Anna Volpi

I'm based in Mantua, Italy, but work in many places. My father is Italian and my mother American, I was brought up in both countries

PRESENTATION

I'm based in Mantua, Italy, but work in many places. My father is Italian and my mother American, I was brought up in both countries. My commercial work involves a lot of portraiture, especially of women. I also run Studio Meraki in Mantua, where I invite photographers to teach workshops, courses, and where I host photography events. I do photography tours with Aperture Tours (aperturetours.com), where I guide people around cities or regions in Italy and abroad while teaching them photography.

My personal work is very much self-involved at the moment. I have always been attracted to the body, its limitations and power, appearance, transformation, interpretation. A theme I am developing now is perception, how different people perceive the same object, person, or place.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND ME

For me photography is a necesity. It's what my life revolves around. It makes me lose sleep, it gives me anxiety, it causes me to neglect my loved ones, it gives me enormous self-doubt. It also gives me great emotions, makes me grow as a person, introduces me to things I didn't know, creates bridges between others and I, inspires me every day.

Photography has so many purposes, it really depends on what you want to do. For me, it's self expression and documentation.

TABOOS IN WESTERN SOCIETY

There are still taboos in Western society. Just think about when a woman goes to change her pad in the office. She hides it. In Italy, many women don't even use the word menstruation, they say things like 'the reds', 'my things', or 'the marquis'. There is also a lot of ignorance. So few people in western society know about the condition of women in places like Nepal, India, and many parts of Africa.

FLOWER AND MY INTENTION

Flower was born in a purely aesthetic sense. When I would empty my menstrual cup, I would see wonderful colors and shapes. I started photographing my menstruation with a macro lens, creating abstracts. I began to become more in contact with it, its smell, texture, taste. I involved sexuality in it as well, because many men still think it's "gross". From there I started to get interested in how menstruation is dealt with around the world, and came to realize that it is still a big problem for bilions of women, socially and personally.

My intention, in the beginning, was really just to capture the beauty of menstruation, something we are used to disregarding and not looking at. I wondered 'how much beauty are we missing out on because we don't take the time to observe and are carried away by preconceptions?' I wanted to create something beautiful with menstruation, in my medium which is photography. I am not a political or social activist, but I wanted to do something with what I know.

DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLIC'S RECEPTION

I put the project on my website. It was a decision to make, I knew it would not be greeted well by everyone. It also went public on Art Sheep, and from there it went viral. It was shared in so many countries, on so many types of websites. This made me happy, because potentially many girls and women would see it and perhaps be encouraged to talk about menstruation. The public generally hated it or loved it. Many people thought I was doing it for money, but I actually haven't made a dime from this project. Many people, mostly women, asked 'why do you have to talk about it, once a month is enough!'. Actually, I believe we need to talk about it a lot, as long as there are women dying and quitting school due to menstruation it is a problem. And some people said 'I get it that it's a taboo, but why smear it on yourself?'. To that I respond that I want to personally know something as much as I can before I develop an opinion, and sometimes you have to step way over the line to bring people up to the line.