Floria Sigismondi

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Floria Sigismondi (born 1965 in Pescara, Italy) is a photographer and director. Apart from her art exhibitions she is best known for directing music videos for Christina Aguilera, Muse, Interpol, The White Stripes, David Bowie, Sigur Rós, Sheryl Crow, The Cure, Björk, Amon Tobin, Marilyn Manson and Incubus. Her trademark dilating, jittery camerawork, noticeable as early as her video for Manson's "The Beautiful People", has been replicated by a great number of directors since.

1 Her life
2 Music videos (selection)
3 Awards (selection)
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Her life

Her parents, Lina and Domenico Sigismondi, were opera singers. Her family, including her sister Antonella, moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada^[1] when she was two. In her childhood she became obsessed by drawing and painting. Later, from 1987 she studied painting and illustration at the Ontario College of Art, today's Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD). When she took a photography course, she became obsessed once more, and graduated with a photography major.

Floria Sigismondi started a career as a fashion photographer. She came to directing music videos when she was approached by the production company The Revolver Film Co., and directed music videos for a number of Canadian bands. Her very innovative, but also very disturbing video works, located in sceneries she once described as "entropic underworlds inhabited by tortured souls and omnipotent beings", attracted a number of very prominent musicians.

With her photography and sculpture installations she had solo exhibitions in Hamilton and Toronto, New York, Brescia, Italy, Göteborg, Sweden and London. Her photographs also were included in numerous group exhibitions, together with those of photographers like Cindy Sherman and Joel-Peter Witkin. The German art press Die Gestalten Verlag has published two monographs of her photography, Redemption (1999) and Immune (2005).

In October 2004 she gave birth to a daughter, Tosca Vera Sigismondi-Berlin. The father is her husband Living Things frontman Lillian Berlin. Sigismondi resides in Toronto, New York City, and Los Angeles. Her daughter is named after the Italian opera Tosca. Floria herself was named after the main character.

[edit] Music videos (selection)

2006 "Broken Boy Soldier", The Raconteurs
2006 "Hurt", Christina Aguilera
2006 "Red Flag", Billy Talent
2006 "Supermassive Black Hole", Muse
2006 "Bombs Below (version 2)", Living Things
2005 "O' Sailor", Fiona Apple
2005 "Bom Bom Bom", Living Things
2005 "Blue Orchid", The White Stripes
2004 "The End of The World", The Cure
2004 "Talk Shows on Mute", Incubus
2004 "I Owe...", Living Things
2004 "Megalomaniac", Incubus
2003 "Fighter", Christina Aguilera
2003 "Bombs Below (version 1)", Living Things
2003 "Anything", Martina Topley Bird
2003 "Obstacle 1", Interpol
2003 "Untitled 1 (Vaka)", Sigur Rós
2002 "John, 2/14", Shivaree
2002 "She Said (version 2)", Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
2002 "Black Amour", Barry Adamson
2001 "In My Secret Life", Leonard Cohen
2000 "4 Ton Mantis", Amon Tobin
2000 "I Have Seen It All" (interactive version), Björk
1999 "Get Up", Amel Larrieux
1998 "Can't Get Loose", Barry Adamson
1998 "Most High", Robert Plant & Jimmy Page
1998 "Sweet Surrender", Sarah McLachlan
1998 "Anything But Down", Sheryl Crow
1997 "(Can't You) Trip Like I Do", Filter & The Crystal Method
1997 "Makes Me Wanna Die", Tricky
1997 "Dead Man Walking", David Bowie
1997 "Black Eye", Fluffy
1996 "Little Wonder", David Bowie
1996 "Tourniquet", Marilyn Manson
1996 "Anna is a Speed Freak", Pure
1996 "Beautiful People", Marilyn Manson
1996 "Four Leaf Clover", Catherine
1995 "Blue", Harem Scarem
1994 "The Birdman (version 1)", Our Lady Peace
1993 "The River", The Tea Party
1993 "Save Me", The Tea Party
1993 "Certain Saint Of Light", The Tea Party

[edit] Awards (selection)

2004 Juno Awards, Canada - Best Music Video, for "Fighter" (Christina Aguilera)
2003 MTV European Awards - Best International Video Award, for Untitled (Sigur Rós)
2003 New York Underground Film Festival - Audio/Visual Award, for Untitled (Sigur Rós)
2003 Advertising and Design Awards, Toronto, Canada - Special Merit Award for Music Video, for "Fighter" (Christina Aguilera)
1999 German Kodak Photobook Award, for her book Redemption
1998 British Music Video Awards, UK - Nomination for Best Video: "Little Wonder" (David Bowie)
1997 MTV Music Video Awards, USA - Nomination for Best Rock Video: "Beautiful People" (Marilyn Manson)