Polly Palmerini

Polly Palmerini is a Lecturer in Photography at the School of Digital Arts (SODA), Manchester Metropolitan University. As a photographic artist and educator, her work explores collaborative practice, play in education, and visual storytelling through materiality and non-linear narratives.

• Research focus on performative qualities of everyday objects, illusion, and myth
• Currently based in Manchester, UK (born in Rome, Italy)

Her practice engages with the tension between perception and knowledge in photography, exemplified by projects like See Sound (visualizing sound via darkroom techniques) and I persist to forget, I forget to persist (memory and latency through text-image hybrids). Recent exhibitions include Paper Geographies at FORMAT Photography Festival (2023) and OFF SET / SET OFF Make a Vessel (2023-2024). A 2017 British Council Venice Biennale fellow, she received Manchester International Festival funding for Museum of Half Truths (2020), which used collaborative archiving to explore post-pandemic community responses.

Her 2023 peer-reviewed article in Advances in Online Education examines digital storytelling's role in hybrid learning environments during crises. Awards include:

• British Council Artist-in-Residence (Venice Biennale 2017)
• Manchester International Festival grant for Museum of Half Truths

Palmerini's work has been featured at Contact Theatre, PINK Gallery, and Arles Off Exposition, with upcoming exhibitions at University of Brighton and Manchester Metropolitan University.