Documentary filmmaker & visual storyteller
MariaMessanaColville
I make documentaries, photobooks and social content about people, the places they look after, and the ideas that shape them. I studied psychology before photography, so most of my work starts with a question about who we are.
- FilmDocumentary, travel series, social & branded content
- PrintPhotobooks, zines & editorial design
- BasedLondon. Grew up in Nairobi, studied in Exeter & Milan
- SpeaksEnglish, Italian, some French & Spanish
Projects
Local Ocean Conservation
Sea turtles and the people protecting them on the Kenyan coast.
Miles Driven
A road trip around Sicily, one chapter a day.
The People We Meet
Backpacking Australia through the faces met along the way.
Malak of Food
Building a chef's Instagram and TikTok from scratch.
Safari
Long drives, wildlife and waterfalls with friends.
Art & Science Movement
Life under the microscope, up close and unlabelled.
Emergency
A photo dossier on Emergency's volunteers across Italy.
Generation Z
A pocket book of memes on how we laugh online.
Identity
Passport photos of me and my brother, from birth to now.
Landmark
A daily BeReal diary between my room and the world.
Superstitions
Good luck, bad luck and the folklore behind them.
Mary Contrary
Interviews on what it means to be an outsider.
Obsession
“I make art as I sleep”: one night as a time-lapse.
Human vs Nature
A Kenyan forest and Italian ski slopes, paired as diptychs.
Social Experiment
Six experiments in watching how people behave.
The 4 P's
A magazine quiz on who Generation Z really are.
Master's Portfolio
The complete portfolio from my master's in Milan.