A visual evolution seven years in the making.
The subject
ARSO, Tommaso Tonioni's contemporary rural cooking: live fire, a direct farm supply chain. Born in 2019 as a pop-up at Pulicaro, since 2025 in Orvieto, named Newcomer of the Year 2026 by Gambero Rosso.
The point of view
Tommaso and I started from very different places: he was used to shooting many dishes in a single session, while I had just begun spending up to an hour on one photograph. Talking it through, he understood why, and we have been working together for more than seven years.
Once I understood Tommaso's radical soul, we drew on sixteenth-century Flemish painting and the daguerreotype: an analogue feel to bring back the sense of an ancient gesture, the same one you find in his kitchen.
Art direction means finding an aesthetic register that tells the identity of the work at once.
The journey
Photographer and art director of ARSO since 2019: beyond the photographs, menus, website, palette and tone of voice built together with Tommaso. The image I'm proudest of is the still life of the chicken with the golden head, Pulicaro 2021.
Published in Gambero Rosso, Fine Dining Lovers, Reporter Gourmet and Identità Golose.
Food & Beverage Photography: ARSO / Tommaso Tonioni
Photographer and art director for ARSO, chef Tommaso Tonioni’s gastronomic project. Before settling in Orvieto, ARSO was a travelling restaurant: residencies at Agriturismo Pulicaro, collaborations with chefs including Nino Rossi (Qafiz, Michelin star), pop-ups across Italy.
Tonioni butchers and cooks without intermediaries, and the photography follows the whole cycle from land to plate: it has become part of the project’s identity and a way of talking about the value of food. Tonioni is an Italian finalist for the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy and winner of the Acqua Panna Award for Connection in Gastronomy.
Do you have a subject that deserves a point of view, not just a photograph?