Lisa Sorgini is an Australian/Italian artist working across still photography.
She investigates themes of the human condition; caregiving, motherhood, memory and familial spaces.
Within her two long-form projects, Mother and In-Passing, Lisa uses personal experience combined with sociological research to reveal complex narratives in the representation of women and mothers and care roles in current cultural spaces.
Past projects have explored motherhood during the COVID-19 pandemic (Behind Glass), family dynamics (Thick Like Water), and climate anxiety and place (The Bushfire, the Flood).
Her work has been profiled and published extensively, with notable interviews in The New Yorker, TIME Magazine, NY Times and The Guardian.
In 2023 she held her first solo exhibition of ‘Behind Glass’ at The Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne, Australia and exhibited work from ‘Behind Glass’ and ‘Mother’ at PhEST and Ragusa photo festivals in Italy and Ballarat Photo Festival in Australia.
She released her first monograph, 'Behind Glass', published by Libraryman (OOP) in late 2022.
She has been recognised in multiple awards including the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize (UK), the National Portrait Prize (Aus), the Lucie Portrait Project, Head-On photo awards, Portrait of Humanity and Australian photography awards.
EXHIBITION
2024
‘Behind Glass - Mother Country’
Landskrona Foto Festival (SE)
6 Sep - 22 Sep. Curated by Catlin Langford
‘New Photobooks from Australia.’
Behind Glass.
May to Nov V&A Museum (UK)
‘Dreams’ - PhEST (Festival of International Photography), Puglia. (IT)
“Don’t we touch each other just to prove we’re still here?” Princeton Art Museum. (US)
Curated by Susan Bright and Susannah Baker-Smith.
Artlab Eyeland residency and exhibition.
25 May - 30 Jun, Taranto Old Town. (IT)
Curated by Giovanni Troilio.
2023
Real Families: Stories of Change. The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. (UK)
Mother’ at PhEST (Festival of International Photography), Puglia. (IT)
Curated by Arianna Rinaldo
‘Within The Landscape’ at Ballarat International Foto Biennale. (AUS)
Ragusa Foto Festival, Behind Glass, Sicily. (IT)
Curated by Claudio Composti.
SOLO - ‘Behind Glass’, CCP Melbourne, (AUS)
Curated by Catlin Langford
2022
PHOTO 2022 Commission, Thick Like Water, Aus
The Portrait, Blindside Gallery, as part of PHOTO 2022, Aus
New Discoveries in Contemporary Photography (Lens Culture), Caelum Gallery, NYC
2021
Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. National Portrait Gallery, UK
National Portrait Prize - National Portrait Gallery, AUS
Head-On 2020 Vision touring exhibition, AUS
CCP Salon - Centre for Contemporary Photography, AUS
Paris Photo - Lens Culture Critics Choice Exhibition, (On Hold)
2020
Photo Oxford Festival ‘Ways Of Seeing And Being Seen‘ Ovada Gallery, UK
‘On Hold’ Group Show. Museo de la Cárcova, Buenos Aires.
#ICP Concerned ‘Global Images for Global Crisis’, International Center for Photography, US
Auckland Festival of Photography, Mass Isolation Format screening, NZ
CLIP Award, Perth Centre for photography, online, AUS
Head on Portrait Prize - Semi-finalist projection, online, AUS
2019
Group Summer Show, Yeah Nice Gallery, AUS
Iris Award Finalist exhibition - Perth Centre For Photography
Selected for CCP Salon Instagram Project- CCP Melbourne, AUS
Olive Cotton Finalist Exhibition - Tweed Regional Gallery, AUS
Head on Portrait Prize - Semi-finalist projection, Paddington Town Hall, AUS
2018
Opening Group Show, Yeah Nice Gallery, Mullumbimby, AUS
2018: We Are All Going To Die group show, Studio Tropico, Byron Bay, AUS.
2018: Many Hands x Sea Change group show, All press studio, Collingwood
2012: Photographic Museum Of Humanity group show, Art Basel, Miami, USA.
BOOKS
Behind Glass, 1st edition (out of print)
Published by Libraryman Books, 2021
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
'Love Story: new photography on love and intimacy'. 224pp, hardback, 155 x 199mm. Written by Rachel Segal Hamilton.
Hoxton Mini Press, 2023
EyeMama:
Poetic Truths of Home and Motherhood, Published by te Neues Verlag, 2023
The Covid-19 Visual Project: A Time of Distance, Published through Cortona on the Move, 2022
Mass Isolation Australia photo book,
Published by Ballarat Photo, 2021
ICP Concerned: Global Images for a Global Crisis.
Published by G Editions, 2021
INTERVIEW/TEXT
2024: ‘Protecting them is impossible’: raising children in a contaminated town – in pictures, The Guardian
2024: ‘Tamburis Mothers’ Internazionale
2023: Motherhood as seen from the photographs of Lisa Sorgini, by Sara Emma Cervo, Vanity Fair
2023: Behind Glass - Essay by Catlin Langford, 1000 words magazine.
2022: Art and Culture - Photography our Photo Editors are following, New York Times
2022: ‘Lisa Sorgini è una giovane fotografa che racconta storie di maternità. Chi è lei e perché vale la pena seguirla.’ Vogue Italia
2022: Feature Shoot - The Raw Beauty of Early Motherhood, Unfiltered
2021: The photographer explores the agony and ecstasy of motherhood. We Present
2021: Booooooom - ‘The Bushfire, the flood and the virus
2021: 6 Mois , Maternité Confinée
2021: Elephant Magazine ‘What It’s Like Giving Birth During a Pandemic’
2020: D La Repubblica - ‘E se domani?’
2020: The Guardian ‘Pain Can Be Poetic’
2020: The New Yorker - ‘An Australian Photographer’s Dreamy Portraits of Mothers and Their Children in Quarantine’
2020: TIME Magazine - 'You Feel Trapped and Overwhelmed': Mothers Understood Isolation Before the Pandemic’
2020: National Geographic - ‘Pictures reveal the intensity of motherhood—especially under lockdown’
2020: Creative Review - ‘The Australian photographer’s intimate series, Behind Glass, captures the “lightness and darkness” of parenting during lockdown’
2016: i_D Magazine, Australia - ‘Lisa Sorgini knows the Australian dream is slightly out of focus
older. > IGNANT, Germany, No Culture Icons, Gooood, This Is Paper Magazine, This Isn't Happiness, Booooooom, Ekstrakt, Freunde von Freunden, 607 Visual, YET Magaz
AWARDS
2024 - Prix Virginia - Jury’s choice
2024 - Head On Awards - finalist
2024 - Australian and NZ Photobook Awards - shortlist
2023 - Galah Regional Photography Awards - finalist
2022 - STORIES, Photo Collective - Shortlist
2022 - Portrait of Humanity, British Journal of Photography - winner
2021 - Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize - shortlist
2021 - Ravenswood Women's Australian Art Prize - finalist
2021 - National Portrait Prize, finalist
Winner, Lucie Foundation Portrait Project, 2021
Winner, Centre for Contemporary Photography Ilford Salon, ‘Most critically engaged’ work, 2021
Winner, Lens Culture Critics Choice Award, 2020
Finalist, CLIP Award (Perth Centre for Photography), 2020
Finalist, Australian Photography Awards (Stories), 2020
Semi-finalist, Head On Portrait Prize, 2020
Finalist, Iris Award (Perth centre for Photography), 2019
Finalist, Olive Cotton Award, 2019
Semi-finalist, Head On Portrait Prize, 2019
Semi-finalist, Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize, 2017
Honourable Mention - International Photography Awards, 2014
2013: Finalist, Photographic Museum Of Humanity - Art Basel, Miami, USA.