Photography, Film & Visual Storytelling
Luna Coppola is a Barcelona-based photographer, filmmaker, visual artist and researcher whose practice moves between photography, film and new media.
With over 20 years of experience, her work spans commercial, editorial and documentary photography, while her artistic practice explores the boundaries between reality and fiction, human experience, domestic space and emerging digital environments.
THE IMAGE
Luna holds a BA in Film Studies and Humanities from the University of Bologna and worked as a cinematographer in Italian film productions between 1999 and 2005.
Deeply influenced by her background in film, her multidisciplinary work explores visual storytelling and the relationship between human beings, domestic space and emerging environments. Through photography and video, she investigates the porous boundaries between reality and fiction, expanding documentary practices toward a poetics of the future.
Over the past two decades, Luna has built an international career as a press photographer working across sports and documentary photography. Alongside her commissioned work, she has participated in training programs, residencies and masterclasses across Europe and the United States, and has lectured at institutions including UAB, IEFC, the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples and El Observatorio Barcelona.
Since 2010, Luna has developed her long-term autobiographical project L’Ospite, which has received international recognition and exhibitions, including the Forward Thinking Museum in New York, the International Photography Awards and Les Rencontres d’Arles.
The project reflects on chronic illness and motherhood, transforming personal experience into a broader exploration of identity, memory and human experience.
Collective Practice
Luna is the founder of the cooperative Base Ò, where she develops and leads visual culture and photography education programmes for secondary schools, working with students and educators through creative, collaborative and research-based projects.
She is also co-founder of Duae Collective, a multidisciplinary platform exploring photography, new media and contemporary visual culture.
Her educational practice includes the SelfBook Project, developed in collaboration with Cristina Nuñez and supported by La Caixa Obra Social and the Umbria Region, through which she delivered more than 40 workshops in secondary schools.
Through Duae Collective, Luna explores photography, new media and contemporary visual culture, investigating how emerging technologies and digital environments can expand visual storytelling and creative practice.
Her research is particularly interested in the relationship between image, technology and human experience. In 2021, she completed the Elements of AI – Introduction to Artificial Intelligence course at the University of Helsinki, incorporating these perspectives into her ongoing artistic and research practice.
EDUCATION
1999 – 2005 – BA Film Studies and History of Cinema at School of Arts, Humanities, and Cultural Heritage – Bologna University, IT
2008-2009 – Masterclass Magnum Photo: Workshop Antoine D’ Agata, Bruce Gilden, Alessandra Sanguinetti.
PUBLICATIONS
2016 – L’ Ospite – Il corpo solitario. L’ autoscatto nella fotografia contemporanea – II Vol. Giorgio Bonomi – Rubbettino Editore srl.
2015 – L’ Ospite – Tricycle Magazine-
2015 – Bulgaria Exodus – Gea Photowords – http://www.geaphotowords.com/blog/detras-de-una-foto-luna-coppola/
2013 – L’ Ospite – Huffington Post U.S – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/luna-coppola_n_4401041.html
AWARDS
2013 – L’ Ospite, First Prize, Forwording Thinking Museum, New York,
2013 – L’ Ospite, 3th Prize, International Photography Awards
TEACHING
2022 – On going – Coordinates the educational programs of the cooperative Base Ò
2017 – Geografia Sensible, El Observatorio, Barcelona.
2016: Selfbook at Perugia Social Photo Fest 2016, Italy
2015: Workshop Selfscape at Fine Art Accademy in Naples, Italy
2015: SelfBook at Perugia Young Center, Italy
2015: SelfBook at Institute of Photographic Studies of Catalonia (IEFC) of Barcelona
2015: SelfBook at Institute of Photographic Studies of Catalonia (IEFC) of Barcelona
2015: TNG teenagers “ Roca Umbert Granollers.- Barcelona
2015: Art Teacher at Quatre Camins Penitentiary Centre in Barcelona – Grant from Obra Social La Caixa.
2015: SELFIE QUINDI SONO – PEPITAL ONLUS MILAN
EXHIBITIONS & CONFERENCES
2021 – Besòs: A Noble Ecosystem, / Fabra I Coats, Fabrica de Creation, Jornadas ECOSS. Barcelona
2019 – Besòs: A Noble Ecosystem, Casa do Infante Museum / Bienal Fotografia de Oporto / May – July 2019, Porto, Portugal
2019 – The Origin, Museo Abellò / Abril – July 2019, Mollet del Valles, Barcelona, Spain
2019 – Besòs: A Noble Ecosystem, Espai Zero, Centro de Arte Contemporanea, Fabra i Coats / January – March 2019, Barcelona, Spain
2018 – The Coal Code, Plan B Barcelona ,Chiquita Room / November 2018, Barcelona, Spain
2018 – Besos: A Noble Ecosystem, Swab Art Fair Barcelona / September 2018, Barcelona, Spain
2018 – Besos: A Noble Ecosystem, ,Triennial of Photography Hamburg / June 2018, Hamburg, Germany
2018 – Nexus + E-Space / Open Sessions / Neighborhoods and artistic practices: Besos A Noble Ecosystem
2018 – L’ Ospite, Curated by Natasha Christia and Brad Feuerhelm, Group Exhibition, The Family of No Man, Les Rencontres de Arles
2017 – Alla Ricerca delle Colonne d’´Ercole – Festival a-More, Croazia
2016 – Leave ( a poem of traces ) – PhEST Festa Internazionale della Fotografia, Monopoli, Italy
2016 – Selfbook, Conference Photography Teraphy, Perugia Social Photo Fest, Perugia, Italy
2015 – L’Ospite, International Art Therapy Conferences, Fine Art Academy, Naples, Italy.
2015 – Selfbook curated by CFD Barcelona, Centro Fotografia Documental, Barcelona, Spain
2014 – Selfbook curated by Renata Ferri, Slide Luck, Spazio Labo, Bologna, Italy
2014 – Exporting Cures, curated by Arianna Rinaldo, Nits of Docfield, Barcelona, Spain
2013 – L’ Ospite, Perugia Social Photo Fest, Perugia, Italy