In 2017 Bologna photographer Giuseppe Palmisano made a public call for 300 women to bare all for his performance project, Vuoto, which celebrated women as the highest expression of nature. “Art is alive only when it is shared,” Palmisano says of his work, which featured a cascade of female bodies. Originally only casting caucasian models, his follow-up project, Vuoto #2, presents a tableau of women of color in what the artist describes as “a black-and-white diptych in praise of diversity.”

Documentary director Victoria Fiore brings a soft, candid focus to the project’s lavish surrounds—an eighteenth-century former royal palace in Naples—by revelling in the moments of spontaneous sisterhood that sprung up between the participants. “Giuseppe seemingly transcends his male gaze,” says Fiore. “I wanted to understand how he creates an atmosphere of intimacy behind the lens that translates to such tender, feminine images.” 

The public call for Vuoto #2 drew women from across Italy to volunteer in Palmisano’s physical opera of undulating bodies. They revealed to Fiore their various motivations for joining the project, from coming to terms with physical scars to promoting the visibility of women of color in Italian culture.

“Shy at first, the atmosphere in the palace became electric as the women took off their clothes,” says the director. “Once they came together the mood was one of euphoria, togetherness and confidence.”

Giuseppe Palmisano is looking for 150 women with vitiligo to participate in the third instalment of VUOTO. For more information on the project follow @vuoto.vuoto.vuoto on Instagram