23/05/14
Portfolio: Fernanda Liberti
It was a discussion about her future that made her choose photography. Fernanda Liberti, then aged 14, remembers her mother telling her to figure out whatever made her happiest in life, something that would “make her wake up every day and be happy that she was going to work.”
Currently undertaking a Foundation course at the London College of Communication, Liberti will start her BA in Photography in September, having arrived from her native Rio de Janeiro just last year, aged 19.
It was at her international school in Rio that she believes she broadened her perception, citing the multi-cultural environment, which she says has inspired a lot of her art.
Working mostly with analogue – 35mm and polaroid – Liberti says she loves the anticipation, the uncertainty and the ‘magic’ of using film. Her favourite subject to photograph is her friends, capturing spontaneity and real moments and feelings. The two photographs, Wonderful World (2014), for example, arose from a day spent in Richmond Park with a close friend from Brazil, walking, talking, drinking wine and singing the Louis Armstrong song. Liberti describes it as ‘one the best days of the year so far’. Similarly, the girl in 505 (2012) is Liberti’s ex-girlfriend. She has dozens of rolls of film taken over the course of their relationship. ‘It was a way to capture our time together, our experiences,’ she explains.
Fascinated by the study of gender and identity, Liberti recently helped her friends Harun Güler and Larissa De Filippo with their short movie All Eyes on Me – Trans Identity Through Photography (which was selected for BFI Flare). She is currently focusing on a project about a group called Fuck For Forest, an erotic, non-profit organisation, creating porn to save the ecosystem. Although her work is mostly photographic, Liberti also makes collages – like Untitled (2012) – paintings and drawings. Her parting comment finds her in a philosophical mood. “I believe photography is an art, but that doesn’t necessarily make every photographer an artist, or every artist a photographer.”
http://fernandaliberti.tumblr.com
To see this full portfolio, please buy the June 2014 issue of DIVA magazine