Luisa Menazzi Moretti on Photography, Death Row, and Poetic Devices

Luisa Menazzi Moretti (Udine, 1964) discusses her photographic practice, which blends words and images to explore reality without reportage rhetoric. Her project 'Ten Years and Eighty-seven Days', exhibited at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Berlin during the European Month of Photography, addresses the death penalty in Texas. It draws from letters and interviews of 536 executed inmates, focusing on life on death row rather than death. Another series, 'Words', features fragmented phrases photographed to separate meaning from signifier, with contributions from 21 writers, musicians, and artists. 'Solo', shown at Villa Manin, imagines an afterlife inspired by Alice Sebold's 'The Lovely Bones', using glass and reflections to create barriers. Her series 'π' at La Salizada in Venice explores symbolic circles with minimal post-production. Menazzi Moretti works with a Nikon 600D and two lenses, emphasizing framing and detail. Future projects include a work on Syrian refugees in Basilicata and 'Far Fading West' about a disappearing Texas, linked to the death penalty series. 'Ten Years and Eighty-seven Days' will travel to Santa Maria della Scala in Siena from March to May.