My name is Stéphanie Barbetta and I am an Italian-Swiss multidisciplinary artist based in Geneva. I create on-site portraits and have produced two photographic series for which you can contact me: firstly, a series on empty homes (Empty Home, published by Georg, featured in *Portrait du Temps* on 26 March 2026), in which I capture photographic portraits of people who are about to leave their home just before handing back the keys, in order to give form to this space of resonance between the apparent emptiness and the sense of belonging; and, secondly, a series on childhood and the life story that we need to rewrite through gestures (Carrying one’s childhood with oneself and seeing what emerges), which enables participants to recreate, through materials, colours and objects, an alternative to a life story that seems to have come to a standstill. 

Apart from these specific series, I offer photographic services capturing key moments – from street protests to intimate moments in life that leave their mark, whether through their exceptional nature or, conversely, their everyday ordinariness (including photography of unions, separations and births). 

​

I am a photographer and poet whose work centres on the themes of grief, birth and transitions. My explorations in photography, poetry and performance always stem from a need to use a different language to give voice to a sensation that is unexpressed, buried or too overwhelming to manifest itself in its raw, unadorned form. My approach aims to be cathartic and playful.

 

I have always found refuge in words and images – a kind of second sanctuary that I have come to know well enough to offer you carefully crafted visual and textual experiences.

My work forms part of a school of thought that I have developed, which I call ‘Traum-a’ – a blend of ‘dream’ (Traum) and ‘trauma’ – designed to embrace those phases of life that seem to float by, elusive and intangible. Words give form to sensations and weave a skin that settles that falls from my mouth onto the pages. The same applies to images that are perceived or projected. In both these spaces, I provide a space for resonance, in Hartmut Rosa’s sense, for listening, for care and for artistic sublimation. 

I've studied philosophy and literature in Arts Faculty at the University of Geneva to grasp myself through texts and to penetrate and analyze others' language, in their sinuous paths. I became more and more attached to styles of writing, as well as to individuals because I felt an authentic discourse that revealed rich inner lands.

 
However, my studies lacked the body. Theatre made me realize that my body spoke more than my words in a language that no one could translate, including me. Dance and performance sketched inimitable movements. The scores can be reproduced indefinitely, but the embodiment changes each time and it's this uniqueness that animates me. 

During my professional training as an actress at the Geneva Conservatory and at the Ecole Supérieure des Teintureries de Lausanne, encounters with artists such as Frédéric Fonteyne, Gian Manuel Rau, Emilie Blaser, Marco Cantalupo, Olivier Dubois, Jean-Baptiste Roybon and Massimo Furlan have carved rich inner grooves. It was in 2020 that my photographic work began to attract attention (it won awards and was exhibited internationally; see exhibitions and publications) and, in the same year, my writing began to be published by publishing houses, in magazines and in competitions.

 

The body in space is essential to me. 

My visual influences converge as much with Sophie Calle, who transcends private space by immersing the public, as with Spencer Tunick, who saturates public space with a crowd of individuals, blurring the boundaries between private and public. 

The art in which I identify myself is an art that gives an equal importance to places, objects, lights and people, whether this art is performative, choreographic, cinematographic or theatrical.

I created the substance brute project from what I call Traum-a, a place between dream (Traum) and trauma. The result is a raw, unaltered material, bringing together my creations in various artistic fields. 

 

If my background resonates with what you’re looking for, please get in touch – I’d be delighted to hear from you and to make time to meet you. I use photography, writing and the performing arts to support people through life’s journeys, bereavement and times of transition