Luca Santese (1985) pursued his studies at Monza’s Art
institute and at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan. While attending
the Academy he worked as an assistant in Alex Majoli’s studio and together they
founded the collective Cesura in
2008. Cesura is an independent group of photographers aimed to impulse and
support photojournalism, documentary and projects within art research.
In 2010 he was selected by the World Press Photo prize with the project Detroit 2009-2010 and in the same year he exhibited for the first time Found Photos in Detroit at Le Bal Space in Paris, to which followed exhibitions at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, OGR in Turin and the MoCP in Chicago as well as numerous further international exhibitions.
In 2012 he published the book Found Photos in Detroit with Arianna Arcara. The publication collected seven nominations as best photographic book of the year and was selected by Martin Parr and Garry Badger for the series: Photobook: A History Vol III, a selection of the 200 best books after World War Two.
The curatorial experience of Found Photos in Detroit went on with Italy & Italy, a book collecting a selection of images of the italian riviera romagnola from the 90s. He also curated the exhibition Immaginario, commemorating 125 years of activity of Touring Club Italiano with an arrangement of 125 original images from the Touring photo archive. The exhibition ran at Palazzo della Regione Lombardia in Milan in 2019.
Nowadays Santese's work approaches the production of research photography. He continues to delve into experimental documentary photography, the outcomes being shown respectively in Realpolitik (2018-2023) and the photo book Il Corpo del Capitano(2020). This last publication aims to research and depict a satirical perspective of the political propaganda of Matteo Salvini, an Italian political party leader.
His personal research continues with projects such as Festa (2019), Errors(2021) and the new experimental artwork exhibited for the first time in Mütter, his first German personal exhibition at Jergon, a Berlin-based art hub.
Santese's works have been published and exhibited in Europe, United States, Russia and Asia.
In 2010 he was selected by the World Press Photo prize with the project Detroit 2009-2010 and in the same year he exhibited for the first time Found Photos in Detroit at Le Bal Space in Paris, to which followed exhibitions at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, OGR in Turin and the MoCP in Chicago as well as numerous further international exhibitions.
In 2012 he published the book Found Photos in Detroit with Arianna Arcara. The publication collected seven nominations as best photographic book of the year and was selected by Martin Parr and Garry Badger for the series: Photobook: A History Vol III, a selection of the 200 best books after World War Two.
The curatorial experience of Found Photos in Detroit went on with Italy & Italy, a book collecting a selection of images of the italian riviera romagnola from the 90s. He also curated the exhibition Immaginario, commemorating 125 years of activity of Touring Club Italiano with an arrangement of 125 original images from the Touring photo archive. The exhibition ran at Palazzo della Regione Lombardia in Milan in 2019.
Nowadays Santese's work approaches the production of research photography. He continues to delve into experimental documentary photography, the outcomes being shown respectively in Realpolitik (2018-2023) and the photo book Il Corpo del Capitano(2020). This last publication aims to research and depict a satirical perspective of the political propaganda of Matteo Salvini, an Italian political party leader.
His personal research continues with projects such as Festa (2019), Errors(2021) and the new experimental artwork exhibited for the first time in Mütter, his first German personal exhibition at Jergon, a Berlin-based art hub.
Santese's works have been published and exhibited in Europe, United States, Russia and Asia.