Featured Artist: Sharon Ritossa

Artist: Sharon Ritossa

Location: Italy

We'd like to welcome Italian Photographer and Artist Sharon Ritossa to Shoot Film UK. Sharon's current work investigates local historical political and military events that had great impact on many lives and generations. 'Foibe' she explains "Foiba, Italian term for “sinkhole” is a Deep natural cave with a funnel shape, typical of the Carso region. In Istria, Dalmatia and Venezia Giulia these cavities were used as mass graves to hide the bodies of political killings". The series takes you up close to the mouth of these sinkholes in a haunting and curious typological journey. www.sharonritossa.com

The following images were taken using a Rolleiflex & Kodak Portra.

SFUK: Tell us a little about yourself and your background in photography.

SR: I was born in Trieste in 1987. After graduating in Humanities from LaSapienza University in Rome, I specialised in photography at the ISIA ofUrbino with a thesis on the Istrian exodus. Esodo Visivo, is an archivalstudy done in collaboration with the Regional Institute for Istrian Culture(IRCI) in order to restore a collective visual memory of theexodus.Today, I am a full-time photographer. I' m currently artist atGalleria del Cembalo, Palazzo Borghese, Rome and I'm in artist inresidence at Fabrica, Benetton Group’s communication research centre.

SFUK: Why do you shoot film, have you always shot film & do you switch between digital and film?

SR: I use both digital and analogue cameras, depends on the project that I would realize. When I travel I love to use my lover, my Rolleiflex because although it's heavy I prefer to take less pictures and in that way I train my mind to pre-visualize the images before I push the button. It's also a way to observe, I look at the sky, the clouds, I look at the landscape or at the people around me so I can understand how much time I need to take that picture. It's very nice when you finally decide to take that picture and you put your eyes next to the rolleiflex, in that moment all the things you saw before now are flipped (this happens with Rolleiflex cameras), another time you see the world with another point of view. It's in the simple things that an analogue camera can suprise you. When you were born in a Digital Era and you decide to bring in your hand an analogue camera it means you want to unlearn, unlearn from everything you ever saw before.

SFUK: Who inspires you, any favourite people or places you frequently go to for inspiration?

SR: Analogue photography taught me to think before I push the button. That's why there is no limit, no place, imagination is everywhere and every time. You must only try to do something better from the point that you started. Sometimes, put yourself in a situation you have never been before, that you're attracted to.. refresh your brain.

SFUK: How would you describe your style of shooting?

SR: I think that my style depends on the subject because I have some differences in technical approach and sometimes I have different aesthetical approaches. I would like that the importance of my work goes tot he content, not to the container.

SFUK: If you could have any camera in the world, which would you choose and why?

SR: The ideas and the unpredictable are the camera.

SFUK: Do you have any plans for your next project?

SR: Yes, after a project about ISIS visual comunication and Foibe, deep natural caves along the Italian, Slovenian and Croatian borders used for political killings. I would like to work on a big airplane destroyed and fallen in the Mediterranean sea. My camera will be... my smartphone. I'm very curious about this new adventure.