Fragments | A Love Letter

  • Dates
    2013 - 2019
  • Author
  • Topics Portrait, Landscape, Fine Art
  • Locations New York, City of London, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom, Dublin

What is it like to be in a relationship and be constantly separated from your lover? Moving across four countries, ‘Fragments’ is a story of a chase, a love letter slowly unfolding across the sea.

What is it like to be in a relationship and be constantly separated from your lover? ‘Fragments’ is a long-term black and white series in which I explore how it feels to be together and apart as lovers. The long waits, the longing to be reunited, the special moments along with the anxiety of an imminent separation. Moving across four countries, ‘Fragments’ is a story of a chase, a love letter slowly unfolding across the sea.

I started ‘Fragments’ in 2013, soon after graduating from the International Center of Photography in New York. Facing up to the challenges related to having a long-distance relationship over an extended period of time, I wanted to channel my thoughts and energy into something tangible. A private person by nature, I counter-intuitevely ventured into depicting my feelings while processing them. By doing that, I wanted to slow down and take the time to look at, reflect on and reveal what closeness means to me. A prolonged and intimate search into myself as lover, partner and artist.

I met John in London, UK, in 2012. We fell in love during that summer. Friends, dinners, parties and walks in the park. Time did not constrain us back then, we were floating peacefully in a never-ending 'today'. When I moved to New York City, our time together started to become precious and intensified and this visual journey began.

Three cities, four countries, two continents. The starting point in London then New York - my adopted home, Dublin - John’s homeland in Ireland and Italy, where I grew up. These are the emotional landscapes of a tale of love and trust, friendship, separation and reunion.

The project is created with a 35mm Yashica film camera and shot on black and white Ilford HP5 Plus 400 film.

© Giulia Berto - The sweat reminding me of the softness of your skin.
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The sweat reminding me of the softness of your skin.

© Giulia Berto - ‘Tick-tock, tick-tock’ - the Clock says; the pointy feeling of an imminent separation.
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‘Tick-tock, tick-tock’ - the Clock says; the pointy feeling of an imminent separation.

© Giulia Berto - Glistening in the dark, a cold surface where you and I sunbathed during the summer.
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Glistening in the dark, a cold surface where you and I sunbathed during the summer.

© Giulia Berto - Image from the Fragments | A Love Letter photography project
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Floating in the vacuum-packed privacy of a bedroom; your smell on my pillow tastes like the memories of our sleepless nights.

© Giulia Berto - Gasping out an obstinate thought, time has no elasticity.
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Gasping out an obstinate thought, time has no elasticity.

© Giulia Berto - Sealed together into a pang of mirrored emotions in the wee small hours before you and I separated again.
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Sealed together into a pang of mirrored emotions in the wee small hours before you and I separated again.

© Giulia Berto - The warmth of a snug, and the words we whispered in each other’s ears fading into the night like a light laughter.
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The warmth of a snug, and the words we whispered in each other’s ears fading into the night like a light laughter.

© Giulia Berto - You and I, the desire of vulnerability and the fragility of desire.
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You and I, the desire of vulnerability and the fragility of desire.

© Giulia Berto - Opening a door into the sensation of falling for you.
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Opening a door into the sensation of falling for you.

© Giulia Berto - Placing myself in your childhood memories encapsulated in a holiday mobile home by the beach.
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Placing myself in your childhood memories encapsulated in a holiday mobile home by the beach.

© Giulia Berto - I stand here, alone with my feelings collapsing like crashing waves.
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I stand here, alone with my feelings collapsing like crashing waves.

© Giulia Berto - What if I told you this may hurt a little?
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What if I told you this may hurt a little?

© Giulia Berto - Wind and fire, a night spent listening to the sound of a stormy sea.
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Wind and fire, a night spent listening to the sound of a stormy sea.

© Giulia Berto - You and I, like plants carrying the smell of home in the constant flux of a cross-country wind.
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You and I, like plants carrying the smell of home in the constant flux of a cross-country wind.

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