BONTÀ TERESA LETIZIA
2SERIES: | THE DARKNESS OF THE SOUL | LOVE FOR YOU
Finalist at the International Open Call Competition. A collaboration of Florence Biennale, Art Market Magazine, and Lens Magazine.
“I am, above all, a photographer who tries to interpret inner sensations through art, which translate them justly into something deep in my visceral. Photography was – and is – an overwhelming passion that I had since I was a child, but unfortunately, I have never developed it thoughtfully in my youngest years. However, my profession constantly pushes me forward in continuous research, and above all, allows me to describe what I do with a natural predisposition to openness and purity of language. I could never express my work with detachment or with an impersonal attitude. On the contrary, it would be impossible for me to talk about photography without getting excited or going into a deeper understanding that photography itself has represented and represents emotions. It is a cure for the soul. ”
My photographs are born to give a melody to a note without sound. Photography, for me, represents light, which expresses most directly the illumination of every dark part that remains within us. In modern society today, there is too little time to understand the unpredictability of an emotion; running forces you to listen too little to yourself. In contrast, the feelings themselves should take life more often on that stage that we all have inside. If we stop for a moment to reflect, we realize that photography makes us understand how much some emotions break our hearts and heal them.
I have always sought a privileged position to enjoy the spectacle of logic that crashes against the very meaning of the word emotion. And this is why I am strongly linked to every project that I create. Every project rises like a small light from those inner rooms that we often refuse to explore. Every project aims to express a feeling. When I think about how some of my shots were born or answer someone who asks me this question, I reflect and realize how many emotions have never knocked on my door, but it is always filtered forcefully through the closed shutters.
These closed rooms of our self, and in this specific case of mine, are slowly discovered. Still, slowly, on a personal level. I decided to give the light through my artistic and photographic journey, lightening to them, making them practicable.
My photographs, often in black and white, tell a phase of my life lived in a powerful and impactful way, especially on an inner level. My main subjects are the Sicilian Street and artistic nude for expressing the soul.
My approach to artistic nude and soul photography is based precisely on this, on the depth of emotions. I explore and immediately express it with instant drafts and drawings. Immediately after the release of the idea, you can create strong links with the figure itself, with the model to be portrayed. I feel in perfect and total harmony with art itself, loving it so much as if I were at that juncture at home talking in ideal synergy and friendship with my own emotions.
As I’m in my beloved homeland, Sicily, I calculate my humanity. I retrace my roots and start a passionate dialogue; in that area that I seek with strength and Love, I was accompanied by a Sicilian woman representing its bowels, the pains, virtues, magic, and most traditional taboos.
I express pain through photography, mine as well as the lives of others. Only now, as I’m at 40 years old, I’m discovering the emotion and the need for a caress turned to the soul.”
Teresa Letizia Bontà was born in Licata Agrigento in 1981. She approached the world of self-taught photography at a very young age. The first subject that stimulated her was certainly her environment and the artistic and landscape beauty of her country, Italy. Among her favorite themes, there is no lack of people, the woman, the surrounding reality. Her projects focus on femininity in a careful but straightforward way. Her photos tell what she is and what she has been.
In 2017, a year full of success and developments, Teresa Letizia first exhibited her work in Licata and received international interest and exposure in photography publications and newspapers. That year, she also participated in the Arte Venice Laguna Prize competition and featured her second exhibition at the Atelier association.
In 2018 she continued working on her unique projects in Sicily, in Palma di Montechiaro, where she kept breaking through the wall of taboos: The kiss between two women in front of the church has caused quite a stir audience and international newspapers. Moreover, the shots had a definite consensus of the well-known designer Stefano Gabbana, who commented positively on her unique project through Instagram.
In May 2019, she ranked second at the “Michelangelo Vizzini” prize for women. In addition, the ‘Sicily’ project was awarded the Special Jury Award for the shot that captures two women who kiss in the famous square of Palma DI Montechiaro. Other awards arrived in March 2020 from the D’E.M. Venice Art Gallery that rewards her art.
In 2020, Teresa began to exhibit her work in several international galleries; maintaining her roots, she experimented with new horizons, bringing current and committed themes in her photos. She plays with colors, contrasts, and the bodies’ lines.
Describing and expressing everyday life through emotions, In 2020, during the Covid -19 quarantine, the project “Time” was born; the project received international awards and was noticed by art critics. The series has been featured at main galleries in Italy as well as international galleries.
In April 2020, Her work was featured in Lens Magazine, in a special issue dedicated solely to the impact of Covid – 19 on creativity around the globe.
The “Time” project gained success also at Vogue Italy. Furthermore, it featured in respectable art galleries and art fairs, including at the London International Art Fair, Queenartstudio Gallery, the Emirates Art Connection, at the Gol winner Tokyo international foto Awards exhibiting The “Time” project. In addition, Teresa Letizia’s work has been published in international publications, including Lens Magazine, the International Art Market Magazine, Al-Tiba9 Contemporary art Magazine, and Art about Magazine.
