Melissa Ianniello: Intergenerational Dialogues

Between Naples and Bologna, Italian photographer Melissa Ianniello builds a deeply autobiographical body of work that transforms the camera into an instrument of emotional resonance and intergenerational dialogue. At 34 years old, she develops a photographic practice centered on intimacy, a heritage from her first steps in photography 16 years ago, when she began experimenting with self-portraits using her father’s analog Praktica BC1 camera. This self-focused start proved fundamental: it not only taught her to create familiarity with the idea of portraiture but also how to put other people at ease in front of the lens to capture authentic and deeply intimate expressions.

Her essay “Wish it Was a Coming Out” a finalist in the Photo Essay category of the FotoDoc Photo Contest 2025, was born almost by chance in 2017 during a master’s in documentary photography in Bologna. As an openly lesbian woman, Melissa naturally turned her lens to her own community, but with a specific focus: elderly LGBTQIA+ individuals. The project emerged from a personal story – she was never able to come out to her grandparents – and transformed into a metaphorical journey of “intergenerational coming out.” For two years, she traveled Italy from north to south meeting older people who, due to the country’s laws, were never able to have children – and therefore grandchildren – to inherit their stories. Through genuine exchanges, the photographer revealed her own aspirations, fears, and thoughts, inviting them to do the same, creating a powerful dialogue between silenced generations. The work represents her first photographic maturity, where she managed to fully express her inclination for introspection and intimacy.

Learn more about this journey of affective resonances and the projects exploring mental health and sexuality in the following interview.

Pina Capizzo, 63 years old, Assemini (Sardinia)
Pina had a difficult childhood. Her father, a jealous and traditional man, was violent towards her, and she was sexually abused by a group of men from her village. She was very young when she realised that she was lesbian. Having been taken out of school at her father’s will, she was forced to work as a cleaning lady in some ladies’ houses, and it was there that she fell in love with one of the daughters. It was an unspeakable love, and at 18 years, she married a man who she didn’t love in order to escape the oppression of her father. She finally got redemption at 50 years old when she came out as homosexual to her husband: as a separated woman, she is now free to experience new relationships and feelings with other women.
Imagem from the Photo Essay Wish it Was a Coming Out, finalist in FotoDoc Photo Contest 2025.

Umberto Davini, 68 years old, Altopascio (Tuscany)
Umberto has been a great traveller since he was young: he wanted to explore new realities and travel throughout countries he had never visited. In the ‘70s he set off for India in order to meet Osho: it was the beginning of a very special trip which continues today, within him. He is vegetarian, almost vegan, loves nature, and for some time, he has dedicated himself to a new passion: photography. He enjoys photographing the stones which have been eroded over time or smoothened by the waterways, and the tree trunks which have been pulled onto the beach by the high waves.
Imagem from the Photo Essay Wish it Was a Coming Out, finalist in FotoDoc Photo Contest 2025.

Maria Laura Annibali, 76 years old, and Lidia Merlo, 74 years old, Rome
Maria Laura and Lidia have known each other for 17 years. Their love blossomed at a mature age, but it struck like a classic bolt of lightning. It was Lidia who won over Maria Laura: on top of a relentless courting full of sweet nothings and poetry, she wrote a dedication to Laura one night on the wall in front of her house: “Laura, I am passionately and hopelessly in love with you”. From that day on, they began dating, and soon after they became an official couple. Recently, they got married in a civil union.
Imagem from the Photo Essay Wish it Was a Coming Out, finalist in FotoDoc Photo Contest 2025.

How old are you? Where do you currently live and work?

Hello! I turned 34 this January and I currently live and work in Italy, moving between Naples and Bologna.

Tell us about your journey in photography. When did you start photographing and why? What role does photography play in your life?

I began photographing during my university years, around sixteen years ago. At the time, I mostly used an old analogue camera that had once belonged to my father – a Praktica BC1. That was a period of intense experimentation, especially with self-portraiture and black and white. Starting out by turning the lens on myself proved to be invaluable when I later became a professional: in a way, I had already developed a familiarity with the idea of portraiture, and I knew both what I wanted to achieve and how to achieve it.

Working with myself as a subject also taught me early on how to put someone else at ease in front of the camera to capture an authentic and, above all, intimate portrait. My photography has increasingly gravitated towards an intimate approach, and it still plays a central role in my life. Looking through the viewfinder helps me dive deep into emotions, feelings, and thoughts. For me, the camera lens is not a barrier that creates distance, but rather a filter that helps me understand and express reality. It’s all about resonance: people, objects, places, situations – and even my own thoughts – reverberate within me, and that’s how my photographs come to life.

Pasquale Ferro, 65 years old, Ischitella (Campania)
Pasquale was born in Naples. He had a difficult childhood, full of misery and violence. As well as that, he was denied the opportunity to attend school. Despite that, he was able to redeem himself over the years: he discovered that he was gay, and he came into contact with the homosexual scene in Naples. He began writing and doing theatre, letting himself get inspired by the “street” and its stories. In time, he became a playwright and also worked as a journalist. His will to describe the “street” – the one which he knows personally – evolved from the desire to give some dignity to the so-called “outcasts”, who don’t have a voice.
Image from the Photo Essay Wish it Was a Coming Out, finalist in FotoDoc Photo Contest 2025.

Lara Elia, 47 years old, and Lia D’Urso, 65 years old, Nicolosi (Sicily)
Lara and Lia met online in 2009, in the field of lesbian feminism activism. Lia is a retired restorer from Catania; Lara was born in Africa to her Italian father and English mother, but she was raised in Rome. She is a journalist who deals with scientific dissemination. They live in a small villa in Nicolosi where they divide their lives between their passion for gardening and their love for their pets. They are avid activists who never miss Pride.
Image from the Photo Essay Wish it Was a Coming Out, finalist in FotoDoc Photo Contest 2025.

Edda Billi, 87 years old, Rome (Lazio)
Edda was born in Follonica, in the coastal area of Maremma. She was a teenager when she fell in love with an older girl who drove a jeep and loved poetry and literature. It was this young woman who introduced Edda to the world of books and culture, and she was also Edda’s first love. The pressure that Edda’s family put on her because of her sexual orientation lead her to move to Rome. She has become an emancipated woman: a poet, an activist with the separatist feminist movement, and one of the first occupants of the Casa delle Donne (a political and cultural centre created by women for women, in Rome). Even today, Edda refers to herself as being in love with women and with life.
Image from the Photo Essay Wish it Was a Coming Out, finalist in FotoDoc Photo Contest 2025.

Tell us about your finalist work for the FotoDoc Photo Contest 2025. When and where was it created? What is its concept? How does it fit into your photographic practice?

Wish it Was a Coming Out, my finalist project for the FotoDoc Photo Contest 2025, came about almost by chance in 2017. I was attending a master’s in documentary photography in Bologna and needed an idea to develop during the course. I am a lesbian, openly and visibly so for many years, so it felt natural to turn my lens towards the community I come from.

I have always been drawn to older people – their inner worlds fascinate me – and I began to wonder how gay and lesbian elders experience life. This interest was also deeply connected to a personal story: I never came out to my grandparents. That’s where the idea took shape – I would seek out, all over Italy, a group of people apparently unrelated to each other who, like me, shared a sexual orientation, and who, like my grandparents, were in their later years. In doing so, I would recreate, metaphorically, a coming out – and above all, an intergenerational one.

I would tell them who I was – my aspirations, my dreams, my fears, my thoughts – and, in doing so, invite them to share the same with me. The result would be a genuine exchange between a young lesbian who never had the chance to come out to her grandparents and a group of older homosexual people who, due to Italy’s laws on LGBT rights, had never been able to have children – and therefore grandchildren – to whom they could pass on their legacy.

And it worked exactly that way. I kept working on the project until 2019, well beyond the master’s, travelling all over Italy – from the north to the south, including the islands – to make these portraits and tell these stories. Wish it Was a Coming Out is, without doubt, the first of my projects that I can call mature, and also the first in which I was able to fully express that inclination towards introspection and intimacy that had been present since my earliest self-portraits with my father’s Praktica.

What projects are you currently working on? What are your near-future plans for photographic production?

Over the past year, I have been focused on promoting my latest work, That Month, which deals with the theme of mental health. It tells my own autobiographical story of living with borderline personality disorder and type 2 bipolar disorder, set in the context of a psychiatric clinic. Once again, introspection and autobiography are at the heart of the work.

I also have a project on hold – once again an introspective one – about sexuality and physical disability. I began it a couple of years ago in Bologna, the city where I used to live, by telling the story of a gay friend of mine who has ataxia and expresses his interest in sex. I now wish to expand it in southern Italy, telling the stories of other people, whether homosexual or heterosexual, since I am now based mainly in the Naples area.

In the near future, I hope to find ways to better promote That Month, which so far has not received the attention I was hoping for, and to continue gathering and telling life stories with intimacy and depth.