5 questions with Martina Giammaria

INTERVIEW //  Currently based in Milan, the photographer Martina Giammaria is part of the Parisian Mois de la Photo OFF. Her pictures, between fashion portraits and still lifes, are exhibited in the form of an “Ongoing Inventory”. 

• Hidden faces, portraits from the back, body fragments : most of your models are partially photographed without disclosing their own identity. Do you grant them an object nature ?

Martina Giammaria : Indeed, I like the idea of seeing bodies as objects. I’m not interested in portraying people, I need the bodies at my service to compose clean images, as still lifes.

• You seem to write a kind of body geometry, thanks to the angular position of limbs which are alternated in triangular and square forms. Does the contrast between the organic and the rigid is of service to your artistic credo ?

Martina Giammaria : Seeing bodies as objects makes it necessary that the poses are not natural. I have always in my mind a story, that’s why the poses are studied for it. Moreover the rigid, stylized pose make the image less romantic ; I want to avoid romanticism.

• Where is the link with fashion in your works ? 

Martina Giammaria : I’m not into fashion for the fashion. It is a way to experiment for me, it gives me the chance to have people to work with to create something out of my head. I collaborated with magazines, and small and medium brands like Iosselliani and COLIAC. It’s stimulating to work with designers that trust you and ask you to interpret their collection.

• Your pictures fix the bodies like still lifes on plain backgrounds coming in pop, acidulate, vitaminized and pastel colors. Do you deal with retro and vintage aesthetics ?  

Martina Giammaria : I choose colors looking at the dresses I am going to shoot or thinking to the story that I am showing. I knew that colors and cleanliness are a strong brand for my work, but I’m mainly interested in developing an atmosphere, a story open to many different interpretations.

• Does it exist a sentimental dimension when we look at your pictures ? Or, on the contrary, are you eager to convey a sterilized image because of the straight and smooth photo treatment ? 

Martina Giammaria : I don’t want my photos to be sentimental. I look for uncertainty, not romanticism… Deeply, I like uncomfort, the feeling that things are not like they should, that some elements are out of place. //

Exposition Martina Giammaria // Du 12 au 30 novembre 2014 at Los Patos
23 rue de Nemours 75011 Paris
www.martinagiammaria.com