Updated Vogue Column Feature Article Published with Photographer Niko Giovanni Coniglio

The antithesis between what is private and what is public in photography today has been lost. Metaphorically, whether discussing walls or fences, they do not seem to be so high, they’re easier to conquer, to ascend. History dictates, in the essence of literature, that privacy itself is impotent at best and at worst, apocryphal. And this is a good thing; we want photography to lead the way, to be the greatest representation of reality and the truth.

Tuscany-based photographer Niko Giovanni Coniglio (1987) has developed a portraiture oeuvre rooted in his quest to establish and deepen his relationship with his mother. His latest series of work, ”Daniela, Portrait of my Mother” includes photographs of her naked body and looks to the complexity of their relationship.  This series shows Coniglio’s mother over a long period of time, and it is one of continuity, he describes it as a ‘life project’.

Coniglio’s mother’s sensuality is portrayed but not with an emphasis on her sexuality, unlike well-known photographer Leigh Ladare, who photographed his mother with a tenacious insistence on her sexuality and perhaps, it could be argued, in pornographic scenes. Coniglio’s work goes beyond the glaringly obvious; it is intense, moving and highly emotionally charged. In the context of privacy, this series crosses some boundaries, but should we be so naive as to only translate the core image?

‘Daniela, Portrait of my Mother’ is a series that dispels the myths, mixing sensuality and family and helps us as well as Coniglio and his mother to understand the sensitivities of a brave woman, faced with crushingly difficult decisions, having placed Coniglio into foster care as a young boy and their shared adulthood and deepening relationship.

Coniglio’s portraiture is honest, demonstrating virtue, vulnerability and transition; he leaves no room for evasion. Coniglio’s photographs explore the full spectrum of emotional responses to a given situation. This is not to say that Coniglio’s work panders to glib accessibility, he asks us to pay attention, to enquire, and to speculate subtleties and nuances, activities that are becoming more and more rarefied in our everyday lives.  Coniglio’s photographs are both impulsive and calculated, keenly balanced between visceral fascination and cerebral purpose. The more we look at them, the more mesmerised we become.

When we view the image of Coniglio’s mother on her bed, naked, we feel the full emotional force. It embodies time and the contingency of the act of exchange between Coniglio and his mother, deepens a revelation deep within him. “I wanted to give the idea of a lonely person, that couldn’t sleep, stressed and anxious. This is the situation of my mother in certain periods of her life”, he explained.

Simultaneously experienced, Coniglio portraiture captures contradictory emotions, fear, joy, relief; he reflects the vulnerability and self-awareness in consummate circumstances.  “The difficulties I encountered with my mother were mostly on an emotional and relational level. Memories, misunderstandings, unspoken words and fears get in the way.  I mean, it is about human relations and human relations are tricky. Taking pictures is relatively easy, human relationships are difficult”, he said.

The distinctive feature of Coniglio’s tableaux observed through his lens reignites our push/pull effect and forces our cognitive skills to rationalise, or resolve, this conflict. This is a series so sophisticatedly collaged with conceptual narratives that they seamlessly merge into one another. These powerful portraits go far beyond mere documentation to tell and visually interpret stories of love and sorrow in a completely new and non-linear way. His work is voyeuristic and morally complex.

Formally trained, Coniglio graduated with honours from Univerità degli studi di Siena, with a bachelor in Media Studies in 2009. In October of the same year he moved to Milan, where he started his studies in photography. Two years later he graduated from Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, with a Masters Degree in Photography.

Coniglio’s training consisted of working with digital cameras but he desperately longed to shoot analogue, so for two years he did just that, with a 35mm Pentax and with a Hasselblad 500c. Some photographers say that shooting with film gives a clear advantage over digital in natural lighting. Film excels with natural light but of course the advantages of shooting with digital in cost terms, can never be underestimated. Coniglio satisfied his analogue appetite and now prefers to use his digital Canon 5D Mark III and Hasselblad H5D-40.

Coniglio’s first employment was for Siena Jazz Foundation, a non-profit cultural institution, offering him the opportunity to shoot many of the greatest jazz musicians in the world. In 2012 he started freelancing for Jazzit Magazine and music labels like Cam Jazz and ABeat records. One of the most significant steps in his career (so far) was to meet Giovanni Caccamo, who introduced him to many people in the Italian music scene, this led to collaborations with Sony Music, Sugar Music and Picicca Records, further fuelling his work and in 2016 he started collaborating with Montblanc Italia and Rizzoli libri.

Coniglio’s work is both elegiac and nostalgic, however it is also meditative and devout. His work addresses both the past and present purposely, but without saccharine sentimentality.

“A photograph is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you, the less you know.” – Diane Arbus