Nicoletta Cossa

Nicoletta Cossa

Location: Italy

Awards:

• Borghi d’Italia Winner, National Award – Photo Friends Bellagio, Bellagio (LC) 2016
• InGrandiMenti Winner, National Award – A.I.TE.R.P. Emilia Romagna, Modena 2016
• Ginko Art Award Winner, International Award – Spazio Ginko, Roma 2016
• Artensile Finalist, National Award – Canese Dante srl, Santo Stefano di Magra (SP) 2016
• Racconta una storia Finalist, National Award – Gruppo fotografico Calizzano e Alta Valle Bormida, Calizzano (SV)
• Liberi sguardi Honorable Mention, National Award – Associazione Bondeko, Civate (CO) 2016

Collective Exhibitions:

• Artensile @ Nova Ex Ceramica Vaccari, Santo Stefano di Magra (SP) 2016
• Art Rome – Autumn Session @ Flyer Art Gallery, Roma 2016
• Maker Days @ Talent Garden, Sarzana (SP) 2016
• Racconta una storia @ Le Ciminiere, Calizzano (SV) 2016
• Ginko Art Award @ Spazio Ginko, Roma 2017

Education:

• Universita’ del Piemonte Orientale Graduated in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures, English and French, Major in Mass Communication @ Vercelli (2002)
• Universita’ Popolare Vercelli Photography Base Course @ Vercelli (2013)
• Master Design & Image with Oliviero Toscani @ Bard (AO) (2016)


Portfolio:

Metal Muses 2016

The "Metal Muses" project started on my place of work. The workers of the company have agreed to be immortalized to give birth to my own idiosyncrasy: the relationship between our body and the objects we use. In particular I focused on metal working tools that become an integral part of the lives of those who use them, becoming an extension of the body. Each person has specific skills and the continuous use of the object, eight hours or more a day, leads to a technical perfection and to a different and unique expertise for each person. The worker and the object share their working lives and one is an integral part of the other. I focused on their faces since it is in their faces, in their facial expressions that can be read fatigues, victories, defeats and everything that has marked their lives, working and not. Their gaze is the focus of the portrait, followed by the metal object chosen that enters the scene as a sparkling and vital part of the body, sometimes constrictive, sometimes reassuring, always familiar. The color makes the images more realistic than black and white, this is not a dream, a surreal trick. The actors are not models but the workers of the company. Their clothes were not studied specifically, they wear what they wear regularly at work and the photos were taken in the shift breaks. Similarly, the location is the internal mechanical workshop of the company, where the same metal tools have been found.