Cristina Altieri

The work of young Italian photographer Cristina Altieri is characterized by the theme of duality: the simultaneous encounter and clash of light and dark, of approaches and vanishing points. Her work reflects a vision that both encapsulates and characterizes Cristina’s personal perspective on the world, delving into the intimate lives of young men and women—in their own privacy—during a significant phase of life. This distinct phase of life runs like a common thread through Cristina Altieri’s oeuvre. It is a period in which, after presenting oneself to the outside world, one’s confrontation with oneself becomes the most challenging obstacle. It’s an age at which we may have learned to coexist with another and share our bodies, yet still struggle to accept and discover our own sensitivity and emotionality. Without oppositions, there is no progress: attraction and repulsion, reason and vitality, love and hate—they are essential for human existence. Out of these contrasts emerges the eternal conflict between good and evil. Good is the passive force that obeys reason; evil is the active force that arises from vitality. What follows is a profound sense of powerlessness and confusion and the continuous effort to overcome this impasse. In Altieri’s photographic work, bodies cloaked in combinations of light and shadow symbolize these pairs of oppositions; they obscure the eyes and faces, which remain hidden and unseen, representing the most intimate, truest part of the self. This symbolizes the fear of self-discovery, both in relation to others and oneself. The body thus becomes merely a shell of the spiritual part, with hope kept alive and vividly represented by the unbroken presence of a beam of light piercing the darkness. Since 2010, Cristina Altieri has emerged with her personal work, which has since been featured in numerous significant publications and exhibited at fairs in London, Bologna, Milan, and Amsterdam.