I was drawn to the femminielli: blurring gender in Naples
Roman Manfredi took to the Neopolitan streets to photograph intimate portraits of locals who live outside binary gender expectations
TL;DR
- Roman Manfredi is a lens-based artist using analogue photography, moving image, and sound.
- His series TRA is inspired by the Neapolitan *femminiello*, a revered figure spiritually favourable and considered to live outside binary gender expectations.
- Manfredi aimed to explore how gender is embodied and lived through cultural and historical perspectives beyond white North American and northern European academic frameworks.
- Naples was chosen as a place that is accepting, celebratory, and respected in Italy regarding gender expression.
- The discovery of an archival photograph of the artist's nonna in a scene possibly depicting the wedding of two women deepened the exploration of local histories and queerness.
- The word 'tra' signifies a state of being between, among, and within, representing an energetic space where masculine and feminine converge and dissolve.
- The work combines medium-format colour portraiture, point-and-shoot photography, and monochrome Super 8 film.
- TRA resists academic intellectualization, piecing together tradition and transformation.
- The Jerwood/Photoworks Awards 5 exhibition features Manfredi's work alongside Sayuri Ichida's and is part of Season of Photography 2026 in Scotland.