Camilla Ferrari

Selfportrait while landing in Beijing, August 2017

Seller in Panjiayuan market, Beijing, August 2017

Panjiayuan market is easily one of the most crowded and chaotic places I’ve ever experienced. People are selling the most different kinds of things and clients spend hours and hours observing the st

Chaoyangmen station, Beijing, August 2017

When I left the airport, the taxi took me to Chaoyangmen station. It was the first time my feet had touched Beijing. Every day for two weeks I crossed the road to get to the subway station, a glass box dec

Public toilets in the Shichahai area, Beijing, August 2017

Girl with a NO/ON tattoo on the subway, Beijing, August 2017

A woman out of a dumpling restaurant in Baochao Hutong, Beijing, August 2017

Guomao. Work time is over for most of the offices in the district. As I walked between the suddenly deserted streets, surrounded by the glassy facades of the buildings, I saw a woman entering one of them. The walls were cutting her head and all I co

The sun reflected in a lily pond at the Summer Palace, Beijing, August 2017

A woman through a window at the Summer Palace, Beijing, August 2017

Guomao, Beijing, August 2017

Guomao, it’s lunch time. People get out of the buildings in a continuous flow, a river where the human beings are the drops of water. Looks almost like a mechanical behavior, like their bodies need air so they rush to g

Aquarium

I landed in Beijing on the 23rd of August 2017. When I took my first steps in the Forbidden City all I could see was a blurred image of something I remembered from looking at photographs, books and online. For the first time, despite being an experienced traveller, I faced a severe panic attack. At first, the sound of hands moving the ladies’ bathroom curtains was so loud that it was disturbing. And so was the noise coming out of the karaoke bars during the night and the chitchat of people walking on the sidewalk. Sometimes you observe and sometimes you’re being observed. It’s almost like seeing through a glass that distorts what your eyes see, that makes the light flicker in front of you second after second and inserts you in a completely different world. And suddenly you are on the other side of that glass. You cannot hear what others say but you can feel the sweet cuddle of the water that surrounds you. And then, before I knew it, that sound of hands moving the bathroom curtains became a lullaby. The noise of the karaoke bars turned into music and the chitchat evolved into rhythm. Everything became gentle, even the unknown. Aquarium is the result of a quiet abandonment to diversity.

Camilla Ferrari

Camilla Ferrari (1992) is an Italian visual storyteller based in Milan. Her interest lies in the relationship between human beings and their surroundings, which she explores with a delicate voyeurism. Part of her research is concerned with how social media have the power to enrich visual storytelling through the mix between short videos and photographs. Perpetuating the sense of gentleness that arises from her photographs, she also expresses her delicate observations through her Instagram stories as an active part of her practice.