Tommaso Moni is an Italian photographer who combines conceptual, street, nature, and portrait photography, including self-portraiture, to depict inner journeys, using various techniques to accentuate the relationship between body and spirit.
In his new series, titled ‘EX ME,’ Moni focuses on the psychological and emotional intricacies that can be traced within the elemental realm. Through a collection of concept-oriented works, he explores pain and its unavoidable return to a default state through rebirth, regeneration, and rising from one’s own ashes, like a phoenix. “Wounds that emerge from body and soul, asking to be looked at, welcomed, and touched in their sacredness,” the photographer explains. “From a deep laceration begins the inner journey of the human being, laid bare before his wildest and most primitive nature.”
The core of the series lies in the comparison drawn between nature’s continuous state of regeneration and the human condition when exposed to external factors that contribute to inner decay. Moni believes that the most profound inner journeys often stem from intense pain. He states, “There are resources from which man draws, one of which is the uncontrollable energy of the natural environment, so powerful and majestic that it guides the path of rebirth and metamorphosis.”
Through a connection with nature and the elements, Moni explores the theme of attachment. The photographer sets out in search of himself through symbols of decay and renewal. By means of organic, earthly imagery, he tries to restore the severed bonds that humanity once shared with the natural world. There is a certain longing to blur the borders between conscious being and unconscious belonging.
Moni describes the visuals as “places suspended between reality and dreams, making visible the invisible that dwells within each of us.” Through light and darkness, shadow and exposure, distortion and focus, he aims at the precise point of junction where mental states become tangible and biological and can be expelled, dissected, burnt, and used as a fertilizing ash for a new life. The artist admits that such effort may be in vain and “the only thing we can do is to ask nature and its mystery to give us back what we are.”
Read our “Roots” issue in full
The new theme, born as usual from what the submitted works held in common, is “ROOTS.” Within its pages, we present the artworks, creativity, and inspiration of 60 visual artists and writers from 21 countries around the world. Their diverse voices come together around a shared exploration of the return to where one belongs, the invisible threads of tradition that shape identity, and the ongoing reconnection with nature, others, and oneself.
We’re a team of writers using our craft to spotlight art in its most honest form. RAWGUE. started as a bi-monthly editorial experiment where each issue’s theme is dictated by the submitted work, thus removing editorial bias from the equation and preserving a more raw approach. We focus on all forms of poetry: written, photographed, painted, drawn, and filmed.
