Kicca Tommasi
Name: Kicca Tommasi
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Favourite type of photography: Self Portraits and Fine Art Portraiture
Location: Rome, Italy and Buenos Aires, Argentina
Website: www.kiccatommasiphotography.com
Instagram: @kiccatommasi
How did you get into photography?
I was given my first camera at age 15 and I spent entire afternoons shooting my girlfriends.
Do you have any photographic qualifications or accolades?
BA from University of Westminster, London UK.
What's the first photograph you remember seeing or shooting?
A portrait of my father with his Nikon, I was age 12 and I asked him if I could photograph him.
What do you love about photography?
Being able to capture something as ephemeral as light
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What do you wish you'd learned about photography earlier?
That it demands absolute presence, being here and now at a very physical level. If you are not capable of that presence, the shoot will not work, it will never have that magic special plus.
Where is your favourite place for photography?
I adore the interiors of old traditional homes in Buenos Aires: the furniture, colours and the way the light falls is always so inspirational and I keep finding new locations every time I go.
Do you have a favourite photographic technique?
I always underexpose my images, usually by -1EV and sometimes even -2EV.
Can you briefly outline your approach to image processing?
I shoot most of my work having in mind already the digital post processing I'll apply. Often, I end up with quite dark raw files ( I love chiaroscuro lighting) so I develop the different parts of the frame separetly and then combine them in Photoshop.
What's your favourite lens?
Planar 1.4/85 with Carl Zeiss glass - it's a 70s lens that belonged to my father and I inherited. I mount it on an adaptor and it works beautifully on my Canon camera.
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Do you have a favourite accessory?
My Photoolex remote trigger, it’s perfect for self-portraits and works over up to 100m.
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Have you found the perfect camera bag yet?
Nope and I'm beginning to suspect it's a mythical creature...
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Which photographers have influenced or inspired you, and how or why?
Francesca Woodman and Cindy Sherman for their haunting and poignant self-portraits, Gregory Crewdson for his cinematic images always filled with expectations and mistery. Nan Goldin and Letizia Battaglia for their raw powerful portraits of under represented communities
Please recommend 2 or 3 female photographers to follow on Instagram.
Nadia Bautista @misscomplejo, Danae Charalabidou @danaecharalabidou and Anna Karvounari @ana.rchisme
Is there a camera, lens or accessory that you don't have yet but you'd like to buy at some point?
Canon EOS R5, I'd like to go mirrorless soon because it will make my camera bag much lighter.
Is there a genre of photography that you love but that you haven't tried yet?
Still life. I'd love to do a series Caravaggio-style
What's your proudest photographic moment?
The first time I saw my photos printed in a magazine. I still remember the excitement I felt while going through the pages.
If you could have one superpower that could help you with photography, what would it be?
To never get tired, no matter how many hours I have been at it!
Your favourite baked goods are?
Straight out-of-the-oven Pizza Bianca, the way we do it in Roma. Crunchy and light, it's the thing I missed the most when I lived abroad...
Tell us a little about yourself.
I grew up in Rome, in a home where conservative Catholicism and liberal humanism coexisted (un)happily. This extremely schizophrenic upbringing is the fertile humus for my artistic exploration: eternally caught between the sacred and the profane – the glorification of suffering, the obsession with the female virginal figure and the flesh and blood of the human body – I can't ever seem to escape from the Baroque religious imagery that was so present in my childhood visual landscape.
Through self-portraiture, I engage in a deeply personal yet universal dialogue about the human condition, where the body itself becomes a conduit for navigating complex emotional landscapes.
This act of embodiment serves as a tool for both personal reconciliation and artistic expression, confronting grief, resilience, and the act of overcoming with a profound sense of presence.
