Camilla Schmitt is an Italian artist born in Rome in 1992 and raised there. At the age of 21 she felt the necessity to settle down by the sea, along the coast of Ligure, where she currently lives and works as artist, photographer, content creator and brand manager.
She started taking photos as a child, naturally.
Curious, brave, she let the colourful world caress her eyes.
Growing up, the necessity of exploration lead her to less ordinary elements, touching unusual details.
The consciousness of maturity refined her taste; the inspiration came from social contrasts, sinister sceneries, the harmony of the lines and the vibrant colours, as well as the ubiquitous sense of disquiet.
Without pianification she let the honesty of the instinct build her photographic vision of reality.
She doesn’t have an academic formation in photography, she’s always been a self-taught artist.
In the last years she worked and experimented with instant, analog and digital photography, with absolute freedom.
She intentionally damages the negatives and the rolls to give life to new psychedelic sceneries: lands of fire, acid and ice.
She couldn't live without her beloved old companion: a refurbished Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera from the 70’s; for her the act of developing the film in the exact place where the photo has been taken has a deep meaning, almost as much as a performance act.
She also takes apart the instant film to make emulsion lifts on different kind of rough papers (her favorite is the Indian hand made cotton rag paper).
She melts the emulsions of the surface of a Polaroid film to work on its negative.
Through her photography, she explores the infinite possibilities of this art, creating collages, overlaps, levels and material forms.
Speaking about her work she says:
“What happens in my photography is the universe of a thrill.
Ineffable illimitate, splinter of light that runs across time.
Ancestral, vibrant.
There, inside that thrill, vertiginous is where sleep and wakefulness touch each other.”
L’universo di un fremito.
Ciò che accade nella mia fotografia è l’universo di un fremito.
Illimitato ineffabile, scheggia di luce che percorre il tempo.
Ancestrale, vibrante.
Ecco, in quel fremito, vertiginosamente
- lo vedi? -
si accarezzano il sogno e la veglia.