Mario has a secret. Whenever he takes his pictures, he becomes invisible. He is able to shoot hundreds of photos and remain completely unnoticed, like a placard on a wall or a lamppost at a street corner. I have never understood how he can do so, but maybe this is the key of art-making: being at once invisible and yet indisputably there, compressing the your own presence and voice in order to allow a magnified expression of the world around you.
Serenella Iovino
BIOGRAPHY
Mario Amura (b. 1973 Naples ) begun photographing in the 1990s. The first body of that work was collected in Fotografie 1995–1999, published by Memoli Arte Contemporanea in Milan. Later projects include Sleepers, made in New Delhi, and Fujenti, begun in 2007.
In 2010 he began Napoli Explosion. Every New Year's Eve he photographs from Monte Faito the fireworks that the people of Naples set off across the bay, in front of Vesuvius. The images are made entirely in camera: framing, exposure time and camera movement turn the luminous traces into painterly compositions, while post-production is limited to colour correction. They remain photographs of a real event. The project has been exhibited at Capodimonte, at the Real Albergo dei Poveri and in Rio de Janeiro, and is the subject of two monographs with texts by Salvatore Settis, Sylvain Bellenger, Erri De Luca, Serenella Iovino, Bruno Di Marino and Serafino Murri.
After a degree in International Law at the University of Naples, Amura studied cinematography at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome under Giuseppe Rotunno, cinematographer to Fellini and Visconti. He would later receive the award named after Rotunno twice. As a cinematographer he has worked with Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino, Vincenzo Marra, Saverio Costanzo, Sabina Guzzanti and Paola Randi; the films he photographed have been shown in Venice, Berlin and Cannes. As a director he made Racconto di guerra (2003), which won the David di Donatello for best short film, and co-directed with Cécile Allegra the documentary Italie et Mafia: un pacte sanglant, broadcast by France Télévisions.
Cinema never replaced photography. The two run in parallel, alongside a third line of research: since 2005 Amura has been developing StopEmotion, a performative photographic practice in which sequences of still images are played live against music.
AWARDS
2018 — Étoile de la Scam, per Italie et Mafia: un pacte sanglant
2007 — Giuseppe Rotunno Award for best cinematography, for In memoria di me
2007 — Ciak d'oro nomination for best cinematography, for In memoria di me
2005 — Giuseppe Rotunno Award for best cinematography, for Vento di terra
2004 — Ciak d'oro for best short film, for Racconto di guerra
2003 — David di Donatello for best short film, for Racconto di guerra
PUBLICATIONS
Mario Amura. Napoli Explosion. Fogos, Cores, Luzes. Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Rio de Janeiro, 2026. Texts by Joaquim Marçal Andrade and Serafino Murri
Mario Amura. Napoli Explosion. Vol. 2. Vesev Impresa Sociale, 2025. Texts by Sylvain Bellenger, Erri De Luca, Gaetano Manfredi, Serafino Murri, Salvatore Settis. ISBN 979-12-243-1275-8
Mario Amura. Napoli Explosion. Vol. 1. Vesev Impresa Sociale, 2023. Texts by Sylvain Bellenger, Bruno Di Marino, Serenella Iovino, Serafino Murri. ISBN 979-12-210-4935-0
Mario Amura. Fotografie 1995–1999. Memoli Arte Contemporanea, Milan, 1999. Texts by Lorenzo Cuna and Serenella Iovino
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025–2026 — Mario Amura: Napoli Explosion. Fogos, Cores e Luzes, Polo Cultural ItaliaNoRio, Rio de Janeiro. Organised by the Italian Cultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro
2025–2026 — Napoli Explosion RAP, Real Albergo dei Poveri, Naples. Curated by Sylvain Bellenger
2023–2024 — Mario Amura: Napoli Explosion, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples. Curated by Sylvain Bellenger
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bruno Di Marino, «Vesuvio, una visione instabile», il manifesto, 3 February 2026
Giovanni Ruggiero, «Mario Amura», FOTOIT, FIAF, December 2024 – January 2025, pp. 32–36
Domenico Marcella, «Mario Amura: con Napoli Explosion il reportage si fa arte», Treccani, 6 November 2024
Salvatore Settis, «E Mario Amura immortala Napoli di fine d’anno», Il Sole 24 Ore, 17 March 2024
Maria D’Ambrosio, «Frammenti di un discorso errante e sul farsi fuoco di terra lucente», Nòva – Il Sole 24 Ore, 2 January 2024
Serenella Iovino, Paesaggio civile, Il Saggiatore, 2022, pp. 44–46
Serafino Murri, Sign(s) of the Times, Meltemi, 2020, pp. 165–167
Serenella Iovino, «Editorial: Creative Writing and Art», Ecozon@, vol. 9, n. 1, 2018, pp. 129–133
Serenella Iovino, «Bodies of Naples», in Ecocriticism and Italy, Bloomsbury Academic, 2016
Stefano Masi, Dizionario mondiale dei direttori della fotografia, Le Mani, 2007, pp. 34–35
Edoardo Bruno, «L’occhio umile», Filmcritica, 2007, pp. 9–11
WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Napoli — NAPEX 223181, 2022
Pio Monte della Misericordia, Napoli — NAPEX 7303222, 2017
FILMOGRAPHY
Director
2017 — Italie et Mafia: un pacte sanglant, documentary, with Cécile Allegra
2015 — Quasi Amici, television format, Sky Sport 24
2014 — Portrait from a Set, short film
2003 — Racconto di guerra, short film
Cinematographer
2014 — Scandalo in sala. La sfida tra Potere e Cinema in Italia, dir. Serafino Murri and Alexandra Rosati, documentary
2012 — Prima di tutto, dir. Marco Simon Puccioni, documentary
2012 — La Brigade, section anti-narcotiques de Naples, di Cécile Allegra, documentario
2010 — Napoli 24, anthology film
2010 — Into Paradiso, dir. Paola Randi
2010 — Draquila – L’Italia che trema, dir. Sabina Guzzanti, documentary
2010 — Due vite per caso, di Alessandro Aronadio
2009 — Feisbum – Il film, anthology film
2008 — Il grande progetto, dir. Vincenzo Marra, documentary
2008 — Solo amore, dir. Volfango De Biasi, documentary
2008 — La seconda volta non si scorda mai, di Francesco Ranieri Martinotti
2007 — In memoria di me, dir. Saverio Costanzo
2006 — L’udienza è aperta, dir. Vincenzo Marra, documentary
2006 — Il vizio dell’amore, dir. Valia Santella, TV series, one episode
2006 — Ti lascio perché ti amo troppo, di Francesco Ranieri Martinotti
2006 — Bambini, di Alessio Maria Federici, Peter Marcias, Andrea Burrafato, Michele Rho
2005 — Melissa P., di Luca Guadagnino
2005 — Nessun messaggio in segreteria, di Paolo Genovese e Luca Miniero
2005 — The Changing of the Guard, di Serafino Murri, cortometraggio
2004 — Sabato, domenica e lunedì, di Paolo Sorrentino, film TV
2004 — Vento di terra, di Vincenzo Marra
2004 — Cuoco contadino, di Luca Guadagnino, documentario
2003 — Paesaggio a sud, dir. Vincenzo Marra, documentary
2003 — E io ti seguo, di Maurizio Fiume
2003 — Ritratto di bambino, di Gianluca Jodice, cortometraggio
2003 — L’ultimo rimasto in piedi, di Ugo Capolupo, cortometraggio
2002 — Coppia, di Paolo Genovese e Luca Miniero, cortometraggio
2001 — On est venu me chercher, di Ilana Navaro, cortometraggio
2001 — Generazioni d’amore – Le quattro Americhe di Fernanda Pivano, di Ottavio Rosati, documentario
2001 — La notte lunga, di Paolo Sorrentino, cortometraggio
2000 — Monna Lisa, di Matteo Delbò, cortometraggio