Laura Salvinelli, graduated with a thesis on the relationship between literary and photographic image, has been working as a photographer since 1981. She has been a still photographer for cinema, and has been taking photo portraits of actors and musicians. In 1989 she began to travel to Asia, and since then she has been working also as a reporter. In the last years she is working in cooperation with humanitarian organizations, realizing exhibitions and reportage for the press. She also started to write and publish the stories of the people portrayed. She has been the only European selected for the World Bank’s Art Program multi-session photographic exhibition In the Eyes of a Woman in Washington, DC (March 27, 2007-January 31, 2009). Some of her work has been published in France by Piterak Editions.


I believe and practice a non-aggressive, non-predatory reportage, made essentially of portraits. I call it ”reportrait”, from the union of reportage and portrait. I’m interested in little stories: they let me contact reality; they reflect the wider contexts and the big stories of which they are part. I love beauty and joy; I find them more often in the world of the weak then in the world of the powerful. In front of the “unspeakable violence” and of the “vulgar disparity of life” I just try to bear attention, and to do with care what I am able to do.
I defend black and white and the reportage of search and reflection that it is trying in every way to eliminate from the media.


Solo exhibitions:

- Indiana. Reportage dal piu' grande sindacato di lavoratrici autonome indiane (Indiana. Reportage from SEWA). Rome, Palazzo Incontro, December 19 2008-January 18 2009. With the patronage of Provincia di Roma and Comune di Roma.

Siena, Palazzo Pubblico, Magazzini del Sale, February 2, March 1, 2009. With the patronage of Comune di Siena.

-Congo Reportraits. International Festival of Rome, Musei Capitolini-Centrale Montemartini, April 12-May 13 2007. With the patronage of Comune di Roma.

- In the Eyes of a Woman. Washington, DC, The World Bank Main Complex, March 27-May 31 2007

- Sulla Prima Nobile Verità. Ritratti di guerra, esilio e rinuncia (On the First Noble Truth. Portraits of War, Exile and Renunciation). International Festival of Rome, Palazzo Valentini, June 16-30 2005. With the patronage of Provincia di Roma.

- La cura (Caring). Rome, Galleria Sala 1, December 2-23 2004. With the patronage of Comune di Roma.

Biella, Palazzo della Provincia, March 4-20 2005. With the patronage of Provincia and Comune di Biella.

Sant’Agata de’ Goti (BN), Salone Viscardi, March 8 2006. With the patronage of Comune di Sant’Agata de’ Goti.

Group exhibitions:

- Echi di donne (Women’s Echoes). Rome, Ministero degli Affari Esteri (Foreign Office), December 1-15 2005.

Books:

- Hospital Life in Afghanistan, Postcart, 2011

- Indiana. Nel cuore della democrazia piu' complicata del mondo (Indiana. In the heart of the most complicated democracy in the world) by Mariella Gramaglia, Donzelli editore, 2008 (portfolio)

© photo by Peppe D'Arvia