Photographer Giuliana Mariniello is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘Sacroprofane’. To see Giuliana’s body of work, click on any photograph.

Sacred-Profane

This series of photographs, collected over time and in various locations, is the result of a reflection on the relationship between the sacred and the profane in the contemporary world. Our society has gradually eroded the sense of “sacredness,” which for centuries has characterized Western culture in art, architecture, and literature, but also in everyday life through the sharing of religious values and the sense of community. In the contemporary world, we are increasingly witnessing not only a process of secularization but also the interference, even through symbols and images, of a profane world linked to consumerism and commodification. I wanted to document the coexistence of the sacred and the profane in our daily lives. The irony, lightheartedness, and even humor that characterize many of these images (which border on kitsch) are only the superficial aspect of a broader and more complex phenomenon that characterizes our society.

Giuliana Mariniello was born in Piedmont and is of Istrian origin (Porec). She has taught English Literature at the University of Naples 'L'Orientale'. She is interested in the theoretical aspects of photography and has been carrying on a personal artistic research for several years. She has taken part in various workshops with well-known Italian and foreign photographers, including M. Ackerman, Jane Evelyn Atwood, M. Botman, M. Cresci, F. Fontana, F. Jodice, D. Kirkland, G. le Querrec , S. Plachy, and A. Webb. She has exhibited in about 80 solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad (Paris, Arles, Budapest, Krakow, New York, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv and Cuba) and has received various awards such as the Kodak Elite Prize and the Photofolio Prix at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie of Arles. Among her works La città visibile, Manifest-azioni, New York Notebook, Sacroprofano, Volti del tempo, Venezia, teatro delle maschere, Paysages d’eau, Par-delà la fenêtre, Oscuri oggetti del desiderio e Marilyn Forever. She has curated several exhibitions (G. Berengo Gardin, F. Cito, F. Fontana, G. Leone, R. Cagnoni, H. Stein, C. García Rodero) and written about 90 articles, essays and presentations of exhibitions and photobooks. Her publications include Women X Women (2011), Marilyn Forever (Roma, 2013), the essays Sulla fotografia giapponese contemporanea (2013), Araki Nobuyoshi. Eros and Thanatos (2019) and The Visible City (2023) She is a member of the FIAF, of the Italian Women Photographers’s Association and of the Editorial Board of the magazine FOTOIT.

All images and text © Giuliana Mariniello