Manuela De Leonardis

Born in Rome in 1966, Manuela De Leonardis is an art historian, journalist, and independent curator.

She graduated in Modern Art History and, from 1997 to 2004, collaborated with the Fototeca Nazionale/ICCD in Rome, focusing on research, cataloging, and indexing of historical photographic collections.

A freelance journalist, she is a member of theItalianOrder of Journalistssince 1993. Currently, she writes about visual arts for Il Manifesto/Alias, Exibart, Art a part of Cult(ure), and Andy Magazine.In 2007, she began curatorial activities with the exhibition “L’Italia rurale degli anni Sessanta: Sardegna, Basilicata, Calabria nelle fotografie di Mario Carbone,” in collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Culturain Lille.

Other exihibitionsfollowed like “Piccole storie su Roma,” “Tempio di Adriano,” and the sixth edition of FotoGrafia –Festival Internazionale di Roma(2007). She also co-curated “Kakushiaji. Il gusto nascosto. Fotografie di Reiko Hiramatsu” (with Nicoletta Zanella) -FotoGrafia 2008 -Rome, Galleria Navona 42 (presented in the off-circuitof Fotografia Europea 2010, Reggio Emilia); “Ma la morte mai. Fotografie di Alessandro Martinelli” (with Nicoletta Zanella) -FotoGrafia 2008 -Rome, Biblioteca Angelica.Invited for portfolio readings atSI FEST -Savignano Immagini Festival 2008 and LDPF -Lucca Digital Photo Fest 2010 (where she was part of the jury for the Del Carlo Prize), she was a member of the international visual arts jury at the Fine Arts Festival in Muscat, Oman, in 2010.

Manuela De Leonardis is the author of several books, including “A tu per tu con i grandi fotografi -Vol. I” (Postcart 2011), “A tu per tu con grandi fotografi e videoartisti -Vol. II” (Postcart 2012), “A tu per tu con gli artisti che usano la fotografia -Vol.III” (Postcart 2013), “A tu per tu. Fotografi a confronto -Vol. IV” (Postcart 2017), “Isernia. L’altra memoria” (Volturnia Edizioni 2017), “Il sangue delle donne.

Tracce di rosso sul panno bianco” (Postmedia Books 2019), and “Jack Sal. Chrom/A” (Danilo Montanari Editore 2019).Exploring the relationship between art and food, she has published works such as “Kakushiaji, il gusto nascosto” (Gangemi 2008), “CAKE. La cultura del dessert tra tradizione araba e Occidente” (Postcart 2013), “Taccuino Sannita.

Ricette molisane degli anni Venti” (Ali&No 2015), “Jack Sal. HalfEmpty/Half Full -Food Culture Ritual” (2019), and “Ginger House” (2019). Since 2016, she has been part of the scientific committee of the Castelnuovo Fotografia festival in Castelnuovo di Porto, Rome.