Born 1982 in Lecce, Italy, Alessia Rollo studied in Perugia (BA in Visual Communication), Madrid, Spain (EFTI, MA in Creative Photography) and Milan (Master in Publishing). Already during her studies, she participated in many workshops with international artists like Peter Funch, Mauricio Alejo, Denis Darzacq, Jill Greenberg, Matt Siber, James Casebere and Mary Ellen Mark.
Since 2010, Alessia’s works have been presented in several solo exhibitions and she participated in many group shows all over the world. First, there was a focus in Spain, but with the time being, her oeuvre is more shown in Italy and travelled various European countries (Netherlands, France, England, Greece, Portugal, Finland and Albania) and abroad (Brazil, Mexico, Ethiopia, China and United Arab Emirates).
Alessia’s first photos were still life’s, close to Italian renaissance painting. After a period of experimenting with different techniques and combining diverse genres, her work became more conceptual. She creates series by investigating an issue from various angles. In doing so, she mixes a documentary with a fictional approach. This becomes evident in her series “Fata Morgana”, where our Artwork of the Month / February 2019 is taken from. Here she is questioning the ambiguous image of her home region Salento between reality and appearance.
With her series “Parallel Eyes”, started in 2019, Alessia focused once more on the south of Italy. Here, she dealt with ancient practices of the region. Often, they lost their original meaning by the time and became popular festivals with a commercial purpose. In pointing to a particular tradition, she reminds the origins like in the photo “The Burning Saint”, which presents the Focara of Novoli and is our Artwork of the Month / January 2023. Other rituals have got an additional meaning. One example is our Artwork of the Month / December 2024: “The Walking Forest”. It depicts a tradition from Satriano di Lucania in the region Basilicata that has an ancient origin, but also current references are important. “The Walking Forest” was chosen as title image for the European Photo Contest 2024.
In her work, Alessia enquires about photography itself, but at the same time, she points to subjects of society. This could be female identity (To undo an island), Queer discrimination (Queer is Now), urbanisation (An endless Day) or eating habits and it changes (Happy Meal and We eat what we are). Even though, many of her projects are anchored in the Mediterranean area, Alessia’s experiences of many residencies (Greece, Ethiopia, Austria, Japan, Slovenia) enter into her oeuvre. Some of her series were published as photo books and international magazines dedicated articles to her work. Cooperations with companies, cultural organisations and festivals testify the great versatility of her artistic practice. Most recently, her series “Don’t play with food” was presented at the Yeast Festival in Lecce, Italy (19th September to 3rd November 2024) and “Parallel Eyes” was at the Radar Festival, Trani, Italy on view (4th October to 30th November 2024).
Alessia lives and works in Lecce.