Gomma Photography Grant 2023
The Cut
Photographer
Silvia Alessi
The Cut
23 Feb, 2024
I have been a hairdresser for over 30 years and have always been passionate about art and photography. Through this project I talk about hair, the object of my work. I am completely connected with every aspect of it, it's my world, my life, myself. Yet I was amazed at what I discovered: the power of hair as a symbol of a revolt, the new life of hair after the cut as a means to clean up the planet, the gift of one’s hair as a sacrifice of a precious good to obtain a greater one. I tried to tell all of this through three expressions: artistic reportage of real stories and people in their environment; visions set in real contexts to narrate social issues and themes; pure imagination of my mind. ‘The Cut’ originated from 30 years of cutting, colouring, combing, curling, straightening and caring for hair. A good hair cut can in-still confidence and encourage self esteem. How we wear our hair helps us express ourselves, our culture, our generation and our religion.
About the photographer
Silvia Alessi
I was born in Bergamo, Italy in 1975. I have worked as a hairstylist and make up artist since I was 17. In 2004, while on a trip to Asia, I discovered an interest in reportage photography. I have since travelled extensively pursuing my passion for photography and “telling stories worthy of being told.” Over the years with my growing experience, I believe that I cannot define myself as a photographer, but rather an illustrator with a camera. I’m not interested in photographic technique, but in creating artistic situations by conveying different people and their experiences in a single space together with my own disturbances and visions. My works are all about this: in Japan (Maze of Metamorphosis, 2019) I portrayed a butoh dancer with a hikikomori man, a geisha with a transgender dancer; in Iraq (Beyond the Line, 2018) I portrayed a gay boy with peshmerga female soldiers. In india (Skin Project, 2017) I portrayed acid-scarred women with people suffering from albinism. Behind my portraits there is always the true story and a sincere documentary interest, which is transfigured in the artistic vision, like a magical space where something new and unique happens. Some of my works were published on Creative Image (India), Vredes Magazine (Netherlands), Fit For Fun (Germany), The Guardian, The Daily Mail, BBC World Service (UK) and exhibited in Berlin (Germany), Manila (The Philippines), Moscow (Russia), Milan, Bergamo, Verona, Sardinia (Italy), London (UK), Middlebury, Minneapolis (USA), Paris (France).
