bio

Born in Venice, where he still lives, Paolo della Corte studied Art History at Ca’ Foscari University before pursuing a career in professional photography. Specialising in portraiture and cultural reportage, he later became Professor of Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice.

Throughout his career, he has photographed more than five hundred internationally renowned artists and writers, including Louise Bourgeois, Roy Lichtenstein, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Emilio Vedova, Doris Lessing, Günter Grass and Claudio Magris.

His photographs have appeared in major Italian and international publications, including La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera, La Stampa, L’Espresso, Paris Match, Le Monde, Libération, Die Zeit and The Guardian.

In recent years, his work focuses on urban resilience, climate change, and the transformation of the Venetian Lagoon’s ecosystems through photographic and installation projects that bring together art and scientific research.

In (r)Esistere a Venezia (2019), Venetians stand motionless while crowds of tourists dissolve into blurred streams around them. Venezia 2050 DC… e venne l’acqua grandissima imagines a future shaped by rising tides, portraying twenty residents submerged in water as contemporary amphibious figures.

A further example is Venezia 2050 DC …e venne l’acqua grandissima (2021) showing how the city could be in about thirty years. According to the latest studies, there is a high probability that it could be frequently submerged by exceptional tides. For this reason, Paolo portrayed 20 Venetians immersed in a large aquarium of the Hotel Aquarius, in Campo San Giacomo, to turn them into amphibious men swimming and living the “calli”, adapting to the new environment by resisting and not abandoning the city.

With Flooded Souls (2022-26), della Corte submerged twenty photographic still lifes of fish from the Venetian Lagoon beneath its waters. Over several weeks, algae, mud and shellfish transformed each canvas, allowing the lagoon itself to leave a physical trace upon the images.

2024
Venezia Flooded Souls 2020-24. The end
Dok’s Cantieri Cucchini a cura di Laura Riolfatto

2023
Urbi et Orbi, Biennale della Fotografia
Francia Sedan, residenza d’artista

2022
Flooded Souls
Venezia Spazio Eventi La Toletta
a cura di Michele Alassio

2021
Venezia 2050 DC …e venne l’acqua grandissima
Venezia, Ateneo Veneto + Aquarius

2019
So.La.Stal.Gi.A
Roma, Mattatoio
a cura di Valentina Vitozzi e Silvia Piola
/
(r)Esistere a Venezia, ritratti di veneziani resistenti
Scola San Giovanni in Bragora, Venezia

2018
Anomale architetture
Spazio Silos, Venezia
/
Milano Fotografia Europea
Castello Visconteo di Legnano, (MI)
/
Resilienza
Circolo Arci Bellezza, Milano

2017
Volti e storie di una comunità. Ritratti, oggetti, memorie
a cura di Marcella Ansaldi e Serena Guidobaldi.
Museo Ebraico, Venezia
/
Cibum nostrum
a cura di Serenella Bulgari
Palazzo Senato, Milano
/
Foodgraphia
a cura di Angelo Cucchetto
Palazzo Senato, Milano
/
Triennale di fotografia italiana
a cura di Giorgio Grasso e Luigi Gattinara
Ca’ Zenobio, Venezia

2016
Architetture aliene
Spazio Silos, Venezia
a cura di Italo Zannier e Massimo Donà

2014
Food Life
A cura di Debora Ferrari e Luca Traini
Convento dell’ Annunziata, Abbiategrasso (MI)

2011
Arts is Game
54 Biennale Arti Visive di Venezia, evento collaterale
A cura di Debora Ferrari, Luca Traini e Domenico Quaranta

1997
Zanzotto e il paesaggio
Biblioteca di Pieve di Soligo, a cura di Toni Follina.

1993
Ritratti di fumettisti
Treviso Comics, a cura di Silvano Mezavilla