Luca Iovino is an Italian photographer and artist based in Florence. The Name We Hold won the call #RaccontoPlurale with the Foundation for Modern and Contemporary Art CRT and was shortlisted for Fiebre Dummy Award 2023, Kassel Dummy Award 2023 and BUP Book Award 2023. His work primarily explores the relationship between space and the human being, aiming to establish connections between elements to develop an atlas that neither inscribes structure nor defines borders, but instead seeks to break them open, challenge our certainties, and create a space for new explorations. Iovino has exhibited in Italy, Germany, France and South Korea.
author
Luciana Trost
,
Ale Mottesi
Date
April 16, 2026
Art
Experimental
Animation
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What is photography to you?
luca Iovino
I have always considered photography as a means of telling reality, but not in its documentary key, like a way to describe our version of reality.
I have always loved photography's ability to lie, distort reality to tell of the intimate aspects of our lives and also open the viewer's gaze to new visions and aspects, in my bond with photography I have always sought this, shed new light on people's lives.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
L.I.
It's hard to me to describe my work, the thing that I understood in the making of “The name we hold” is that I really love to shoot the interiors of the house, trying to find an intimate connection between us and the objects we own and live our home.
It's like a psicology of the inhabit, where the objects we keep are often the meeting between who we are and what we choose, between us and our space. The outside and the inside. So I would describe my work as a constant search for the border, the perimeter in an attempt to cross it and explore a new space.
At what point in your life did you first get into photography?
L.I.
I came across the photograph quite early, my mother loved to shoot photography and I was very fascinating when she decided to stop everything to take a photo, during the teenage years I started to shoot, but of those years I was left the slowness of those gesture, I think there's no more absolute form of concentration than that of creating images.
What motivates you when you photograph, when you direct your gaze toward a particular subject?
L.I.
I'm very fascinated by the “off screen”, imagine what might be there after my capability of seeing, when I decide to take a photograph I always try to insert a context that can create a question for the viewer, as if he had to paraphrase the image and find something personal in what I shooted.
"I have always considered photography as a means of telling reality,(...) like a way to describe our version of reality."
Do you use any particular photographic technique?
L.I.
No, but during the procession of “The name we hold” I decided to hang the objects using nylon strings, then erasing it using photoshop. I really loved it. Other than that I'm an old school photographer, I love to photograph using slow times, even on my part, taking all the time I need even just to take a photo.
WHO ARE YOUR ARTISTIC INFLUENCES?
L.I.
I have many references, but the photographer that really changed my idea of photographing is Robert Frank, with his “In-between moment”. He taught me the ability of photography to not be perfect, the will to show a reality that is tangible and mysterious at the same time.
"I love to photograph using slow times, even on my part, taking all the time I need even just to take a photo."
Do you have any strategy when starting a new series or photographic essay?
L.I.
When I decided to start a new series the first thing I do is to read. I search books, graphic novels, also pictorial references that could help me to develope and search deep down in my ideas, once I found the key word I can use my eyes.
OUTSIDE OF ART, WHAT HOBBIES OR ACTIVITIES DO YOU ENJOY?
L.I.
I love to draw, but I'm not really good at it!
Any plans for this year? Are you currently working on any projects?
L.I.
started a new series but it's a very complex subjects for me, because it takes time to
analyzed some aspect of my past life so for the moment I'm studying.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into photography or is just starting out?
L.I.
My advice is always to study and never stop seeing everything. This is the only way for me to find the personal and jealous way to express our way of seeing all the worlds we can see.
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