EXILE

About

EXILE is a cinematic studio series created in the midst of PTSD. Through hand-made costumes, tribal makeup, and cinematic lighting, Serani transformed trauma into resilience. Each figure embodies the outsider - scarred yet unbroken - reflecting strength and survival in the face of exile.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Serani is a filmmaker, commercial director, and emerging photographer based in Europe. Her work bridges cinema and still image, bringing a narrative intensity to experimental photography. Photography became both a playground and a lifeline — a way to translate her filmmaker’s eye into static frames that pulse with story. Rather than pursuing technical perfection, she embraces a cinematic approach: dramatic lighting, hand-crafted costumes, and tribal makeup that transform her sitters into characters inhabiting imagined worlds.

Exile, one of her earliest studio photographic collections, embodies this spirit of experimentation. Shot largely on an iPhone with improvised studio gear, the collection reflects her love for playing with light and her fascination with resilience and identity.

Though new to studio photography, Serani’s images are unapologetically bold and theatrical, rooted in her background as a filmmaker. She continues to develop her practice in the studio, driven by the same impulse that fuels her filmmaking — to create images that are cinematic in scale and charged with story, evoking entire worlds in a single frame.

"My practice sits at the intersection of film and photography, using light, costume, and gesture to create experimental images that feel cinematic rather than documentary. I first began as a street and landscape photographer, drawn to natural light and fleeting moments. In 2024 I shifted into the studio, and built a simple setup where I could begin experimenting more deliberately with lighting, atmosphere, and constructed scenes.

What started as exploration quickly became a way to translate my filmmaker’s eye into still frames that carry story and emotion. I discovered a love for the studio as a stage — a space where every detail, from lighting to wardrobe, could be directed to build intensity and presence.

The series Exile was created during a period of personal upheaval, when I was searching for resilience within myself. I crafted the costumes by hand and applied the makeup myself, bringing a tribal element to the images to suggest our innate need for community and belonging. I used dramatic, directional light to shape figures into archetypes of survival.

I see myself still in an experimental phase, testing different forms of imagery, from fashion to AI-generated work. Whether in the studio or through digital tools, my passion lies in evoking a sense of inner power and heroism — creating images that help viewers recognise their own strength in the face of adversity and encouraging them to meet challenges with bravery".

ARTIST STATEMENT