Monia Merlo is an Italian photographer whose fine-art portraits of women wordlessly explore emotion. Through specific location choices and the use of natural lighting, she recreates the dreamy atmosphere of pre-Raphaelite paintings. The selection featured here recalls John Everett Millais’ “Ophelia”; women float in ponds, their bodies mingling with vegetation and dark waters to create ecosystems of sorrow. By hiding the face, Merlo reveals how the soul erupts through the landscape of the body.
Images © Monia Merlo