Born and raised in Downtown Chicago, Luca Cristiano discovered his passion for photography at boarding school. He always has three cameras on hand: a polaroid 600, a Fuji Instax Mini 8, and his beloved Nikon D850 .

The artist describes his work as a response to the mass social distribution of filtered images via internet galleries and social media. To Cristiano, “the screen is an unfaithful medium through which to receive art, especially photographs. One must observe the actual significant surface: photos must therefore be hung on a wall and scanned for information, not devoured in mere seconds through a small screen,” (Luca Cristiano).

The source of Cristiano’s ingenuity in analog photography stems from his desire to transcend the technical and chemical boundaries of the Fuji mini integral film format. He came to the realization that Instax was, in essence, his own portable darkroom. Cristiano is fascinated with the immediacy of the results when using such a camera, stating: “Traditionally, the original is the negative, from which the print emerges, whereas this comes out finished. Instantaneous results are so cool! Then you take it a step further: how do I get in there? How do I mess with the process?” (Luca Cristiano).

Cristiano wishes to reveal the beauty of everyday life in the world of artifice. He thinks of taking photographs as an artful study, making it a point to check himself and ask important questions during the process: “How is the subject existing in the world and how is it interacting with what I am seeing? Why now? Why at this moment?” (Luca Cristiano).