Sofia Podestà was born in Rome in 1991 and holds a degree in Art History with a specialisation in  the work of Italian photographers Luigi Ghirri and Guido Guidi. After graduating, Podestà focused on her own passion for taking photographs, soon winning confirmation of her potential by being named one of the best twelve Italian creative talents under 30 in the field of photography in the so-called Giovani Creativi (Young Creatives) award, a prize which resulted in her participation in a 2019 exhibition at Rome's Palazzo Massimo museum. In 2021, she was selected to take part in the international photography show ImageNation in Paris, and this year she was picked to photograph overlooked national heritage sites in southern Italy by a section of the Italian Cultural Heritage Ministry.

 

Travelling widely, Podestà is drawn to remote, isolated places seemingly untouched by mankind. The emphasis on dramatic, sweeping landscapes and startling colours turns her powerful images into portals to another world, creating moments of heightened contemplation for her audience. Recently, however, Podestà has begun exploring a more ‘intimate’ side of landscape photography, waiving horizons and skylines and instead using light, illusion and geometry to add a meditative element to close-up images, each of which becomes a delicate symbol of a more forceful power just outside the picture.