Camilla Ferrari

Aquarium

I landed in Beijing on the 23rd of August 2017. When I took my first steps in the Forbidden City all I could see was a blurred image of something I remembered from looking at photographs in books and online. For the first time, despite being an experienced traveller, I faced a severe cultural shock. At first, the sound of hands moving the bathroom curtain was so loud that it was almost disturbing. And so was the noise coming out of the karaoke bars during the night and the chitchat of people walking on the sidewalk. Sometimes you observe and sometimes you’re being observed. It’s almost like seeing through a glass that distorts what your eyes see, that makes the light flicker in front of you second after second and inserts you in a completely different world. And suddenly you are on the other side of that glass. You cannot hear what others say but you can feel the sweet cuddle of the water that surrounds you. And then, before I knew it, that sound of hands moving the bathroom curtains became a lullaby. The noise of the karaoke bars turned into music and the chitchat evolved into rhythm. Everything became gentle, even the unknown. Aquarium is the result of a quiet abandonment to diversity.

Photographer

Camilla Ferrari

Camilla Ferrari (1992) is an Italian documentary photographer based in Milan. She graduated with a Humanistic Science and Communication BA from the University of Milan in 2015, and continued her education at the Italian Institute of Photography from which she graduated in 2017. Her work won various awards including 30 Under 30 Women Photographers, ARTPIL, The Independent Photographer / Street Photography competition and Gli Occhi della Guerra Best Portfolio Prize (Gli Occhi della Guerra), Il Giornale.
Her interest lies in the relationship between human beings and their surroundings, exploring this relationship with a delicate voyeurism. Part of her research is concerned with how social media have the power to enrich visual storytelling through the mix between short videos and photographs, still and moving images. Perpetuating the sense of gentleness that arises from her photographs, she expresses her delicate observations also through her instagram stories, which are an active part of her practice.

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