It is to this end that reflections are used as the mechanism for self-awareness. Instead of diffusing purpose as the atmosphere does with the change from day to night, blue to an orangy-red, the images are shot to find sexual clarity.

Paying homage to the rich history of self-portraiture and travelog, the body of work draws from influences like Anne Birgman and Imogen Cunningham who captured moments that were natural and unabashed, expressing a drive to find empowerment. Contemporary work by Giulia Bersani channels the natural and vulnerable, offering an intimate view into a private world as well as themself.

In addition, the work follows with a curiosity about the natural world opposite to the enclosed spaces. Pioneers of pictorialism in the early twenthieth-century, Léonard Misonne and Alfred Stieglitz were fascinated with the challenges of capturing the atmosphere and using it as metaphor for the transitory. “There seemed to be something closely related to my deepest feeling in what I saw, and I decided to photograph what was within me” Stieglitz wrote about his series “Equivalents”. While contemporary artists like Berndnaut Smilde with “Nimbus” have moved them outdoors, taking the analogy further to harness its potential, but only for a moment.

Complementary to the work in the Reflections series, the collection aims to show the natural act of being sexual. In this iteration the language is about self-intimacy, not in terms of the idiosyncrasy of aggrandizing, but reflecting on the vulnerability to trust a creative process.