Koža, Women & Other Stories

"Koža, Women & Other Stories" is a set of interwoven narratives that explore connection, uncertainty and desire.

"Koža, Women & Other Stories” (2015 - present) is a set of interwoven narratives that explore connection, uncertainty and desire.

This work began when I moved to Slovakia in 2015 and is a poetic expression of my travels in the last six years. In it, I document the unfolding narrative of my experience, disjointed and retold into a story of companionship and isolation. During this time, I also connected with the Archive of Modern Conflict, photographing objects in their collection. These photographs move the project beyond the limitations of my own experience: relics of a broader world.

By pursuing narrative possibility, I aim to discover increasingly complex combinations of feeling. I am interested in the visual constraints of the emotional landscape. Perhaps you could photograph longing, but could you represent it specifically—the fantasy of an apology, or the desire to move emotionally backward? I investigate these boundaries through aesthetic variation—fluctuating emotional rhythms that arise from disparate scenes and gestures. The resultant images sit like objects on the shelf of an antique store: they live together, but their story is in no way singular.

"Koža, Women & Other Stories" is a kind of photographic unrest. Thriving on change, it references the artist, but belongs to no one in particular. Contemporary in both its chaos and visual diversity, it is part archive, part travelogue, part fact and part fiction. It questions the veracity of the photograph, the biography and the archive in general. It uses analogue technology to celebrate the experimental darkroom. Collapsing multiple bodies, timeframes and geographies, this work is a metaphor for the changeability and incomprehensibility of human experience.

In Slovak, “koža" means skin.

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“Koža, Women & Other Stories” is one of 10 projects of Les Rencontres d’Arles: Louis Roederer Discovery Award 2020 (FR), in which an endowment was shared amongst all finalists in an act of solidarity.

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Self-Portrait, Cave, I, 2017, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Self-Portrait, Cave, I, 2017, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Barbara / Dominika, II, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Barbara / Dominika, II, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Volcan, 2017, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Volcan, 2017, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Statue, II, 2020, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Statue, II, 2020, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Five Women, I, 2020, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Five Women, I, 2020, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Object Composite, III, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Object Composite, III, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Self-Portrait, Bed, I, 2020, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Self-Portrait, Bed, I, 2020, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Wooden Objets, I, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Wooden Objets, I, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Hands, 2015, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Hands, 2015, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Finland, II, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Finland, II, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Klara, I, 2020, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Klara, I, 2020, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Three Women, V, 2018, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Three Women, V, 2018, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Portrait, I, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Portrait, I, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Pirohy, I, 2020, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Pirohy, I, 2020, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Statue, II, 2020 (Ed. 2), Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Statue, II, 2020 (Ed. 2), Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Family, Starý Tekov, II, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Family, Starý Tekov, II, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Family, Starý Tekov, III, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Family, Starý Tekov, III, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Embers, II, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Embers, II, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Barbara / Dominika, I, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Barbara / Dominika, I, 2019, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

© Deanna Pizzitelli - Four Women, I, 2020, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery
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Four Women, I, 2020, Toned Silver Gelatin Print © Deanna Pizzitelli / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

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