Fabrizio Uliana
“Ziobrafi”
Autobiographical Notes

I was born in Rome and lived in Venice for 25 years. Since 2020, I have been living in France, dividing my time between Paris and Dinard (Brittany), with my wife Loredana and our four cats (Paco, Lucy, Cico, and Zoe).
My interests have always revolved around human and civil rights, particularly those concerning minors and people with disabilities.
I hold a degree in Social Services and have earned Master’s diplomas in “Immigration, Social Phenomena, and Social Transformations” and “Europroject Management.”
My career has focused on implementing and organizing social services for the private social sector.
I also served as the president of the Lila Association in Venice.
From 1982 to 2019, I worked as the director of Social Services for the Ministry of Justice.

Between 2005 and 2009, I was one of the four curators of the “Al Bacaro” Photographic Gallery 🔗 in Venice, located at San Marco 1345.

My fascination with my family’s photo albums led me to start taking pictures in the 1960s using an Instamatic camera. I am primarily self-taught in photography, educating myself through books, magazines, and exhibitions. In the late ’90s, I joined the historic Venetian photographic club “La gondola” and exhibited my work in solo and group shows. My photographs have been published in catalogs, magazines, and books.

To me, photography isn’t about having the latest reflex camera model, but rather about having an idea and a project to communicate and astonish, using any means available. I am drawn to and interested in authors with creative abilities such as the Bragaglia brothers, Luigi Veronesi, Man Ray, André Kertész, Franco Fontana, and Nino Migliori.

Over the years, being a member of one of Italy’s most prestigious photographic clubs directed me towards research and synthesis in my work.
“… One thing that attracts me in life is surprise, the surprising experience that breaks through, the unforeseen surprise that involves the senses, the surprise that challenges the sense of perception and the reading of the perceived object. In surprise, there is something unexpected that emanates an inner force, but perceiving this requires attention, concentration, and exploration. Once discovered, the surprise continues to be sought after… once an object is ‘photographed’ from an unusual perspective, it surprises us and prompts us to be surprised and astonish further. Surprise images can be seen as if they were things themselves, different from what they actually are, blurring the boundary between dream and reality.
These are images that amaze me and become part of my creative process: this way of photographing helps me reconcile with the pleasant and indispensable aspects of life, where carefully reviewing an image evokes astonishment, daydreaming, and delight in having moved away from mere reproduction of reality to becoming a multiplier of symbols, signs, and other writings.”

Fabrizio Uliana
July 2023