• Francesca Todde

Stories

A Sensitive Education


Tristan is a bird educator, he prepares birds for theatre and cinema and develops their positive contact with humans in “ornitotherapy”. As a child, in the forest behind his parent’s house he realized that, while remaining still for a long time, the animals came out of the vegetation. The approach in respect of the rhythm of the other, remains the basis of Tristan’s method. His technique is based on the understanding of bird’s sensibility, that is more extensive than ours, moving to areas we have partly forgotten in the course of evolution. Body position, intensity of the look or even the intentions that animate us, have for birds a great deal of importance. Following Tristan, we can enter their world made of minimal, subtle and incorporeal events.

The Red Man. On Goliarda Sapienza Imagery


This project aims to give a representation of the imagery and mental universe of Goliarda Sapienza, looking for images that could talk about her identity, clarify her position and the visual strength of her writing. “The Red Man” comes from an image of the Sapienza family archive: brothers and sisters and the same Goliarda at the age of 3, on the beach of Catania in 1927. One of the men is red colored with a childish trait, and on the back of the image is written Iuzza, the diminutive with which Goliarda was called in the family. Can we consider it a first trace of her individuality? Starting from this question, I decided to develop the project by going precisely to the places where Sapienza spent her childhood in Catania, her youth in Rome and Positano and her last years in Gaeta, to meet in various forms the visible and invisible traces of her presence.

Portfolio

Francesca Todde is a photographer and publisher based in Milano and working between Italy and France. Her research focuses on the invisible elements of relationships, sometimes intersecting stories of sharing with animals. Her work is represented by Contrasto. Shortlisted for the PHmuseum 2020 Photography Grant and PHmuseum Women Photographers Grant 2020.
Her first book A Sensitive Education, a research around the possibilities of empathy between different species, was released in January 2020. In 2018, she co-founded with the artist Luca Reffo the independent publishing house Départ Pour L’Image, which deals with experimental publications on the borderline between photography and contemporary art.

Milan, Italy

More info

Books

A Sensitive Education. Départ pour l’Image. 2020

Awards

2020. Shortlisted at PHmuseum Women Photographers Grant
2020. Shortlised at PHmuseum Photography Award Main Category
2020. Shortlisted at Athens Photo Festival
2019. Finalist at Italy Photo Award
2018. Finalist at Marco Pesaresi Prize
2018. Nikon/NOOR Belgium Masterclass in Bruxelles
2015. Art residency with Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, CAMERA Centro italiano per la Fotografia
2013. Movin’Up Grant, GAI and Ministero Italiano per i Beni e le Attività Culturali

Exhibitions & Screenings

2021. “A Sensitive Education” Cortona on the Move, IT
2021. “A Sensitive Education” PVF Festival of Political Photography Helsinki, FI
2021. “A Sensitive Education” Festival 10×10 Gonzaga, IT
2021. “A Sensitive Education” Ultra Festival, Prato, IT
2021. “A Sensitive Education” Circulation(s) Paris, FR
2021. “A Sensitive Education” Les Boutographies Montpellier, FR
2020. “A Sensitive Education” Les Nuits de Pierrevert Festival, FR
2020. “A Sensitive Education” solo exhibition at Officine Fotografiche Milano, IT
2019. “Looking On_Sguardi e Prospettive sulla nuova fotografia italiana”, MAR Ravenna, IT
2018. “Tristan”, BYOPaper! Arles 2018, Les Rencontres de la Photographie, FR
2017. “The Conversation”, Impossible Project Space, Paris, FR
2017. Projection “Along the Hills Crest”, MEP Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, FR
2016. “Silent Mountains”, PFAM Piccolo Festival di Antropologia di Montagna, Berceto (PR), IT
2016. “Réinsertion émotionnelle”, Festival Les Chevaux du Sud, St. Maries de la Mer, FR
2016. Reflexions, CAMERA – Centro italiano per la Fotografia, Torino, IT
2015. TransHumance, Spazio Kinima, Padova, IT
2015. Slideluck Bologna II, curated by Chiara Bardelli Nonino, Spazio Labò, Bologna, IT
2015. Pas si loin, pas si differents – St.Hilaire et Marseille, FR
2015. Projection Rencontres d’Arpia, Galerie Immix, Paris, FR
2015. TransHumance at Ottovolanti, Area35 Art Gallery, Milano, IT
2014. Slideluck Bologna, curated by Renata Ferri, Spazio Labò, Bologna, IT