Guia
Besana

Guia Besana

biography

Italian photographer, member of Agence VU’ since 2020, lives and works between Paris (France) and Barcelona (Spain).

After studying communication at the European School of Design in Turin (Italy), Guia Besana devotes herself to photography since 1994, settles in Paris and collaborates with various magazines for which she produces throughout the world (Vietnam, Cuba, Morocco, Turkey, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia, Swaziland, Mauritania) reports mainly related to social or identity issues concerning women.

Initially documentary, her photography takes on a more reflective dimension. “When I started photography, I was driven by far away stories. Getting away from my home sort of cleaned my mind and all I saw seemed new. With time I realized that even going far, the pictures said a lot about my inner views and therefore I started to observe things I know more about, the world that surrounds me every day”. Guia Besana then developed a photographic writing whose principle of “fiction (which) reveals a truth that reality obscures” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). Each element of the staging – set, light, pose – plays the emphasis role that allows the spectator to identify, feel or reflect.

Faithful to her commitment to issues relating to identity and/or the status of women, her personal projects address the themes of motherhood (“Baby Blues”), the reception of female archetypes by women themselves (“Under Pressure”, “Strangely Familiar”) or by little girls (“The Ladybug Series”). It is also through the staging of female figures that she questions the environmental issue (“Poison”) or the contemporary notion of over-control (“Carry on”). In addition to her personal works, Guia Besana puts her unique vision and her mastery of techniques to work on assignments for companies (EDF, Elior, BNP, etc.) and for the press, for which she notably produces portraits of artists and personalities.

Regularly exhibited throughout the world, her work has been awarded prestigious prizes such as the Julia Margaret Cameron Award or the Amilcare Ponchielli Award and published in the international press (BLINK, CNN photo blog, The New York Times, Huffington Post, Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, Le Monde, Courrier International, D di Repubblica, Esquire…).

Series

A priestess under the Arctic Circle, 2022

Series | It is not every day that people get to see a priestess strap on a rifle after celebrating mass. Nevertheless, this does not come as a surprise for the people of Longyearbyen the northernmost inhabited center in the world, in the Svalbard archipelago.

Strangely Familiar, 2020

Serie | The series “Strangely Familiar“ stages a tale of Freudian Uncanny: the opposition of the German words heimlich and unheimlich (familiar; unfamiliar) giving life to an eerie state of conflict.

Carry On, 2019

Serie | Carry-On is a new body of staged work on fear of flying.

Nannies of Norland College, 2019

Serie | Norland nannies have become a global status symbol of the wealthy – the export of a single British school in Bath. The students are dressed in modestly updated uniforms from the one donned by their 1892 counterparts, but the people who wear them are considerably different.

A rummage of flowers, 2018

Serie | Bringing together flowers and women, Guia Besana brought her feelings to life in a project titled A Rummage of Flowers.

Poison, 2016

Serie | In the last 35 years biodiversity has declined by more than a quarter due to population growth and our consumption. Overexploitation is currently unsustainable and habitat destruction is causing decrease in species.

Under Pressure, 2014

Serie | “Under Pressure” is the portrait of this intimate fragility. It illustrates how we, as women of our time, continue running and tripping over in an attempt to deliver something more emancipated for our daughters and for the future generations.

Baby Blues, 2012

Serie | Subjects dealing with women identity have always drawn my attention. Treating themes, I relate to make it possible for me to go unintentionally in depth.

The Ladybug, 2009

Serie | The Ladybug Series is an ongoing photo project and was borne from the desire to pay tribute to my own experience of growing up. I was inspired by the birth of my little daughter Sofia.

A priestess under the Arctic Circle, 2022

Series | It is not every day that people get to see a priestess strap on a rifle after celebrating mass. Nevertheless, this does not come as a surprise for the people of Longyearbyen the northernmost inhabited center in the world, in the Svalbard archipelago.

Strangely Familiar, 2020

Serie | The series “Strangely Familiar“ stages a tale of Freudian Uncanny: the opposition of the German words heimlich and unheimlich (familiar; unfamiliar) giving life to an eerie state of conflict.

Carry On, 2019

Serie | Carry-On is a new body of staged work on fear of flying.

Nannies of Norland College, 2019

Serie | Norland nannies have become a global status symbol of the wealthy – the export of a single British school in Bath. The students are dressed in modestly updated uniforms from the one donned by their 1892 counterparts, but the people who wear them are considerably different.

A rummage of flowers, 2018

Serie | Bringing together flowers and women, Guia Besana brought her feelings to life in a project titled A Rummage of Flowers.

Poison, 2016

Serie | In the last 35 years biodiversity has declined by more than a quarter due to population growth and our consumption. Overexploitation is currently unsustainable and habitat destruction is causing decrease in species.

Under Pressure, 2014

Serie | “Under Pressure” is the portrait of this intimate fragility. It illustrates how we, as women of our time, continue running and tripping over in an attempt to deliver something more emancipated for our daughters and for the future generations.

Baby Blues, 2012

Serie | Subjects dealing with women identity have always drawn my attention. Treating themes, I relate to make it possible for me to go unintentionally in depth.

The Ladybug, 2009

Serie | The Ladybug Series is an ongoing photo project and was borne from the desire to pay tribute to my own experience of growing up. I was inspired by the birth of my little daughter Sofia.

A priestess under the Arctic Circle, 2022

Series | It is not every day that people get to see a priestess strap on a rifle after celebrating mass. Nevertheless, this does not come as a surprise for the people of Longyearbyen the northernmost inhabited center in the world, in the Svalbard archipelago.

Strangely Familiar, 2020

Serie | The series “Strangely Familiar“ stages a tale of Freudian Uncanny: the opposition of the German words heimlich and unheimlich (familiar; unfamiliar) giving life to an eerie state of conflict.

Carry On, 2019

Serie | Carry-On is a new body of staged work on fear of flying.

Nannies of Norland College, 2019

Serie | Norland nannies have become a global status symbol of the wealthy – the export of a single British school in Bath. The students are dressed in modestly updated uniforms from the one donned by their 1892 counterparts, but the people who wear them are considerably different.

A rummage of flowers, 2018

Serie | Bringing together flowers and women, Guia Besana brought her feelings to life in a project titled A Rummage of Flowers.

Poison, 2016

Serie | In the last 35 years biodiversity has declined by more than a quarter due to population growth and our consumption. Overexploitation is currently unsustainable and habitat destruction is causing decrease in species.

Under Pressure, 2014

Serie | “Under Pressure” is the portrait of this intimate fragility. It illustrates how we, as women of our time, continue running and tripping over in an attempt to deliver something more emancipated for our daughters and for the future generations.

Baby Blues, 2012

Serie | Subjects dealing with women identity have always drawn my attention. Treating themes, I relate to make it possible for me to go unintentionally in depth.

The Ladybug, 2009

Serie | The Ladybug Series is an ongoing photo project and was borne from the desire to pay tribute to my own experience of growing up. I was inspired by the birth of my little daughter Sofia.

Video

Carry On, 2018

Awards

Julia Margaret Cameron Award (USA)

For her series “Carry On”

2019

Prix AIAP Photography 35 (USA)

For her series “Carry On”

2019

Amilcare Ponchielli Grin Award (Italy)

For her series “Baby Blues”

2012