Stop Extra Ordinary Visions

What do you see when you return to the city where you were born, walking through the alleys of the center, still frozen in time, visiting the museums, the theater, the churches, the villas, the parks, and letting yourself be overwhelmed by the true beauty only to rediscover it in the people who live there? I was born in Fermo, and I've seen many epiphanies of places I thought I knew, but which I rediscovered thanks to the Fermo Visioni Extra Ordinarie project (2016-2020). I have recounted with images what I see of this city, a visionary journey that begins underground with the Great Roman Cisterns, ascends to the surface as if tracing an imaginary vertical line connecting earth to sky, and in the middle of this journey I portray places of great charm with the people who are their soul. The journey concludes with a photo of me crouched on a rooftop, barely visible, followed by a flight of birds. My language is introspective, and the sources I draw from are historical and iconographic.
I have combined my shots with period photographs preserved in the splendid Romolo Spezioli Library, as well as those found in books and the Vitali Counts' family archives. My personal creative and historical reality merge to create an intense visionary journey: what once was comes to life again in the here and now of a real and imaginary elsewhere set in my time.
The approach is similar to that of a director: composition, scenes constructed like cinematic frames, and the extraordinary mixing with the ordinary characterize the project and, in general, my way of working with images.
Initially, I studied the history of Fermo and selected archive photos. Then I chose the locations where the story would be set, I defined all the photos with sketches and notes, and finally I involved more than a hundred Fermo residents, most of whom were strangers but later became familiar.
The macrocosm of the city merges with the memories of my microcosm, from this stage, or open-air museum that is
Stop, I'll stage the vision.
I only photographed what I saw. As always.

Monia Marchionni

Monia Marchionni (Fermo, 1981) is an award-winning artist specializing in creative, authorial, and fine art photography. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 2005, and from the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at the University of Bologna in 2008, specializing in History of Contemporary Art. After a period dedicated to installation, she chose to continue her self-taught study of photography, a medium that allows her to create sets and realize her visions. She explores the profound relationships between subject and environment; her gaze is authorial, her approach is that of stage photography.
The turning point for the author came in 2014 during a trip to Chile with her husband: she was struck by the Atacama Desert and the surreal, silent atmosphere of its vast, highly diverse landscapes. She brought with her a Nikon camera she had received as a gift, a white dress, and a book by Isabelle Allende, and returned with her daughter and her first photographic series, Never Again the Fog in the Desert, which received a Nominee at the FAPA Awards in London in 2017 and an Honorable Mention at the IPA-Lucie Awards.
of 2018.
From 2016 to 2020 he dedicated himself to the Fermo Visioni Extra Ordinarie project, several shots won international awards, including:
IPA-Lucie Awards, Artrooms Fair in London, Arte Laguna Prize. In 2019, he won the Life Framer Award in London with a shot from the series "The Gardens from the Sky," the same award for which he won the Independent Photographer Award in 2021.
2020 was a year of confirmation: the project Primo Amore, dedicated to his hometown of Porto San Giorgio, won the Ghergo Giovane Talento Award, third place at the FAPA - Fine Art Photography Award, and was a finalist for the Marco Pesaresi Award, with SkyTG24, Photolux Magazine, and Rolling Stone also dedicating an in-depth feature. Also in 2020, he won an Honorable Mention at the SIPA - Siena International Photography Awards and, following a portfolio review at the IMP Festival - International Month of Photojournalism, was included in the "Italian Collection - Nuovi Talenti della Fotografia" curated by Italy Photo Award. During the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he created the domestic project I Giorni Necessari, published by TG Studio ApertoMAG and by the most important photography magazines and agencies: Contrasto, Perimetro, Photo Vogue, EyesOpen, and Il Fotografo Magazine. The project was a finalist in the "Isolation" contest of the Lucie Foundation of Los Angeles and published in the international magazine Musée Magazine.
Monia has exhibited in Italy and Europe, at art fairs and festivals, in group and solo shows; she works on personal and commercial creative projects.