I’ve been working with Fine Art photographer Luisa Lanza on a mentoring basis since May 2013 .

Luisa arrived to me looking for help with editing her portfolio; she had a round of important reviews coming and she wanted to give her best shot.
Being also a very talented graphic designer, she had imagery that used both photography and graphic elements in a very powerful way, but that somehow worked against the subtle, truer spirit of her art.

After an emergency editing for the reviews, during which she had very positive feedback, Luisa decided to go deeper and start a real “search of herself” through her own work; we agreed to go back to the basics and start all over with the unprocessed files and make a complete editing of all her work, to find the strongest themes, a cohesive style but most of all the real stories hidden behind her very delicate and yet extremely strong pictures.

The result has been an incredible journey into raw feelings, moods and dreams that brought to the surface Luisa's symbolic vision with such force as to leave both amazed. Even more, what was emerging was an unpredicted, natural storytelling gift, something that I have seldom seen in a Fine Art photographer.

We chose a much less invasive postproduction style for each story, sequenced them carefully, and then decided to relaunch her work with a brand new website; we found a perfect Wordpress linear theme which would showcase her storytelling skills at their best, organized a very simple structure, and launched it.

After 2 weeks from the new website’s publication Luisa received an email from a private collectionist who bought two complete series of her work.

Working with Luisa has been and keeps being a very creative experience for me; the talent, the vision and the courage that little elves can have!!



Luisa has been so kind to share her thoughts on our work together:

“I met Raffaela through "The Photographer's Room" (Milan, Italy), and there was an immediate understanding between us. From there it’s been a continuous progress for me, she greatly helped me to enhance my projects and grow as a photographer, developing the true characteristics of my work. The work we did together was fun and truly helpful; it’s great to know she’ll always be there when I need her.”