and transfers the scene into a transitional world somewhere between reality and dream.

I transform common scenes into geometric, abstract dimensions that produce new and unexpected perspectives. With this work, I hope to evoke ideas around vantage point, perception, and imagination, and to question our making of the world through experience and knowledge."


Daria Martinoni has been awarded Honorable Mentions in both the 2018 and 2019 International Photography Awards (IPA @photoawards, @iphotoawards), in the 2019 IPA “OneShot: Street Photography” Awards (@photoawards, @iphotoawards), in the 2019 Budapest International Foto Awards (BIFA, @budapestfotoawards, @ifotoawards), in the 2019 Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA, @ifotoawards), and in the 2019 Annual Photography Awards (APA, @annualphotographyawards).

She was accepted to the photoSCHWEIZ 19 and the photoZURICH 20 (www.photo-schweiz.ch), which is the largest photography exhibition in Switzerland, and to the XIIth edition of the Florence Biennale of Art+Design (www.florencebiennale.org, @FLRbiennale, @florencebiennale)

Words Shape Reality - Photograph on archive paper 96 x 64 cm
Memento Of An Industrial Past - Photograph on archive paper 78 x 117 cm
City in The Making - Photograph on archive paper 96 x 64 cm
Halfway Through The Turbulence - Photograph on archive paper 64 x 96 cm

This review was published by Circle Foundation for the Arts © CFA Press ∙ Images are courtesy of the artist


 

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