Stefano
Delìa

Photography is not a work of representation, it is a work of translation, and therefore of understanding meanings.

Identity

I am a photographer and visual artist based in Rome with over twenty years of experience. I work across different languages (unit stills, portraiture, luxury, haute cuisine, editorial, conceptual fine art research) and in every context I bring the same gaze: matter, light, the relationship between body and environment. The subject changes, the way I observe it does not.

Training and career

I graduated with honours in Communication Sciences at the University of Rome Tor Vergata in 2008. In 2009 I was selected for a Magnum Photos workshop with Chris Steele-Perkins (which also included Bruce Gilden, Carl De Keyzer and Antoine d’Agata), with the final works exhibited at MACBA in Barcelona. That same year I joined Fabio Lovino’s studio as his first assistant, a role I held until 2012: an experience that shaped my approach to portraiture, set dynamics and large-scale productions.

For the following ten years I ran the photo and video department of BLANK, a communication agency, leading teams across many clients and working on how still and moving images build a brand’s identity. Since 2024 I have been freelance again.

Approach

I do not wait for a subject to be ready to be photographed. I enter the project, understand how the client thinks and what they want to communicate, and from there I build a visual reading that is not the execution of a brief but the interpretation of something real. From cinema I learned to use light as emotion, from luxury the discipline of form and detail, from auteur cuisine the value of gesture and raw material. These worlds feed each other and I try to carry that into the images.

Professional experience

I have collaborated with international brands and institutions (Dom Pérignon, Ruinart, Krug, Burberry, Alcantara, MAXXI) and with some of the most significant audiovisual productions globally, including HBO and Netflix. I have photographed chefs and leading figures of Italian gastronomy such as Luciano Monosilio, Tommaso Tonioni and Domenico Marotta, and worked for Italia Squisita, Cook_inc and Food & Wine Italia. As a unit stills photographer I have worked on productions including The White Lotus (HBO, seasons two and three), The Swarm (ZDF/RAI Fiction) and numerous Italian films distributed by 01 Distribution; my cast photo for the third season of The White Lotus was published worldwide.

Artistic research

Alongside commissioned work I develop long-term artistic projects with a strong conceptual component.

The most recent is Honeymoon (2025). Together with beekeeper Massimiliano Panella I entrusted everyday objects to a colony of bees, which over several months covered them in wax and rewrote them until their original identity was gone. The project became a photographic series, the frames transformed by the bees (shown as installations) and a short documentary co-produced by Cinecittà, directed by Luca Onorati with music by Coca Puma, in competition at the Visioni dal Mondo festival 2026 in Milan.

I am represented by Herd Represent (London) and Image in Progress (Rome) for my limited and numbered fine art editions.

Teaching

Since March 2026 I have been teaching creative thinking development at Scuola Tessieri, an institute of advanced culinary training.

Press about my work

Honeymoon was covered by Cinecittà News (August 2026) and, in September 2026, by the press of the Sannio region: NTR24, L’eco del Sannio, BeneventoNews24, Ottopagine, Lab TV and Fremondoweb.

My photographs from The White Lotus have appeared in The Guardian, Variety, TIME, Vanity Fair, GQ, Esquire and The Hollywood Reporter; those of ARSO in Gambero Rosso, Fine Dining Lovers, Reporter Gourmet and Identità Golose; my portraits of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso in il manifesto, Il Mattino and Classic Rock. I shot the covers of Food & Wine Italia (August–September 2025) and of Cucina & Vini, in an issue devoted to chef Massimo Viglietti, and my photographs appear online and in print in Cook_inc and Italia Squisita. Other work has been published in Vogue, Maxim, la Repubblica and Corriere della Sera.

The main features, with links to the articles, are collected on the Publications page.