The Berardo Collection

Born in Denver (Colorado, USA) in a family of artists (her mother was a ceramist and her father a painter). She showed an interest in photography early in life and was only thirteen or fourteen when her first works were made. She quickly adopted black and white photography. In a very short amount of time, she produced a remarkably intense and moving collection. From 1975 to 1979, she studied at the Rhode Island school of design in Providence. A scholarship allowed her to spend a year in Rome at the Palazzo Cenci. There (1977-78), she discovered the gallery-library Maldoror which specializes in Surrealism and Futurism, and produced her first exhibition. Back in the United States, she finished her degree in Providence, and moved to New York. She developed more ambitious projects such as diazotypes (large blueprints on blue or brown paper). She drew several book prototypes presenting her photographes. Only Some Disordered Interior Geometries will be published in 1981, the year she ended her life at 22 years old. She leaves behind over 800 clichés staged herself. She further wrote in her journal “Being photographed helps me being myself.”