Ilaria Conte is a contemporary photographer who lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.

A native of Turin (Italy) her intimate and melancholic images are derivative of her youth spent in a dormant but industrial city in the north of Italy.

Conte began taking photographs to communicate her introverted character, fused with an adolescent sense of rebellion. Her mother ran a small hotel in the city center and her interest in foreign cultures grew fast pushing her to leave her hometown in her early 20s.

Besotted by the fashion photography world and its biggest exponents, Conte studied photography at the City of Westminster College in London (UK). After completing her degree, she started working with some of the most acclaimed British photographers in the advertising, editorial, and fine art fields, such as Nadav Kander, Matthew Donaldson, Rankin, David Montgomery, and Alison Jackson. Subsequently, she relocated to New York City to work as a photographer as well as a producer.

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Her artistic interest shifted markedly when she discovered Japanese art and its photographic legacy, whose style and approach profoundly led to her detachment from the commercial photographic world. Today her most explored areas are high-contrast landscapes and street scenes of everyday life through which she examines the notions and rules of mathematics and geometry concerning figures, whether abstracts or not, and the property use of space.

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In Conte’s images, areas and volumes, with the use of contrast as an invisible ruler and divider, live together employing the golden ratio to create visuals similar to architectural drawing.

Wherever her inspiration is derivative from, the quietness is a visual example of the concept of melancholy that is removed from the plane of scientific and pseudo-scientific folklore and translated into art.

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In her most recent work, Conte explores the relationship between nature and society, delving into the complex interplay between humanity and the natural world. Shedding light on the inherent nothingness and chaos that permeates our social modern landscape.

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These abstract natural landscapes serve as visual metaphors, capturing the essence of our contemporary society.

By distilling the vastness and beauty of nature into abstract forms and gestural brushstrokes, Conte unveils the underlying disarray and emptiness that often go unnoticed in landscapes within our urban environments.

With the ongoing projects, Conte invites viewers to contemplate the paradoxical relationship between human existence and the natural world. In the absence of recognizable forms, the viewer is encouraged to explore the depths of their perceptions and emotions, confronting the disorientation and uncertainty that pervade our society.