Moira Ricci's Photobook Inserts Herself into Her Mother's Life

Moira Ricci's artist book "20.12.53 – 10.08.04" (Corraini, 2023) uses digital manipulation to insert her own image into 50 photographs of her mother Loriana, spanning from birth to age 50. The dates in the title mark her mother's birth and death. The project won the PAC2021 grant from Italy's Ministry of Culture, enabling the Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea to acquire the entire series and publish the volume. The book features a clean, free layout without chronological or thematic order, accompanied by brief captions. It reconstructs a micro-history of a Tuscan family from the 1950s onward, with Ricci appearing in every image as a form of continuous companionship. The work engages with Roland Barthes's "Camera Lucida" and transcends traditional photomontage through digital means. Essays by Roberta Valtorta, Andrea Cortellessa, and Lydia Flem contextualize the project.