ARTIST STATEMENT

SIMONE BARTESAGHI

My work is driven by an interest in the human condition at moments when it briefly escapes control.

At its core, my photography is rooted in Pinprick: a street-based practice focused on fleeting, unguarded instants—small fractures in the surface of daily life where something genuine surfaces and disappears almost immediately. These images capture what was never meant to last, yet quietly reveals humanity.

I am not interested in performance or explanation. I photograph people between states: between thoughts and actions, between public presence and private emotion, between who they are and who they are about to become again. Gesture, posture, hesitation, and gaze matter more to me than narrative completeness.

Alongside street work, I also engage in portraiture—not as a separate discipline, but as a continuation of the same inquiry. Whether encountered in passing or photographed with intent, the subject remains the same: the tension between what is shown and what cannot be fully articulated. Even in more deliberate portraits, I seek the moment when composure loosens and something unguarded emerges.

Across all my work—street scenes, portraits, and images with subtle or overt social undertones—I am drawn to quiet revelations rather than statements. I am less concerned with spectacle than with presence. The photograph, for me, is not an explanation but a trace: evidence of a brief encounter with the human soul before it closes again.