Traveller and photographer, passionate and curious, Silvia Lisotti was brought to art not by choice, but because her talent manifested itself in all its bursting evidence.
Silvia, tell us about you. How and when did you start to photograph?
I am a great traveller, every year I leave for two or three important trips, since I was in my thirties. And I have always been interested in photography which allowed me to document these travels. Then at some point, around my forties, I decided to send these reportages to some specialized magazines. And to my great surprise I was contacted by several editorials, and therefore I started publishing my shots. With my new incomes I treated myself to a professional Reflex. And at forty-five I told myself: «It is never too late!», and I attended the Scuola Romana di Fotografia, a very prestigious photography professional school in Rome, where in two years I perfected the technical aspects, including the ones for developing and printing in BW, and above all where I studied in depth the photographic culture. Today, I just finished my online studies at the NFT Artist University by Luca Vehr.
So this is no longer just a hobby.
No, it was something more significant. I started to participate in different prestigious competitions, amongst others the IPA Awards and I won a prize. So I started to believe in myself and once again I told myself: “If I am receiving these awards, I might actually have talent».
At the beginning I was fascinated by technology (cameras, lenses) then I realized – after having acquired the experience – that that is not the most important aspect: what really is important is the inner vision, the intuition, the idea, the innovation. To see, to know, to study. Photography is a way of life, like Cartier-Bresson used to say. I buy Fine Art photography books, I go to exhibitions, I observe the shots taken by others. Among the artists I love the most and from whom I get my inspiration are Luigi Ghirri and Harold Feinstein, the first one for my minimal landscape shots and the second one for my flower still-lifes.
What is your portfolio composed of?
I dedicated myself to photography of landscapes and portraits. And during lockdown, I decided to take the leap into still-life and Fine Art.
In fact, this is a very complex photography, where not only one has to master the technique of the shot and the post-production, but also try to transform the work into a message, a communication, into an emotion. And here again, I went to study at the Fine Art Photo Academy.
And once again, in an unexpected way I found myself doing exhibitions and having my shots hung in museums (Polo Museale di Lanciano, Stadio di Domiziano for the XIV Biennale d’Arte di Roma, Palazzo Velli in Trastevere with the Biennale Internazionale di Arte e Cultura della città di Roma) and galleries both in Italy and abroad (Berlin).
And now you are part of the Cinquerosso Arte project.
Yes. I feel this very close, because my photography is in part destined to the authorial market, but most of all it is connected to interior design; I love translating my works in Fine Art prints and making them actual objects for interior design. And even in this field I have received awards which I very much appreciated. For example the Dharma Luxury Hotel in Rome has recently bought six of my works for its luxury corridors. All in all, photography gives me great satisfactions, especially considering the fact that I never left my regular job for a company, and therefore do not give it all my time. I started to engage with photography as an adult and I practice it in parallel with other things, so I guess it is safe to say that it is my second life.
