Firelight by Amy Friend

Firelight by Amy Friend is a captivating photographic collection that breathes new life into vintage photographs from the 1920s to the 1940s. Sourced from family albums, online finds, and market discoveries, these images are reimagined through Friend’s artistic vision. The series, titled “Dare alla Luce”—Italian for “to bring to the light”—embodies a dual meaning of illumination and birth.

By introducing delicate perforations and backlighting, Friend transforms these historical moments into
ethereal scenes where figures and landscapes are adorned with luminous patterns, evoking a sense of magic
and nostalgia.
This interplay of light and shadow invites viewers to reflect on the transient nature of time, memory, and
existence. Firelight is presented in a meticulously crafted volume, featuring laser-cut paper and French
binding, all encased in a clothbound box. This edition is a testament to the fusion of past and present, art and
artifact.
Curated by Laura Serani and designed by Gianni Giulianelli, Firelight is both a meditation on transience and a luminous dialogue between past and present.


This work began through conversations with my Nonna as we looked through old family albums, where fading memories revealed how photographs retain meaning even when their stories are incomplete. I began collecting vernacular images and, through hand-piercing the photographs to let light pass through, transformed each into something both material and immaterial. In doing so, I also consider the original photographer’s gesture, their light of that moment, as part of an ongoing dialogue about time, memory, and photography itself. The titles, whether from the image’s provenance or imagined, invite reflection on the boundaries between truth and invention, the instability of memory, and the overwhelming circulation of images in contemporary life- AF


 E Book HERE

Photo selection
© 2025 Amy Friend

Photography: Amy Friend
Curated by: Laura Serani
Design: Gianni Giulianelli
Publisher: L’Artiere Edizioni
Launch date: September, 2025