For me, Polaroids are not just photographic objects: they are “effects” of personal memory.
They have reopened a window to childhood, not so much out of nostalgia, but because of that sense of urgency and immediacy that only certain images possess.
There is something in the instant act of taking a photo, in the fragile physicality of the paper, that restores a direct relationship with time and the texture of things.
In this work, I have chosen to explore Polaroids as a space for formal and emotional experimentation. The use of black and white emphasizes the structure of the compositions: it removes the superfluous, reduces everything to essentials, allowing the tension between fullness and emptiness, between sharp lines and visual vanishing points, to emerge. It’s a choice that speaks of distance, abstraction, but also of the simplicity of perception.
Color, on the other hand, is a more tactile, more intimate element. It is never didactic, but works through subtle stratifications, almost epidermal. In some images, it becomes a warm voice, almost domestic; in others, it creates contrast, rupture a living, intermittent memory. The compositions are built around geometric elements, sometimes deliberately sought out, other times left to emerge more freely. Overlays, both physical and visual, create a system of “interferences,” where each image dialogues with the previous and the next. It is a search that moves between order and disorder, balancing between an almost architectural planning and an emotional, instinctive impulse. Ultimately, these Polaroids are an attempt to build a language that is both analytical and personal a way to observe closely, and perhaps contain, that which has passed but continues to resonate with us.
About Stefania Piccioni
Stefania Piccioni was born in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, on November 9, 1970. The daughter of a photographer, she naturally followed in her father’s footsteps. She earned a Diploma in Photography in 1989. Photography has always been both her profession and her passion.
She developed this passion over the years and, in 2009, fully embraced the art of digital photography. Her work captures the world as she feels or imagines it, with images presented in both black and white and color, creating timeless representations of her inner vision and desires.
Piccioni has participated in several group exhibitions in Italy. In 2014, she took part in the Third Biennale of Salento in Lecce. That same year, she won third prize for Best Black and White Photography at Mille Modi di Essere Donna, held at the Dream Factory Gallery in Milan.
She was selected for the 2015 and 2016 editions of the art collective In Contemporary Porcari, receiving a Special Mention in the Photography category in 2016, in Porcari (LU). In 2018, she exhibited in Senigallia, known as the City of Photography. The exhibition was held at the Della Rovere Fortress and featured the annual acquisitions of the photographic archive housed at MUSINF (Municipal Museum of Modern Art, Information, and Photography of Senigallia) since 2015. Curated by Professor Giorgio Bonomi, the exhibition offered a wide-ranging look at photographic self-portraits by both Italian and international artists.
Her still lifes and self-portraits are part of the MUSINF photographic archive in Senigallia (Ancona). Her self-portraits have also been published in Giorgio Bonomi’s art book on self-portraiture, edited by Rubbettino. Her photographs form part of both public and private collections and have been featured in various photography magazines.
