About me as a photographer
I grew up in Italy, in a family not familiar with photography or visual culture, and with very limited financial means. I had to build my own cultural background and gradually learn to train my eye. It started with my Erasmus in Paris, the city of my emotional and cultural education — thank you, European Union! —, and continued when a very special person gave me my first camera to celebrate my master’s degree in literature, a Nikon D3300.
Two major experiences helped me step out of my bubble and begin to take my passion for photography in a more focused and serious direction: joining the great Photo-Club Paris Val-de-Bièvre in 2024 — where, three months later, I received a Jury’s Coup de Cœur award in the annual club’s internal competition — and taking a street photography workshop with Jean-Christophe Béchet — this workshop led to a collective exhibition for the 2026 Mois de la Photo, displayed for a month and accessible 24/7.
Since then, my digital photography has increasingly focused on street photography in a broad sense, and my Ricoh GR III is almost always in my belt bag. I cannot imagine nature without culture, or culture without nature, whether in the positive or negative sense.
My practice of photography is very close to my practice of poetry, which I also pursue. I see the germ of poetry everywhere: in gestures, in postures, in the way people relate to space, in the way they inhabit the light (I am Mediterranean, I need light!), in the way they confront the passing of time and their solitude.
In my eyes, death is always an integral part of life; light exists thanks to the shadow that brings it into relief; the child is, in a sense, the reverse side of the old person. One element often evokes, and contains, its counterpart.
I don’t use AI, nor Photoshop or Lightroom. (I’m a complete disaster with that stuff!)
SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS:
2026-2027 Individual photobook project with Jean Christophe Béchet and Franck Landron
2026 Workshop with Gildas Lepetit-Castel > Paris entre-deux, Collective photobook project, imprimed
2025-2026 Workshop with Jean-Christophe Béchet > 14e, un arrondissement, huit regards, Collective exhibition, Mois de la Photo, Paris 14th, 1 Mar - 31 Mar
2024 Jury's Coup de Coeur, Concours Interne 2024 du Photoclub Paris Val-de-Bièvres > Concours Interne 2024, Collective exhibition, Galerie Daguerre, Paris 14th, 27 Nov - 10 Dec
2021 Workshop with Romain Pichon-Sintes > Mamuthones, Personal exhibition, Université Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, 5 Apr - 30 Apr
In front of my exhibition "Constellation XIV" for the 2026 Mois de la Photo, at 22 Avenue Jean Moulin, Paris 14th - Photo by Mattia Cavicchi.
“Photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at.”
Susan Sontag, On Photography
About my other hats
My main professional activity is at the École normale supérieure – Université PSL, where I support researchers in developing and carrying out their research projects. I am a specialist in regional, national and international funding calls in the Humanities and Social Sciences field.
Literature scholar
I hold a PhD in 20th-century literature from Université Paris Nanterre. I have also published several works, including:
-"Scrittori in vestaglia. Sulle corrispondenze d’autore nel Novecento" (Franco Cesati, 2026): a book in Italian about writers’ correspondence in the 20th century, and the many ways letters meet literature: as writing practice, creative material, personal archive, literary work...
- "Altrove. Antologia bilingue della poesia italiana in Francia" (Ensemble, 2024): co-edited with Ilena Antici — a bilingual Italian-French anthology bringing together the work of 25 Italian poets living or having lived in France.
- "La « mus(e)ificazione » entre écriture de soi et littérature contemporaine" (Presses universitaires de Paris Nanterre, 2021): a thematic issue of the journal Écritures, which I conceived and edited, exploring the figure of the muse, the representation of women in literature and art, and the relationship between self-writing, biography and fiction.
Specialist in cultural exchanges between France and Italy and teacher
After working at the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris, since 2025 I have been teaching Cultural Project Management in the Master’s programme “Industries culturelles France-Italie” at Sorbonne Nouvelle. Within the programme, I prepare students for and co-coordinate the Festival Italie Nouvelle, which reached its 10th edition in 2026. I also taught translation between Italian and French at Université Paris Nanterre and contributed articles to cultural magazines such as La Bibliothèque Italienne, Nazione Indiana, Sud - rivista europea, Altritaliani, Salt Editions.
Performer and promoter of Southern Italian music in France
In 2022, I co-founded I Carbonari (Instagram: icarbonari.paris), an association dedicated to bringing the traditional music and dances of Southern Italy in Paris. Since then, we have organised nearly a hundred concerts and workshops, in a wide variety of venues, in the Paris region and beyond. Within the association, I am secretary, dancer and musician — playing percussion and singing.
Research support specialist
