Michelle Davis

Born in Sacramento and raised in the golden foothills of California, Michelle Davis is a Florence-based artist, educator, and community builder. Her photographic practice explores the intersection of memory and image-making, a journey that led her to co-found Camera38 in 2024— a cultural association and grassroots space for “analog resistance.” This initiative reflects her deep-seated commitment to preserving analog traditions while fostering contemporary dialogue within the arts.

Michelle’s technical expertise is grounded in a Bachelor’s in Painting from the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze, a specialized three-year program in Photography and New Media at Fondazione Studio Marangoni, and a Master’s Degree in Art Education. Her interest in alternative processes dates back to her late teens, when she first began developing film in her bathroom, a passion later refined through workshops with experts like “Rino” Salvatore De Donatis and Carolyn Drake. Her skills were recently augmented by a 2025 internship at Diamantino Labo Photo in Paris, where she specialized in fine art analog printing. Emulsion-based arts are treasure troves for metabolic patience. They allow us to witness the literal, scientific touch of light upon the world while providing a quiet, dark sanctuary to contemplate our place within it.

As an instructor at the Santa Reparata International School of Art and the Florence Institute of Design International, she guides students in using photography as a “cognitive tool” to interrogate their surroundings. In her courses, which include “Discovering Florence Through Photography”, “Experimental Photography,” and “History of Photography”, she invokes John Szarkowski’s philosophy that photographs can serve as both mirrors and windows to better understand the self and the world.

Michelle Davis’s multifaceted career also extends into the linguistic realm, where she writes articles and occasionally works as a translator for specialized photographic publications such as photographer Valerio Geraci’s “American Eden” and the Quaderni della Collezione Donata Pizzi which focuses on the history of Italian women photographers from the 1960s to the present.

Her exhibition history features solo commissioned shows such as Polaroid Isolotto and Q4 Family at Galleria Isolotto, run by Florentine polymath Virgilio Sieni, as well as collective exhibitions like Dis-Connessi at the Museo Degli Innocenti, the result of a workshop with documentary photographer Raimond Wouda, and the Simposio Internazionale D’Arte in Scampia, where she was selected for an artist residency. Additionally, her series Split Land was displayed during the 2022 edition of the Ragusa Photo Festival. Currently, Michelle serves as the official analog portrait photographer for La Cap Re-Hub, an artist residency in Tuscany.