Cryptic Venus by Nicoletta Cerasomma

The main characters and subjects of this project are women from Lucca, feminine figure that shaped their lives based on their will.

The main characters and subjects of this project are women from Lucca, feminine figure that shaped their lives based on their will.

Doing so, they deprived themselves of their own identity in order to become symbolic icons, the reflection of the society they lived in. What I want to represent in my pictures is their stories and plumb the depth of their legacy that still affects our cultural heritage. For this reason, through a sharp selection of objects, I recall the cultural contest they lived in and, at the same time, emphasize their contribution to the creation of Lucca’ social and cultural context and local community identity.

Although some of these characters are based on real people who really did exist, the mystery and the unknown which surround them let public link them to an imaginary world, made up of ancestral fears and archetypes.

Starting from the idea of community, intended as the set of stories, symbols, rituals that identify it, this project aims to dig the stereotypes and their emblematic function, seeking especially the deepest fears men have to face during their lives and the necessity of belonging to the Community. This is an introspective project focused on men’s worries such as solitude, suffering, incomprehension, detachment. This feelings floor the human being, unarmed and defenseless facing loss and confusion. [Official Website]

Lucida Mansi – in memory of

She was adored by men but people say she killed her partners after their encounters, by throwing them into trap- doors with innumerable sharp blades. Nowdays it is possible to see the trap near her bed in the villa. As the story goes, one day Lucida woke up and found a small wrinkle on her face and became desperate at losing her beauty. At that moment the devil appeared and promised her that she could remain young and beautiful for twenty years in exchange of her soul. She accepted. Twenty years later one dark stormy night, the devil reappeared claiming Lucida’s soul. she jumped into her carriage and began racing around the walls of Lucca but leaped from the wall ending up in a small lake where Lucida drowned.

Lucida Mansi – The silk road

The Mansi family was well-known in the 16th century due to the trade of silk. Lucida loved luxurious things and sumptuous parties, as much as she loved being surrounded by lovers. Someone says she sat for hours admiring herself in the mirror. The typical yellow color of the textiles made in Lucca was obtained from zafferrano and fixed with alum, the purple colors were obtained with the vegetable.

Lucida Mansi – The death of a Diva

The ghost of the beautiful Lucida appears in Villa Mansi in Segromigno, where she used to entertain herself and kill her many lovers

The Witch of Pratofiorito

Seek the mystery in silent things, don’t be afraid to suffer or die. You live on continuous rebirths. I lived my time walking around the world with a bare heart. I give you the dust of my days, blow it in the wind make me free, so that I may be born again, flower in a field, cloud in the sky, star in the darkness of the night. Red is the colour who protect people from witches.

The last letter of Polissena

Lucca 1571, the inquisition condemned two women accused of witchcraft. Margherita di San Rocco and Polissena di San Macario, were burned alive. They were accused of having extracted from the organs from children’s bodies. These organs were necessary for the for rituals and they had miraculous properties like transform men into animals.

The red color of the witch

Local people say that witches appear in Pratofiorito and they do their sabbath dancing in a circle. In Pratofiorito there is an extraordinary density of poisonous herbs and many botanical species traditionally used in rituals and esoteric practices. It has been hypothesized that there, in remote times, there was a botanical garden rich in species with medicinal properties. There is a Church near Pratofiorito built on Diana’s temple.

Lucrezia Buonvisi – in memory of

Lucrezia Buonvisi grew up in Ferrara but her family was from lucca. Her family decided she have to merry her cousin but unfortunately he died so that she become engaged with the second one . He died again. So she merried her third cousin. She was fallen in love with a man colled Massimiliano Arnolfini and he always was her lover. One day Arnofini killed her husband outside a Church.

Lucrezia Buonvisi – the nun who kill

After one year from marriage Lucrezia became Massimiliano Arnolfini’s lover, who was a very rich Lucchese family, the same one depicted in the famous Van Eyck painting of 1434, preserved in the National Gallery in London. When Lucrezia’s husband was killed the police arrested him and Lucrezia was confined for the rest of her life in a convent.

Lucrezia Buonvisi and her love

Confined in the convent she used to meet her many lovers creating a scandal. And also she killed a nun. At the end of the story she was walled up in a room.

More Stories

Kibera by Marcel Kolacek

Kibera by Marcel Kolacek

Kibera. The largest slum in Africa. With absolute certainty can not say it, but it's pretty huge, especially population density. Various sources state different numbers
Burkhard Arnold Director of In Focus Galerie

Burkhard Arnold Director of In Focus Galerie

The In focus galerie was founded in 1990 und shows photography in its whole range, classic journalistic-, portrait-, staged-, concept-, nude- and architecture photography (vintage and later prints) from 1945 up to today.
Documentary photography; Baro Maa by Joydeep Mukherjee

Documentary photography; Baro Maa by Joydeep Mukherjee

I am old and grey. I am alone inside these four walls and I can only talk to my loneliness. My loneliness is killing me inside.I am almost imperceptible to those people, who are happy in their busy own world. Sometimes, I feel like a critter, for whom these humans had a stiff-arm.
https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/bannerpr.jpg

We invite you to participate in the first edition of the Portrait Photography Awards. Our call is open to any artistic interpretation of portrait photography.

https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BAnImage.jpg

ImageRights provides intelligent image search and copyright enforcement services to photo agencies and professional photographers worldwide.

https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/mono2022.jpg

The best 100 images along with the winning images published in the yearly book “Monochromatic – Best Photographers of 2022”

https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/banner24.jpg

Call For Entries #24 | After 23 editions and more than 100 published photographers, our print edition has proven to be a simply effective promotional channel.

Interview with Laurent Baheux

Interview with Laurent Baheux

Laurent Baheux is a french photographer, born in Poitiers in 1970. Laurent Baheux was attracted to journalism and editing at first, rapidly discovering a passion for photography and becoming a self-taught photographer.
Multiexpo by Frank Machalowski

Multiexpo by Frank Machalowski

It launched in Berlin, his hometown for 40 years, but then he extended this kind of photography to other citys. For this series he use exclusive analogue film material in both dimensions (35mm and 6x6) and only b&w.
Urban Landscapes by Alexis Hernández Romero

Urban Landscapes by Alexis Hernández Romero

Urban Landscapes is an approach to urban black and white photography that tries to capture the beauty, sometimes overlooked, of the city and its moments.
Battleship by Vincent Debanne

Battleship by Vincent Debanne

Naumachia is a spectacle representing a mock sea fight which gave the Roman emperors in arena or basin water dug for that purpose. It seemed to me that we played today still, every summer
Paradise Now by Ryan Koopmans

Paradise Now by Ryan Koopmans

Paradise Now explores how urban fantasies and construction function as expressions of nationalistic ambition, blurring the line between the natural and artificial within the hypermodern city.
Waiting for the snow to melt  by Laure Maugeais

Waiting for the snow to melt by Laure Maugeais

For some it is the intended experience of having an adventure. For others perhaps it is their Plan B, or C or D, after all the alternatives have failed.
N.O.A.H by Tao Ho

N.O.A.H by Tao Ho

Compared to the subject he photograph, he is more aware of the relationship between him and the photography. Sometimes it is close, sometimes opposites.
Portrait Photography; Glass by Laura Pannack

Portrait Photography; Glass by Laura Pannack

This questions how people often object to having their portrait taken and how they react when faced with the situation. I denied my subjects any control over the image taking as I was aware that as photographer’s their awareness and involvement would be much more apparent.
Film Noir; The Silent Ultimatum by Jack Savage

Film Noir; The Silent Ultimatum by Jack Savage

A follow up to Jack Savages critically acclaimed series “Definitive Ambiguities”. This series is again indebted to the ghosts of our shared cinematic past, and the cinema of Film Noir (1920-50).
Visually impaired : The street of the blind by Alena Shilonosova

Visually impaired : The street of the blind by Alena Shilonosova

Rusinovo is a street of the blind and visually impaired people in the town of Ermolino in the Kaluga region in Russia. Until 1995, it was a separate village where the visually impaired were sent from the different regions of the Soviet Union. 
Black and white portrait photography by Yura Kurnosov

Black and white portrait photography by Yura Kurnosov

Introduction to photography had on the children's time. The first camera FED-3. The whole film process, including print, I learned in childhood.
Rio and paying for sex by Lorenzo Moscia

Rio and paying for sex by Lorenzo Moscia

How many Brazilians, as happens all over the world, pay to have sex in brothels, low-class bars, luxury hotels, night clubs, in the alleyways of the favelas or even in a car in front of the Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro?
Abstract photography by Olga Merrill

Abstract photography by Olga Merrill

Olga Merrill lived and worked in Russia until March of 2013 when she came to Maine, USA and her life changed. At the end of 2015 her life changed even more – she got a gift – a photo camera and her view of the world became different through lens
Raising Goosebumps by Cate Wnek

Raising Goosebumps by Cate Wnek

Often a hyperawareness within me detects something elusive that could happen to my children, or me —however protected I imagine us to be. 
Burundi Political Crisis by Paulo Nunes dos Santos

Burundi Political Crisis by Paulo Nunes dos Santos

The small african nation of Burundi has been gripped by violence since April 2015 as when of Pierre Nkurunziza’s announcement of the intention to run for a third-term in office.
Transcending by Isabel Curdes

Transcending by Isabel Curdes

It is a story about life and death, about the beauty of our ephemeral existence and the acceptance that one day we will just be a memory…

Featured Stories

A Mad World by Momoko Fritz

A Mad World by Momoko Fritz

About a year and a half ago I created a dinner series called, At Home with Momoko, where I would host 8-10 women once a month.
Kamila Karpinska ; Lifestyle photography

Kamila Karpinska ; Lifestyle photography

A photographer born and living in Poland. She specializes in lifestyle photography. and takes pictures of people in situations where they feel fine.
Meeting Sheila by Ashley Comer

Meeting Sheila by Ashley Comer

"I gave her life to give her life" are the words Sheila muttered to the nurse who so rudely asked why she was giving me up. After being raised by a loving family, I have immense gratitude for the life handed to me.
Shadow Of White by Nicola Ducati

Shadow Of White by Nicola Ducati

A photographic project to discover the deep north and the people who have inhabited these hostile territories for millennia, once uncontaminated and which today face new challenges.
The Girl Who Escaped and Other Stories by Joan Haseltine

The Girl Who Escaped and Other Stories by Joan Haseltine

Some years after losing my husband I decided to reinvent my life, so I purchased a small ranch in Montana and a camera, neither of which I knew how to operate. I began visiting small towns at night. A woman standing alone on the streets after dark with a camera naturally aroused suspicion and distrust in these old Montana towns.
Still Life – Mushrooms by Dale M. Reid

Still Life – Mushrooms by Dale M. Reid

Today my subject matter features floral, mushroom and pear studies. My mission is to capture and present a unique perspective that engages the viewer and embodies a concept or tells a story.
Street Stories by Castro Frank

Street Stories by Castro Frank

Contemporary Street Photographer, Castro Frank was born on August 28th, 1983. This Los Angeles native’s style of photography fuses together a journalistic approach with an artistic eye to create imagery.
Urban environments; Mea Shearim by Alexandra Buxbaum

Urban environments; Mea Shearim by Alexandra Buxbaum

Alexandra Buxbaum’s work has focused on documenting the human experience of various people and cultures living in disparate urban environments around the world.
Little stars by Tatiana Ilina

Little stars by Tatiana Ilina

The story about lilliputians artists "The shining of little stars" who travel around Russia. The first performance was in Ivanovo. The posters were placed all over the town and many inhabitants were surprised and sincerely confessed that they have never seen anything like this. 
60s NYC by Michael Seif

60s NYC by Michael Seif

In the 1960s I lived and worked in New York City, carried my camera everywhere, and photographed every chance I had - day and night, above ground and in the subways.The camera forced me to look, and to actually see.
Aaron Sehmar ; In-between moments

Aaron Sehmar ; In-between moments

Aaron Sehmar - Fine art photography allows me to be able to come up with ideas for images that are a lot more conceptual, where the end result is more of a catalyst for a larger discussion about various topics, such as the purpose of photography, hyperreality, artifice and displacement.
Portraits with Wet Plate Collodion by Paul Alsop & Luke White

Portraits with Wet Plate Collodion by Paul Alsop & Luke White

Wet Plate Collodion is a historic photographic process that was pioneered and used in the In the mid to late 1800's by an English photographer called Frederick Scott Archer.
Infrared Silence Series by Nathan Wirth

Infrared Silence Series by Nathan Wirth

Within the folds of any subject, an imperceptible silence resides, even resonates -a silence unheard within the nooks and crannies of the ruffles of noise that blanket the world we all live in- such matters hinting that, camera in hand
Guatemala; Until the corn Grows Back by Lys Arango

Guatemala; Until the corn Grows Back by Lys Arango

Until the corn Grows Back; Lys Arango’s project was selected and published in our print edition 16. Criminal violence in Central America was something that happened very far away and that explained, according to the media, the gigantic caravans of migrants that from 2017 began to travel thousands of kilometres to reach the United States
Warehouse by Szymon Barylski

Warehouse by Szymon Barylski

Serbia, Belgrade near the main train station where around 1,000 people are seeking shelter. Mainly Pakistanis and Afghans live in a derelict warehouse. The warehouse occupied by men and minors, they’re living in extreme conditions
Last Love by Yaroslava Tarasova

Last Love by Yaroslava Tarasova

A family of two elderly people is not something that is associated with a crazy reckless love, but it is a possibility not to be alone, something which gives meaning to one’s life.

Trending Stories

Transfiguration by Lesia Maruschak

Transfiguration by Lesia Maruschak

Transfiguration revolves around a little girl named Maria - a survivor of the 1932-1933 famine in my homeland of Ukraine. Her parents and 4 million others died because of Stalin’s policy of artificial starvation.
War Phones by Henry Hargreaves

War Phones by Henry Hargreaves

During the Vietnam nearly all US soldier carried a Zippo lighter. As the soldiers were initially forbidden from modifying the exterior of their uniform they would use engrave their lighters
I Lost my dream

I Lost my dream

Moacir’s dreams stray from typical boyish fantasies of superheroes and pirates. He wants nothing more than to escape his Nicaraguan life of poverty and abuse to live the American dream.
Fight clubs; Kushti Wrestling by Erberto Zani

Fight clubs; Kushti Wrestling by Erberto Zani

Kolkata, India: Kusthi is an ancient form of wrestling, three thousand years old. Fight clubs are rough, poor, "old school" style without new technologies, just training and sweat. And red arena, of course, because the wrestlers fight on sacred red soil.
The Photography of Florin Ion Firimitã

The Photography of Florin Ion Firimitã

When I finished my first novel, about one year ago, besides a sense of relief (I spent over a decade working on it), I wondered if there were any readers left in the world. At a very basic level, my book is a story about a photographer who needs a rebirth.
Blokovi by Giulio Zanni

Blokovi by Giulio Zanni

For years I photographed only in black and white. Good black and white photography usually has an edge in term of depth and presence, but selectively applied colors contribute very much to the emotions.
Upcycling Construction in Vietnam by Hermes Aviateur

Upcycling Construction in Vietnam by Hermes Aviateur

These pictures are an excpert of few days project I did a couple of weeks ago in Mui Ne a small coastal town in Vietnam known for its amazing dunes and surf spots.
Boys by Tatiana Bondarev

Boys by Tatiana Bondarev

Boys from 14 to 18 years old who committed various crimes including hooliganism, rape and murder serve their sentences in the young offender institution in Saint-Petersburg.
Inside the Camera Bag of Richard Murai

Inside the Camera Bag of Richard Murai

In addition to using protective lens filters, whether in transit or in the field, I package bodies and lenses in plastic bags. I have duplicate lenses for each body so I rarely change lenses in the field.
Landscapes by Max Lazzi

Landscapes by Max Lazzi

Max Lazzi, forty-eight years old, an Italian born in Lucca in Tuscany, a craftsman who works for his own company with a great passion for photography.
Pets photography; Wet Dog by Sophie Gamand

Pets photography; Wet Dog by Sophie Gamand

Sophie Gamand is a French photographer living and working in New York. Since 2011, with both a documentary and artistic approaches,
Mass prayer to the Sun by Arup Biswas

Mass prayer to the Sun by Arup Biswas

It is believed that there are 33 Koti (“KOTI” meaning types. Wrongly translated as Crore.) gods and goddess in Hindu Mythology. And each type of god or goddess are worshiped with proper devotions and dedications.

Other Stories

stay in touch
Join our mailing list and we'll keep you up to date with all the latest stories, opportunities, calls and more.
We use Sendinblue as our marketing platform. By Clicking below to submit this form, you acknowledge that the information you provided will be transferred to Sendinblue for processing in accordance with their terms of use
We’d love to
Thank you for subscribing!
Submission
Dodho Magazine accepts submissions from emerging and professional photographers from around the world.
Their projects can be published among the best photographers and be viewed by the best professionals in the industry and thousands of photography enthusiasts. Dodho magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any submitted project. Due to the large number of presentations received daily and the need to treat them with the greatest respect and the time necessary for a correct interpretation our average response time is around 5/10 business days in the case of being accepted.
- Between 10/30 images of your best images, in case your project contains a greater number of images which are part of the same indivisible body of work will also be accepted. You must send the images in jpg format to 1200px and 72dpi and quality 9. (No borders or watermarks)
- A short biography along with your photograph. (It must be written in the third person)
- Title and full text of the project with a minimum length of 300 words. (Texts with lesser number of words will not be accepted)
This is the information you need to start preparing your project for its presentation
To send it, you must compress the folder in .ZIP format and use our Wetransfer channel specially dedicated to the reception of works. Links or projects in PDF format will not be accepted. All presentations are carefully reviewed based on their content and final quality of the project or portfolio. If your work is selected for publication in the online version, it will be communicated to you via email and subsequently it will be published.
Contact
How can we help? Got an idea or something you'd like share? Please use the adjacent form, or contact contact@dodho.com
Thank You. We will contact you as soon as possible.
Submission
Dodho Magazine accepts submissions from emerging and professional photographers from around the world.
Their projects can be published among the best photographers and be viewed by the best professionals in the industry and thousands of photography enthusiasts. Dodho magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any submitted project. Due to the large number of presentations received daily and the need to treat them with the greatest respect and the time necessary for a correct interpretation our average response time is around 5/10 business days in the case of being accepted. This is the information you need to start preparing your project for its presentation.
To send it, you must compress the folder in .ZIP format and use our Wetransfer channel specially dedicated to the reception of works. Links or projects in PDF format will not be accepted. All presentations are carefully reviewed based on their content and final quality of the project or portfolio. If your work is selected for publication in the online version, it will be communicated to you via email and subsequently it will be published.
Get in Touch
How can we help? Got an idea or something you'd like share? Please use the adjacent form, or contact contact@dodho.com
Thank You. We will contact you as soon as possible.