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Francesco Carvelli

I work where memory, territory and intimate human stories meet

My practice combines visual anthropology, long-form documentary photography and cultural strategy. I work across inland territories in Southern Italy and the UK, exploring how communities negotiate identity through everyday gestures, domestic spaces and intergenerational memory.

In recent years my research has focused on the symbolic power of bedrooms, matrilineal transmission, rural resilience and the emotional geographies of small towns in the Marmo Platano area of Basilicata. This approach has led to Mothers of Marmo Platano, an ongoing multi-year photo-ethnographic project developed with eleven mothers across seven mountain towns. The work blends portraits, field recordings, dialect, archival traces and collaborative storytelling.

My visual language is slow, attentive and relational. I treat the camera as a listening device, a way of entering intimate spaces with respect, clarity and care.

Contact Me
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Working with territories, institutions and cultural partners

Alongside my artistic work I collaborate with municipalities, cultural organisations, universities and regional bodies to design narrative-centred cultural projects. Through RADICÆ, my consultancy dedicated to territorial identities and community storytelling, I support partners in:

– developing visual research and participatory methodologies
– designing exhibitions, public programmes and cultural strategies
– reactivating local heritage, archives and community memory
– creating long-term projects rooted in place

My work has involved collaborations with local councils, cultural associations, schools, libraries and independent institutions in both Italy and the UK.

Research interests

– Visual anthropology and ethnographic photography
– Motherhood, domesticity and matrilineal memory
– Inland territories, depopulation and rural imaginaries
– Community archives and oral histories
– Rituals, festive costumes and embodied heritage
– Cross-cultural identities and diasporic narratives

These fields inform not only my artistic production but also the cultural strategies I design for organisations working with heritage, communities and territorial development.

Background

I began photographing at fourteen, long before I had the words to describe what I was observing. That early, instinctive practice stayed with me and eventually led to formal studies in visual anthropology at the University of Naples, where I developed research on images, memory and everyday life. Those academic years shaped my understanding of photography not simply as representation, but as relationship and encounter.

After graduating, I worked within the cultural field in Southern Italy, including a period with the Potenza Film Festival, gaining direct experience in the organisation of events, screenings and community-based cultural programmes. These early roles taught me how artistic work circulates, how audiences respond and how stories can be built collectively.

In the following years I lived between Italy and the UK, working in the independent arts sector as a consultant and later as Managing Director of an artist-run gallery. Parallel to this, I travelled widely across Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and the United States. These journeys were not commissions but forms of personal observation: quiet, long-term encounters with people and landscapes that expanded my visual and human vocabulary.

Over time, my practice began to converge: the photographic instinct of my youth, the anthropological training of my university years, the organisational and strategic experience gained through cultural work, and a deepening interest in territories and communities. Returning to Basilicata allowed me to bring these threads together and to focus on what has become the core of my work: intimate, long-form visual research rooted in place, memory and relational ethics.

Selected Projects

Mothers of Marmo Platano | 2023 – ongoing
Photo-ethnographic project documenting eleven mothers across seven mountain towns through bedroom portraits and audio testimonies. Exploring how intimate domestic spaces transmit matrilineal knowledge and cultural memory across generations.

Exhibitions: Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Stuttgart (2024) | Biblioteca Nazionale, Potenza (2025) | Galleria Civica, Baragiano (2025) | Open Space APT, Matera (2025)
Recognition: Premio Basileus 2025 (Culture Category)
In production: Book/Catalogue and Documentary film (60 min)

Famm nu Cunt | 2025 – ongoing
Participatory format for collecting and transmitting collective memory in Baragiano. Workshops with schools, oral history collection, digital archive creation, and multimedia storytelling.

Partner: Comune di Baragiano

Suspicions, Perspectives & Edges | 2005 – 2015
Ten-year street photography series exploring human emotions, boundaries and unexpected connections across Italy, UK, Netherlands and Thailand. Candid observations of gestures and chance encounters.

Soulscapes: The Labyrinth of Emotions | 1988 – 2004
Sixteen-year exploration using long-exposure photography to examine multiple timelines and perceptions of time. Humans as ephemeral figures, transient threads of light navigating existence.

Earlier Work | 1988 – 1999
Formative photographic work beginning at age 14. Family portraits, experimental photography, and early explorations with my father’s Topcon camera.

Artificial Burden of Representation | 2018
Macro photography series exploring hidden dimensions within stones and seemingly inert materials. Questioning perception and materiality through close-up lens work.

ACMA – Amico Cuscino Mortale Ambizione | 2005
Experimental documentary short film (4’28”) exploring mental health, medication refusal, and personal determination through surreal dreamscapes.

Film & Curation

Before focusing on ethnographic photography, I spent two decades in film production and cultural programming—work that shaped how I approach visual storytelling now.

Films (Director/Producer/Editor)
Tom Donald: Mastering Improvisation (2017) | Tales from the Train Station (2014) | Developing Ethiopia (2008-09) | Written by Hand (2011) | Tangled Up in Blue (2007-10, Producer – Best Film, Gulf Film Festival 2010) | Leaving Baghdad (2010, Editor – BIFA Nomination 2011) | Hotel Splendid (2016, Post-production Supervisor)

Cultural Programming
MILKandLEAD Art Gallery, London – Managing Director (2014-2020)
Contemporary art gallery. Programmed 30+ exhibitions, curated DELIQUIUM triennial exhibitions (2015, 2018).

Potenza International Film Festival – Coordinator (2004-2006)
Organized PFFLabs workshops with Abbas Kiarostami, Babak Payami, Jafar Panahi, and other international filmmakers.

Education & Recognition

Education
MSc Sociology (Visual Anthropology, Sociology of Arts and Literature)
University of Naples Federico II, 2004

BA Sociology
University of Salerno, 2002

Recognition
Premio Basileus 2025 – Culture Category
Awarded for Mothers of Marmo Platano, recognised as “a cultural project that restores dignity to the collective memory of a territory, illuminating the silent strength of the women who guard its traditions.”

Comune di Baragiano – Honorary Tribute (19 April 2025)
Presented “to Francesco Carvelli, a multifaceted artist and intellectual who has carried Baragiano in his heart across the world, and whose roots remain here with us.”

Tangled Up in Blue (Producer, 2009)
Best Film – Gulf Film Festival, Dubai, 2010
Best Film – Milano I’ve Seen Films International Film Festival, 2010

Leaving Baghdad (Editor, 2010)
Nomination – British Independent Film Awards (BIFA), 2011
Nomination – Cinema for Peace Awards, Berlin, 2011-12

Let’s collaborate

I work with institutions, curators, municipalities, universities and community groups to develop visual research projects, exhibitions and cultural strategies rooted in place and memory.

For collaborations, commissions, or inquiries:
hello@francescocarvelli.com
+39 344 455 0196

RADICÆ – Founder & Creative Director (2024 – present)
Cultural agency specializing in communication for public institutions, territorial heritage projects, and audiovisual production.

OCTL – Osservatorio per la Cultura dei Territori Lucani – Co-founder & President (2024 – present)
Cultural observatory dedicated to research and documentation of Lucanian heritage.

The Garden of Values – Founder & Lead Consultant (2018 – present)
Strategic consulting for cultural and social impact organizations.

Born: March 1, 1974, Catanzaro, Italy
Based: London, United Kingdom | Baragiano (PZ), Basilicata, Italy

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