Born in Rome in 1984, Valerio Polici starts a path in photography as self-taught and then follows specialization courses between Rome, Padua, Paris, Riga. In 2015 he is selected for the Laboratorio Irregolare of Antonio Biasiucci in Naples.
He first approached photojournalism by publishing in important national and foreign newspapers (Washington Post, Newsweek, British Journal Of Photography, L’Espresso), and then explored a more intimate dimension, in which photography becomes an essential tool for inner exploration.
His first book, Ergo Sum, was presented at Paris Photo in 2016, made in collaboration with Polish artist Rafal Milach and designer Ania Nalecka and published by Dienacht.
His photos, have won awards (Gomma Grant 2019, Inside Art Special Prize 2019, Hasselblad Grand Prize 2018, Max Spreafico Prize 2019 among others), have been acquired in various public and private collections, have been exhibited in Museums and Galleries, including: La Biennale di Architettura, MACRO, MADRE, Villa Pignatelli, Ex-Mattatoio, La Galleria del Cembalo, S.S.M.A.V.E. Museo Arcos, FIAF, Biennale De La Photographie D’Aubagne, various festivals between Italy, Turkey, Germany and Portugal. His project Interno is represented by the Studio Faganel Gallery with which he is working on his second book. He teaches at NABA in Rome.
About Interno – words by Valerio Polici:
Interno is an exercise of imagination on the house as a psychic artifact, on the perturbing, on the phantasmagoric. Human beings have always protected themselves against the terror of infinite space by constructing buildings. These spaces interest me not only as intimate places in which to seek shelter from the unknown, but also as amniotic environments that materialize one’s obsessions.
Room after room, the neurotic movement of a gaze generates a dance of bodies and objects, the fabric of things is made and unmade continuously.
The eye as an opening towards the abyss of the unknown, peeks over the threshold of another world.
