Camilla catrambone biography

The Florence-based artist creates photographs of her relatives using personal belongings, ranging from leather satchels and handkerchiefs to blocks of cheese.
Catrambone grew up close to her family.
Camilla Catrambone offers a more effusive way of documenting her family, through this series of still life photographs.

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Photographer Camilla Catrambone Documents Family Members Through Their Possessions

Technically, your possessions should not be what define you, but it seems inevitable that they be a reflection of your character. Based on this notion, photographer Camilla Catrambone has created individual portraits of her family members, except that the images do not feature people at all (but instead depict their personal belongings). Even without peeking at the captions, the images speak for themselves as they represent Grandma Ilva and Grandpa Mario by showing what they own, do, and love.

While some of the shots signal traditional gender roles in a family, other items present unique interests and personal memories. Living in a materialistic world focused on property and ownership, the portraits lead us to question the distinction between what shapes our identity and possessions.

[via PetaPixel]

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Portraits of my family

These portraits aim to represent my family's members trough the objects they've owned.

#grandma Ilva. Mario's wife.

#grandpa Mario. Ilva's husband.

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Is it possible to take a portrait of an individual without him or her present in the frame? Florence, Italy-based editorial and portrait photographer Camilla Catrambone is testing out this concept with her project, “Family Portraits,” in which she aims to portray the people she’s grown up with using only the objects they possess. “I think somehow every person is represented by their personal objects,” Catrambone says. “The objects they choose, the ones they are attached to and the way they use them tell you a story.”

In a way, objects can be more vivid storytellers than people; just by looking at them, they have the power to transport you back to a certain time and place, conjuring up precise memories of how something felt, smelled, tasted and even its significance. Catrambone became fascinated by the way certain objects could trigger childhood memories of her family members. It began with the way some of her grandparents’ possessions, however ordinary or unusual, seemed to somehow thrum with life and