Francesco Carvelli
Visual Anthropologist, Photographer and Cultural Strategist
Long-form visual research on motherhood, memory and inland territories between Basilicata and the UK.
Featured Projects
Long-term visual anthropology projects on motherhood, memory and territories
Each project is a visual room: a story unfolding across time and places.
Right now, Mothers of Marmo Platano is on show in Matera (Open Space APT, 10 November – 10 December 2025), inviting visitors into the intimate bedrooms of Lucanian mothers. This space is a living gallery where culture, identity and memory resonate in silence.
Mothers of Marmo Platano | 2023–ongoing
Bedroom Stories of Motherhood
Earlier Work | 1988–1999
Evolving Artistic Styles
Let’s talk about your project
Let’s explore how we can work together around culture, memory and territory.
I collaborate with institutions, municipalities and communities on exhibitions, visual research and educational projects.
Visual Anthropology, Memory and Intimate Spaces
Practice & approach
Images are not just aesthetic objects; they are built situations where stories and relationships reveal themselves. My work moves between visual art and anthropology, focusing on how people inhabit places, bedrooms, costumes and landscapes.
Many of my long-term projects are rooted in Basilicata – in the bedrooms of Lucanian mothers, in festive costumes, in small communities that carry complex histories. From Mothers of Marmo Platano to new work with shepherds and traditional dress, I use the camera to listen to how people negotiate identity, care and belonging.
Through these visual narratives, I try to create spaces for reflection – for those who live in these territories and for those who study them. The images, texts and exhibitions are meant to stay useful over time, as part of a living archive of memory, not just as a temporary artistic gesture.