From an aesthetic point of view, my style is characterized by marked contrasts, strong and saturated colors, sometimes deliberately distorted, and an expressive use of light that amplifies feelings of unease or suspension. The images I create move between the raw and the symbolic: partial bodies, interrupted gestures, and details charged with narrative and poetic tension. The result is photography that evokes a cinematic yet private imagery, as if each shot were an altered memory or a frame taken from a bigger story.

Recurring themes emerge within this research, such as identity, femininity, anger, melancholy, emptiness, and conflict, often contrasted with the apparent visual and chromatic harmony of the final image. The human body is frequently present, but rarely celebrated in a conventional way: it is fragmented, hidden, or layered, becoming a vehicle for deeper meanings. The use of black and white accentuates the sense of urgency and emotional violence, while color takes on a symbolic function that is visceral for me.

Over the years, I have collaborated with emerging Italian artists and independent film collectives, enriching my language through the dialogue between photography, cinema, and visual arts. I have also exhibited my work in two independent exhibitions, experiences that have allowed me to confront an external perspective and consolidate, over the last five years, a coherent and constantly evolving authorial practice.

My name is Chiara Monzi, aka Desperado. I was born in Rome, in the city where I still live, study, and work today. My photographic research stems from an early, intimate, and necessary need: to transform a complex experience into a visual narrative capable of conveying emotional truths. A childhood spent with a camera in my hands and a difficult adolescence have had a profound effect on my outlook, prompting me to observe the world as an ambivalent space, at times hostile, but precisely for this reason full of poetic tensions to be explored and made visible.

My education also played a fundamental role. The language high school I attended in the small province where I grew up allowed me to experience the dynamics of oppression and frustration up close, a stark contrast to the freedom I breathed once I embarked on my university career. In Rome, I chose to study graphic design at RUFA (Rome University of Fine Arts) and I moved here, becoming increasingly aware of photography, which became the focus of my expressive research.

Photography is the means through which I rework reality, filtering it through a personal and often destabilizing perception. My work does not aim at a neutral representation, but at communicating artistic and everyday realities through the emotional impact they have on me. Each image takes the form of a stance, a fragment of experience suspended between intimacy and staging.