Between reality and imagination

Virginia Gianni (1999) was born in Athens, where her earliest memories are shaped by clothing, imagination and transformation. Her mother, who worked as a house cleaner, would bring home garments, jewellery and discarded objects from the families she worked for. Virginia would spend hours combining these pieces, creating characters and photographing herself, moving through different identities as if they were natural extensions of her inner world.

 

 

What began as play slowly developed into something more defined. With cameras always present in the house, she started photographing more seriously and eventually moved to Manchester to study photography. It was there that image-making became something deeper, not just a way of creating, but a space that allowed her to process, to understand and to heal.

Her work now exists somewhere between intimacy and surrealism. Influenced by Dada and surrealist movements, Virginia approaches image-making as a way of questioning rather than explaining. Her images do not offer fixed meanings, but instead open up space,for interpretation, for discomfort, for recognition.

 

During the development of one of her series, she found herself navigating anxiety and recurring panic attacks. Together with her close friend Ellie, who became both model and collaborator, she began translating these internal states into visual form. The work explores anger, confusion and the instability of reality, yet does so through images that remain soft, almost seductive. This tension between attraction and unease runs throughout her practice. There is a strong sense of narrative within her work, yet the figures she creates feel less like individuals and more like characters or symbols. During the making of this series, she immersed herself in Greek mythology, stories of monsters, heroes and female figures often portrayed as dangerous or cruel. In her work, these figures return in a shifted form: carrying a sense of strength and presence, almost like warriors — layered, grounded and no longer passive.

 

 

Control forms an underlying theme. Through the use of fabrics, garments and layered materials, the body is both framed and restricted, yet never fully contained. There is a constant negotiation between softness and tension, between protection and exposure. Lace, drapery and texture carry associations of intimacy and safety, yet are never without friction.

Nature plays a similar role. Water, in particular, returns as a recurring element, not only as a visual motif, but as a feeling. Growing up in Greece, Virginia spent much of her time by the sea, a place that holds a sense of safety and calm for her. In her work, water becomes a space where the body seems to dissolve, merge or transform. In these moments, her images move away from constructed environments, allowing something more fluid and unpredictable to emerge.