SELLING ROMANCE BY THE POUND
ABOUT THE SOLO EXHIBITION
VERNISSAGE
WEDNESDAY 11. FEBRUARY
18:00 - 21:00
ARTIST TALK
SATURDAY 14. FEBRUARY
13:00
EXHIBITION
11.02. - 21.02.
LOCATION
BBA GALLERY
KÖPENICKER STR. 96
10179 BERLIN
OPENING HOURS
TUESDAY - SATURDAY
12:00 - 18:00
For his debut solo exhibition in Berlin at BBA Gallery, photographer Marco Di Coscio presented a compelling body of work in “Selling Romance By The Pound”. This study of the photographic portrait as a site of transaction, a silent marketplace where vulnerability, identity and the desire to be seen are exchanged for public acceptance. Rooted in the artist's background in film and his deep study of acting, this collection of direct portraits challenges the viewer to look beyond the surface and consider the cost of the constructed image.
The title, echoing the 1973 Genesis album Selling England by the Pound, Di Coscio defines the notion of romance not as a genuine feeling, but as an idealised, softer version of the self theta the subjects offer to the camera. The commodity of exchange between subject and photographer is this exchange in this romantic lens; how much are we willing to give in order to be seen?
Inspired by the directness of photographers like Mark Seliger and Albert Watson, Di Coscio employs a style of direct portraiture characterised by clarity, concision, and a careful, constructed use of light. His training in film and theatre, including his study of acting under Lorraine Serabian at the HB Studio, informs his approach, emphasising presence, attention, and posing as a fundamental language.
However, Di Coscio’s true interest lies in what happens where performance ends. He seeks the raw vulnerability that remains when the mask breaks: the tension of the body, the fragility of the face, and the thin line between what we intentionally show and what we desperately try to protect.
Throughout his work, Di Coscio deliberately chooses a diverse range of global subjects including actors, people with disabilities, sex workers in New York, athletes and Nepalese monks. They are united through their universal gesture of offering an image of themselves to the world which highlights social depth with visual rigor.
Di Coscio forces the viewer to confront their own role as a consumer in this transaction. Every subject here offers a vulnerable, high-value image. By studying the fragility and tension in these faces, we acknowledge the emotional labor required to present that image—and become complicit in the act of valuation, deciding what that 'pound' of romance is worth.
Ultimately, Selling Romance by the Pound is an exhibition that confronts the ambiguity inherent in contemporary visibility, reminding us that every photograph holds within it a negotiation of intimacy and a tension between the authentic self and the marketable image.
About the artist
Marco Di Coscio (b. 1989, Lucca) is an Italian photographer and film director whose artistic practice is deeply informed by his extensive studies and multicultural background. After taking an early interest in drawing and photography, he pursued a degree in Film Directing in London, followed by work as an assistant director and director of photography between Rome and London. His passion for theatrical composition led him to later earn a master's degree in Set Design in Florence, which underpins his photographic focus on the human being and diversity, working across both staged photography and reportage. Although currently based between London and Tuscany, he maintains a strong connection with New York, where he spends his summers. Di Coscio’s work was brought to the gallery’s attention in 2025 when he was honoured as the Winner of the One Shot Award at the BBA Prizes 10 Year Anniversary Exhibition.
FEATURED ARTWORKS
Sisters is a long-term project begun in 2023 in Torre del Lago, Italy, a seaside area historically associated with transgender sex work. Returning to a place he first experienced as a child through fear and distance, Di Coscio engages with the people who inhabit these marginal spaces, seeking encounter rather than judgment. Through sustained dialogue, trust, and presence, the series portrays transgender women with dignity, tenderness, and emotional closeness.
Body is an ongoing project inspired in part by the work of Howard Schatz and rooted in the long artistic tradition of the nude in painting and sculpture. The series treats the naked body not as an object of voyeurism, but as something homeless, expressive, and human. Bringing together a diverse range of physicalities — from youthful strength to ageing fragility — the work explores individuality, vulnerability, and resilience. Through these portraits, the series seeks a form of beauty that exists beyond convention and perfection.
Tableaux gathers Di Coscio’s most elaborately staged photographs, evoking the tradition of pictorial tableaux while translating it into a contemporary visual language. The works are characterised by dense, meticulously composed scenes with little visual void, where human presence — or its echo — and a direct or indirect gaze recur as central elements.
Portraits is an ongoing body of work that began in 2021 and has become central to Di Coscio’s artistic practice. Whether photographed in the studio or in the street, each portrait shares a coherent visual language: carefully constructed light, intentional posing, and an intimate, frontal encounter with the subject. Bringing together people from radically different backgrounds — actors, strangers, people living on the margins, friends, and individuals encountered during travels to places such as Iceland, Nepal, London, and New York — the series insists on a democratic gaze.
Triptych reflects Di Coscio’s deep connection to the history of painting, drawing on Renaissance aesthetics and the Flemish pictorial tradition, particularly the visionary surrealism of Hieronymus Bosch. Inspired by the structural and narrative potential of the triptych, the series explores symmetry, tension, and storytelling across three images that depend on one another to create a single, cohesive vision. Though each triptych may draw from different bodies of work — such as Portraits, Body, or Tableaux — they share a common architecture, transforming individual photographs into a composed, painterly whole.