Francesca Pioli : What words can not name.
Francesca Pioli works at the threshold where image, painting, and performance converge. Originally trained in a technical field, she gradually turned toward an artistic practice nourished by drawing and performance.
Photography never approached through academic study emerged as her intimate language: a tool of thought, resistance, and emotional survival. For her, it is a means to map the sensitive territories of both the intimate and the social.
Her approach unfolds like an inquiry, at once personal and anthropological. Drawing on fleeting encounters, daily gestures, and discreet rituals, Pioli constructs visual narratives where portraiture converses with staging, where objects become evidence, and where light reveals as much as it conceals. Her photography borrows from painting its attention to matter and composition, and from performance its concern with the body as event. The result is a visual writing that is slow, attentive to silences and interstices spaces where memory, transmission, and identity take shape.
Rooted in local contexts yet reaching toward the universal, her work interrogates the relationship between the individual and the environment: how places shape bodies, how traditions persist, how the private sheds light on the collective. Built on trust and duration, her images resist spectacle and call for a gaze willing to linger.
This vision finds a powerful expression in her recent project « ELENE », curated by Fabio Moscatelli. In the heart of the Apennines, in Castelluccio di Norcia—a ghost town ravaged by the 2016 earthquake, Pioli follows the story of Elene, a young Roman woman who chose to abandon the city to live in deep communion with nature and animals. Living first in a caravan, later as a shepherdess and sheepdog trainer, Elene embodies a radical act of courage or perhaps of love taking root in a fragile, trembling land. Through Pioli’s lens, her choice becomes universal: to embrace silence, to reclaim resilience, to seek truth where everything seems lost.
At the crossroads of documentary and poetic meditation, Francesca Pioli offers a photography that seeks to give form to what words leave unresolved.
Instagram : @_francesca_pioli_
What sparked your passion for photography?
Francesca Pioli : The need to express myself through the language of images and the opportunity to communicate and tell stories through my gaze.
Which photographer has inspired you the most?
Francesca Pioli : I believe the photographer who inspired me most at the beginning of my photographic journey was Mario Giacomelli, for his landscape images that evoke feelings and brush against surrealism, his poetic narratives of reality, and his at times dreamlike vision.
Later, inspiration also came from other photographers with different styles. Some names that come to mind are Guido Guidi and Luigi Ghirri, for their work on their native territory and their keen eye for detail; Man Ray for his representation of the surrealist vision. Contaminations and inspirations are endless and ongoing.
Which photo do you wish you had taken?
Francesca Pioli : The black and white landscapes and nature scenes by Mario Giacomelli.
What was the last photo you took?
Francesca Pioli : I photographed the roots of a tree. I find the details of nature so interesting and communicative. Observing nature allows me to understand the languages and complexity of life.
What is the strangest photo you’ve ever taken—intentionally or not?
Francesca Pioli : Perhaps one of the strangest—and one of my favorites—is the backside of a cow in the dark, illuminated by a light. It looks like the animal is diving into a dark world. I find the similarity with moments in our lives very interesting—times when we face and pass through darkness.
How do you choose your projects?
Francesca Pioli : My projects often begin when I follow my photographic instinct without worrying too much about where the project will go. I photograph what moves me and sparks my curiosity. Photography is a tool that lets me discover new realities and connect with new people.
A project begins when I feel that a story needs to be told, when I want to give voice to a reality that deserves to be shared.
What balance do you seek between intuition and reflection when creating an image?
Francesca Pioli : Intuition is often the most important element in creating an image. I try not to overthink when shooting. The reflection comes later—when I review the photos and juxtapose them.
What makes a photo “successful” to you?
Francesca Pioli : A photo that tells a story and evokes emotion.
What makes a photo memorable? And what makes an image timeless?
Francesca Pioli : When you look at it and feel the evocation of an emotion.
What details do you look for in a face, landscape, or object?
Francesca Pioli : I look for the flaw, the distortion—what makes it unique and unrepeatable.
Can technique ever prevail over emotion in photography?
Francesca Pioli : I believe a good knowledge of technique can help make an image more effective in communication, but for me, emotion always outweighs technical perfection.
Is beauty in photography purely aesthetic for you?
Francesca Pioli : Absolutely not.
What elements help make silence visible in a photo?
Francesca Pioli : I associate silence with a shadowy area, a dark part.
Does the uniqueness of a photo come from the moment or the staging?
Francesca Pioli : Uniqueness is an invisible detail—it’s about being surprised by simplicity.
In one word, how would you describe your relationship with photography?
Francesca Pioli : Familiar.
What interests you most in an image?
Francesca Pioli : The evocative power of a mood or an emotion it conveys.
Do you prefer color or black and white?
Francesca Pioli : It depends on what I want to express and on my state of mind.
Natural light or studio?
Francesca Pioli : Natural.
Can color be a form of storytelling?
Francesca Pioli : Absolutely yes.
Can we talk about photography without mentioning time?
Francesca Pioli : Images can freeze or suspend time—they can even erase it.
What role does the invisible play in your images?
Francesca Pioli : I hope to be able to convey it—or to inspire viewers not to stop at a purely visual analysis.
Can a photo be truer than reality?
Francesca Pioli : A photo is not reality—it is the reality of the person who takes it and the person who views it.
Can a photo change how we perceive an event?
Francesca Pioli : Absolutely. Through my photo, I tell my perception and vision.
Is photography a testimony or a form of manipulation?
Francesca Pioli : Photography can be an artistic testimony or a manipulation—it depends on the intention behind the image.
Which photo changed the world? And which one changed your world?
Francesca Pioli : I believe one of the most influential images of our century for the Western world is the photo of the 9/11 Twin Towers attack. It marked everyone, and after that event, made us all feel more vulnerable.
What was the first image that deeply moved you? And one that made you angry?
Francesca Pioli : If I think of an image that makes me angry, it’s the photograph of the “Napalm Girl” by Nick Ut—an image that shows human and wartime suffering. It reminds us that the most fragile are always the ones who pay the price.
If you had to choose one photo to represent yourself, what would it be?
Francesca Pioli : A photo by Man Ray, the famous image “Le Violon d’Ingres”. I like to imagine myself in that surreal and dreamlike way.
If you could photograph the inside of your thoughts, what would it look like?
Francesca Pioli : I often see it as a dark background with little colored lights shining like stars, in motion.
A key image in your personal pantheon?
Francesca Pioli : I would think of a mountain image. For me, mountains are a refuge where I find peace and inspiration.
A photographic memory from your childhood?
Francesca Pioli : The garden at home: the green lawn and the peach tree in bloom during spring.
What is your greatest regret?
Francesca Pioli : I don’t know yet.
Does a photo still belong to you after you’ve shared it?
Francesca Pioli : I believe sharing a photo is the best way to express and communicate yourself, so yes, it still belongs to me because it represents me.
An essential photography book?
Francesca Pioli : Viaggio in Italia – a book that gazes into the emptiness of the landscape, a landscape that feels familiar but is hard to truly see for those who know it well. It offers an authentic gaze, far from glossy imagery. A careful observation of details that touches on emotions. A book that brings slowness and reflection toward the places we inhabit.
What was your childhood camera?
Francesca Pioli : A compact film camera—I don’t remember the brand, but it was always in the house.
What camera do you use today?
Francesca Pioli : Anything that allows me to shoot in the moment—my mirrorless or often just my phone. A composed photographic story.
If your camera could talk, what would it say about you?
Francesca Pioli : “Remember to breathe before you shoot.”
What role does photography play in how we perceive the world?
Francesca Pioli : A fundamental one—especially the first images we see as children. They build our imagination.
What are the big challenges for the future of photography?
Francesca Pioli : To resist and continue creating narrative, storytelling, communication, and protest content.
How are social media influencing the creation and reception of images today?
Francesca Pioli : They are fundamental, of course—we’re overwhelmed by images, bombarded. They create a fast, often violent visual culture, contributing to a superficial, bite-sized narrative. Yet those images stay in our minds and subconscious. I believe it’s very important to choose and decide what to look at, whenever possible, to maintain visual integrity and cultivate our own identity and imagination.
If photography were a weapon, what kind of “shot” would you prefer?
Francesca Pioli : It could be a bow shooting arrows to spread consciousness.
If photography could capture emotions as well as images, what emotion would you want to convey?
Francesca Pioli : I don’t know—it depends on the circumstance and context. I like it when viewers interpret the image in their own way or are prompted to reflect.
If you had an interdimensional portal, what would be the first photo you’d take in another world?
Francesca Pioli : I’d take a photo at the boundary between the two worlds and capture what separates them.
If your camera were a superhero, what would its secret power be?
Francesca Pioli : The camera already has a superpower: it heals the heart and lightens the thoughts of the one who uses it.
If one of your photos had to illustrate a futuristic invention, how would it look?
Francesca Pioli : The image would make visible sounds and emotions that are currently impossible to depict.
An image to illustrate a new banknote?
Francesca Pioli : I’d put a photo of Ozzy Osbourne, for what he’s meant to music over the years and for his resilience in rising again after hard times. I believe he’s been a deeply human figure.
What city do you find most photogenic?
Francesca Pioli : I have a soft spot for Rome, for its history and the diversity of its inhabitants. It surprises you at every corner.
If God existed, would you ask Him to pose for you or prefer a selfie with Him?
Francesca Pioli : Obviously, a great selfie!
If you could organize your dream dinner, who would be at the table?
Francesca Pioli : I’d organize the dinner with my closest friends and family.
The image that best represents the current state of the world, in your eyes?
Francesca Pioli : A sphere split in half—one side bright and colorful, the other dark and bloody. As much as darkness manifests, new places and people emerge, living in kindness and fraternal collaboration.
The one essential thing people should know about you?
Francesca Pioli : In what I shoot and communicate, I always try to express a truer, more authentic vision of myself and what I want to tell.
One last word?
Francesca Pioli : I’m working on a new photography project that connects to my previous one, Elene, continuing to explore the world of the mountains—particularly the Sibillini Mountains—and the feminine figure.
