Published by
Mondadori Electa

43 Photographs by
Fabrizio Portalupi

Femina Fera
Elisabetta Coraini

Original Poetic Verses by
Giuseppina Amodei

Femina Fera is a metamorphoses from a human being into a beast; a sort of photographic “safari” where the camera embarks on a hunt for a woman who is the essence of both spirit and fera. The actress Elisabetta Coraini undergoes a great transformation as she journeys deeper and deeper into the wilderness of nature. She wins over her fear and starts to move and hunt like an animal; she goes from being a slave to her own self-imposed limitations to a potent dominatrix.
“For months I observed – Elisabetta explained – the movements of lions, of leopards and of other animals including the bald eagle and various kinds of apes of all sizes. I watched dozens of wildlife documentaries, studied photograph after photograph of their movements, their facial expressions. Then I started to move around, even at home, on all fours. I tried to perceive the beast’s internal workings, their sense of hunger, of thirst; the desire to hunt one’s prey.
I won over my fears by confronting the journey as an actress. During the shoot I climbed trees, dove into swamps covered in nothing but my own skin, I bit into wild flesh and felt instantly at ease with the universe. It’s really hard to explain the sensations I felt after the hunt. The project transformed itself into a uniquely potent life experience that couldn’t be relinquished.”

“Femina Fera – Fabrizio Portalupi says – is a tale of excesses. The images are a metaphor for a spiritual process that is undertaken. Initially too imbalanced in her femininity, the female is too afraid, servile, and incapable of opposing an incalculable destiny that had been immutable for too long. Too imbalanced in her masculinity is the woman who out of her sheer instinct for survival reacts ferociously. She goes from being the victim to becoming the executioner to the point of finding nourishment within herself, from her anger, from the intoxication that comes with having a new form of power. The woman we revisit in the last few images of the tale is divinely marvelous and consciously awake. She found a balance, a perfect equilibrium between the masculine and the feminine, between firmness and sweetness and between strength and mercy.
She roars, devours and gives into the harmony; she gives into life.”

insights:

Fabrizio Portalupi Official Site >>> www.fabrizioportalupi.com

Elisabetta Coraini Official website >>> www.elisabettacoraini.com

Giuseppina Amodei Official Site >>> www.giuseppinaamodei.com