meet Debora

In 2010, Debora Medici-Guetta made up her mind to make a new start. She picked up a camera and began the intuitive process of reframing who she was—one image at a time.

It had been nearly a decade since the Italian-born, Los Angeles-based photographer had focused on her own creative practice. Her passion for graphic art, photojournalism, and documentary films had given way to the demands of family and the unexpected ascent of her partner’s career. A return to artmaking meant embarking, in Medici-Guetta’s words, on “a big, long, introspective journey.”

After several years refining her technique and honing her perspective, she revealed a series of photographs aptly titled Out of the Shadow, a haunting body of images that reflected her desire to shed the trappings of the past and position herself fully as an artist in the world. Fittingly, she followed this exhibition with Landed, a series of collages capturing the frenetic yet freeing energy of the world’s great urban centers.

Debuting in Spring 2015, Landedintroduced the distinctive technique Medici-Guetta uses to manipulate photographic prints in unique ways. By cutting and hand-weaving together separate images of the same metropolitan scene, she crafts a heightened sense of space and movement. Reveling in both the chaos and the calm of these transformed moments, Landed established Medici-Guetta as a vital witness to the madness and beauty of contemporary life.
As her vision expanded, so did her commitment to impact. She began working with—and eventually joined the board of directors of—We Do It Together (WDIT), the nonprofit dedicated to producing films, documentaries, television, and new media that advance women’s empowerment. From 2022 to the present, Medici-Guetta has been actively involved in the organization’s I AM campaign, with initiatives spanning New York, Turin, and Rome, Italy. For International Women’s Day, she also served as honorary set photographer and producer for the documentary One of Us, sponsored by the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles and the Italian Embassy in Washington.

Following the successful presentation of her Landedexhibition in 2021, Medici-Guetta has continued to evolve her practice and expand her international presence. Today, she presents her work privately from her Studio City, California studio, where she hosts curated art salons for collectors and invited guests. Recent highlights include an exhibition at Alley Gallery in Beverly Hills, California, and the creation of cover artwork for three books published in Italy.

Reflecting on her journey, Medici-Guetta emphasizes that her work now prioritizes emotions over mere moments, focusing on the release and reinterpretation of experience.
“It’s more about feelings now than the experience,” says Medici-Guetta, describing an ever-evolving path in which capturing the moment is perhaps less important than releasing it from its cage.