Italian-Australian photographer, Lisa Sorgini, is famous worldwide for her intimate documentary-style portraiture. Her work is authentic and emotive, capturing fleeting moments of human connection and exploring themes of motherhood, caregiving, domestic life, and the representation of women.
Lisa’s remarkable artistry has been widely featured in the world’s most respected publications, including The New Yorker, TIME Magazine, The New York Times, and Creative Review.
Her work has also been recognised by prestigious industry awards such as the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize (UK), the National Portrait Prize (Aus), the Lucie Portrait Project, and the Portrait of Humanity Award. In 2020, she was selected as the winner of the Lens Culture Critics Choice award for her portraiture series, Behind Glass, and had work shortlisted for several other national and international awards including the 2020 CLIP Award, 2020 Australian Photography Awards and the Head On Portrait Prize. In 2023, Behind Glass became her first solo exhibition, showing at the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne.
“What I love about image making for advertising these days is the lean toward raw authenticity & real people experience. To excel in this, the photographer and subject connection is immediate and honest. Lisa’s presence, confidence and empathy create visual narratives that instantly warm hearts and minds.” says Samantha Simpson, Sam I Am’s Founder.
Simpson recently sat down with Lisa to understand her process, career highlights and hopes for the future.
Samantha Simpson: When I think about Lisa Sorgini, I think of kids & play .. dreamy & emotive storytelling that evokes strong feelings of familiar connection. I believe that your work is known globally because of its beauty and cut-through intimacy. In your eyes, what is it you’re most known for?
Lisa Sorgini: In my art practice, I am known for my portraits of mother and child and for capturing intimate connections, seeing value in and emphasising everyday moments.
SS: What’s your process for capturing such close & intimate moments?
LS: My approach is very individualised. I work in a fluid and intuitive way for each unique setting and shoot and I like to keep things simple when I’m working with people, especially children.
Portrait making for me is a collaborative process and It’s important that the subjects feel as part of making the work as I do, I believe this is where the authentic and true connections are found. I shoot both digital and film and I have learnt to interchange the two while still being able to produce my desired aesthetic.
SS: What’s the biggest compliment you’ve ever received?
LS: Recently I was part of an exhibition in the US, at Princeton Art Museum. After the opening the curator contacted me to let me know that she spoke to a woman on the night who cried when viewing my image.
The fact that a work I created had the ability to elicit this kind of reaction from someone viewing it feels like the ultimate compliment. Another recent compliment that really stayed with me was being told by one of the senior art directors of a large advertising agency in New York that the images I made for them were some of the best they’d worked with in their career.
SS: What’s been the biggest highlight of your career so far?
LS: Speaking at the V&A Museum in London this past August, being interviewed about my work in The New Yorker and TIME magazine. Releasing my first monograph in 2021 (published by Libraryman ), and exhibiting my work at multiple photo festivals across Europe this year.
Sam I Am is now taking bookings for Lisa Sorgini in Australia. Please contact us to meet with Lisa or discuss collaborations with her producer, Rich Cole.
Find more information about Lisa Sorgini and her work here.
