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 surrealist pop artist with a clear, graphic and strong language. Her studies in fashion photography and her experience in staged photography inspired her meticulous aesthetic.
Her work is highly conceptual and complex: as surrealist artist, she incorporates archetypes and cultural iconography with satirical narratives inspired by the collective unconsciousness. Her images come from a personal place of exploration where she dreams about living a thousand lives in one.
With language typical of pop surrealism and a predilection for abstract composition, her photography has become a narrative medium with a unique and recognisable visual code. She works with light, shadow and colour to create images that evoke stories and provoke fantasies.
Nicoletta is inspired by the dichotomy between the themes of Beauty and Decay, which she loves to incorporate into her work in order to evoke contemplation and debate on the human condition, using a vivid and provocative still imagery and a cinematic technique.
Since 2020, her work, which depicts women placed in evocative scenarios, has won many nominations and awards. Presented for the first time in the Sony World Photography Award competition, her work was selected as a winner finalist in the creative category.