About
Mariano Doronzo (b.1986) is an Italian documentary photographer based in Rome. In 2013, after his studies, he moved to England to focus on his practice. Here, he started documenting his personal journey and exploration of the English culture and landscape through the lens of an old film camera. This body of work, named Through The Looking Glass, was exhibited in 2017 at Take It Easy Lab, a film lab, darkroom, gallery and photography hub in the city of Nottingham.
In 2019, in partnership with the FORMAT International Photography Festival of Derby, Doronzo held a two months residency for The Institute of Reminiscence. This resulted in Slides on a Light Box, an installation with a revisited visual map of the town of Derby: based on memories and stories of the local community, the body of work looked how many of the recalled places had been either deserted or replaced with new life.
I Don’t Know What I Want is a series of photos intertwined with poems, journal notes, and video frames to question the concept of self-identity through masculinity. This work was created during a Long-Term (2021-2022) Mentorship at Magnum Photos with Matt Black and Susan Meiselas.
Lanterna "Beach" (2015-ongoing) is the longest project produced by Doronzo which explores the relationship between an Italian community of male bathers and the nature of the Pier where they sunbathe and rendezvous from Summer to Winter. In Dec 2024, the Podcast Lanterna Beach was released on Loquis Platform.
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Currently living between Rome (IT) and Nottingham (UK), Mariano works mainly with analogue equipment whilst also expanding his skills in the darkroom from processing film to handmade traditional printing.
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