Conceptual nominee

The main subject of this photo is a woman from Lucca, italy, feminine figure that shaped her life based on her will. Doing so, she deprived herself of her own identity in order to become symbolic icon, the reflection of the society she lived in. What I want to represent in my photo is her story and plumb the depth of her legacy that still affects our cultural heritage.
The Mansi family was well-known in the 16th century due to the trade of silk. Lucida loved luxurious things and sumptuous parties, as much as she loved being surrounded by lovers. Someone says she sat for hours admiring herself in the mirror.
She was adored by men but the legend say that she killed her partners after their encounters, by throwing them into trap-doors with innumerable sharp blades. One day Lucida woke up and found a wrinkle on her face and became desperate at losing her beauty. But she remain young and beautiful for 20 years more in exchange of her soul after a pact with the devil. 20 years later one dark stormy night, the devil reappeared claiming Lucida’s soul. The ghost of the Lucida appears in the Villa.

Nicoletta Cerasomma is a photographer and pop surrealist artist with a background in staged photography. After studying photography since 1997, she realised her love for storytelling so, in the latest years, she had evolved from fashion photographer to independent artist focused on production of nuanced photographic tableaux.
Her work is highly conceptual and complex: as surrealist artist, she incorporates archetypes and cultural iconography with satirical narratives inspired by the collective unconscious. Leaning into the visual language of pop surrealism, she stages narrative compositions that expose the underbelly of modern life.
Since 2020 she won a lot of nominations and awards thanks to her work which depicts women placed in suggestive scenarios. Presented for the first time to Sony World Photography Award her work was selected as a winner finalist. She also won the Julia Cameron Award, the Pollux award and currently she is a chosen winner of the American Photography and nominated Fresheyes and Gup Magazine talent of the year 2021.
Her work was exhibited in New York, London, Moscow, Barcelona and continues to show in international galleries. She is currently working on new diptych projects.