Anna Maconi (Voghera, 1996) is a photographer, designer, and founder of Makvol Projects, an independent publishing initiative. She attended the Faculty of Design and Arts at the University of Bolzano, furthering her studies in photography in Germany at FH Gestaltung Bielefeld and in Jerusalem at the Bezalel Academy. She graduated with a thesis on the allure of authenticity and then specialized at LUCA in Brussels, earning a Master’s degree in Audiovisual Arts. Makvol’s work has been featured in international art publishing events such as the Paris Ass Book Fair, Miss Read Berlin, Fabrica, and Fotografia Europea. She works as a photographer, designer, and art director in the fields of culture and design. She lives and works between Bolzano and Milan.
@annamakvol
(7) different possibilities of human beauty (2019)
This project was born during a time when I often wondered what it truly meant to be beautiful; I asked myself why some people fascinated me more than others. It has little to do with the beauty of a face—something for which no one can take credit—but rather responds to another kind of beauty: the kind that depends on how we exercise our freedom.
True beauty lies in the courage to present oneself naturally, true to one’s own self, without trying to resemble something else, without conforming to uniform standards. To tell the story of this project, I chose seven people and interviewed them, with the desire to bring what was inside them out into the open. And I wasn’t surprised to see that our best selves coincide with our dreams.
The moving images of (7) different possibilities of human beauty are accompanied by a book divided into two main sections. The first gathers all the research and documentation of the work. It includes a chapter on the history of beauty, on differences in taste, on the necessity of poetry, and various reflections regarding customs, places, films, and photography, supported by visual and theoretical references. The second part of the book is dedicated exclusively to the stories and interviews of the “non-actors” involved in the project.
