Davide Sorrenti was a visionary photographer whose intimate portraits are a capsule of downtown New York City’s youth culture in the early 1990s. Sorrenti was born in Naples in 1976. At birth, the artist was diagnosed with Thalassemia Major, a genetic blood disorder that tragically took his life at the young age of 21. Because of Davide’s diagnosis, the artist’s mother, fashion photographer Francesca Sorrenti, relocated Davide and his siblings, Vanina and Mario, from Italy to New York City in the early 1980s. At 17, Sorrenti began documenting his daily life in New York on film, shooting portraits of his family; friends in his graffiti and skate crew, SKE; and his girlfriend, model Jaime King.
Sorrenti’s body of work is a strikingly authentic personal account that pulses with boundless love, vitality, and the raw fervor of youth. Unclouded by pretense, the artist captured a vibrant cultural moment in a city on the precipice of commodification. His keenly observant gaze relishes in scenes of stillness — depicting acquaintances reclining in bed or taking a contemplative drag of a cigarette. There is a sense of immediacy and longing to capture and accumulate beautiful moments before they fade. Sorrenti’s legacy has had a lasting impact throughout today’s contemporary youth culture.