SELLING ROMANCE BY THE POUND

Selling Romance by the Pound, presented at BBA Gallery in Berlin, marks the debut solo exhibition of Italian-born photographer Marco Di Coscio. This collection examines the photographic portrait as a site of profound commercial and psychological exchange, where the act of offering an idealised version of the self what Marco terms "romance" becomes a high-stakes transaction.

Drawing on his background in film and the rigorous discipline of method acting, Marco’s direct portraiture begins where the performance ends, seeking the rawness, tension, and fragility that surface when subjects drop the mask. The exhibition thus becomes a critical meditation on the image as currency in a world of constant display: subjects from all walks of life—actors, monks, sex workers, and disabled individuals—are united by the shared risk and inherent cost they pay to the public gaze, forcing the viewer to confront their own complicity in assigning value and weight to this vulnerable, highly curated pound of identity.