Gloria Bertelli (b. 2003, Torino, Italy) is a photographer and visual artist whose work explores the intersection of personal experience, observation, and the limits of the photographic medium. She graduated in Photography from IED Torino in 2025, after attending a linguistic high school through the EsaBac program, and spent a semester at Willem de Kooning Academie in Rotterdam.

Her practice combines digital and analogue photography with texts, drawings, fabrics, sound, and other media, creating multidisciplinary projects that investigate memory, perception, and human interaction. She uses observational photography to explore her own experiences while examining how bodies and spaces interact, capturing both intimate and universal dimensions. Central to her approach is the ability to notice fragile details, and a genuine desire to listen and share.

Gloria’s interest in semiotics, photobook publishing, darkroom techniques, documentary photography, mass media theory, and sociology of communication informs the conceptual depth of her work. During her exchange at WdKA, she experimented with cyanotype, textiles, ceramics, sound design, archives, and the design of portfolios and websites, expanding her creative toolkit and pushing the boundaries of conventional photography.

Alongside her studies, she has documented and developed projects for Torino Film Festival, Flashback Art Fair, Apart Fair, and Exclusive Brands Torino, the latter culminating in a group exhibition at Galleria Subalpina in Torino in 2025.

She is currently working on her long-term, autobiographical project I Wish You Could Smell It, which addresses anosmia, a condition she personally experiences and which has gained wider attention in the post-COVID-19 era. The project seeks to give shape to scents, making them visible, touchable, and audible for those who cannot perceive them. Tapestry-like pieces are developed from phrases spoken in situations where a scent was present or described, translating these narratives into colors, textures, sounds, texts, memories and images.The work combines interactive three-dimensional elements with photographic documentation, emphasizing the ephemeral nature of perception. She intends to continue this project over the long term, striving to make as many scents as possible perceptible within a single lifetime.

Gloria enjoys sitting alone in bars, squares, stations, or churches, observing life unfold; drawing small houses like when she was a child; making lists; and exploring human connections. Through her art, she creates a bridge between the personal and the universal, using photography not only as a medium to document, but as a way to take care of what and who surrounds her.