Making love to G is gonna be like the first time I tried a cheeseburger

The book "Making love to G. is gonna be like the first time I tried a cheeseburger" has two bodies of work created between 2012 and 2021: the first series includes color photographs of girls confronting, arguing and fighting, taken from some videos - posted on YouTube - of the American reality show Bad Girls Club; the second series, with black and white photos, focuses exclusively on the intimate moments, broadcast on television, of the actors in the cast of the English reality show Geordie Shore. The aim of this work is to reflect on how reality shows, which play on themes such as intimacy, voyeurism and violence, offer a privileged observation point for learning about the development of the cultural industry and the ways in which the market colonizes mass communication.

"Eleonora Calvelli’s book ‘Making love to G. is gonna be like the first time I tried a cheeseburger’ is an exciting example of an artist book in the post-photographic era. The book is a peephole in the bizarre world and aesthetics of reality programs we are nowadays surrounded with. Calvelli precisely investigated and edited this and made an intense volume out of it. You could call it a Diary of Disgust. We are witness to obscene and fascinating typologies of the events that take place in holiday houses that function as television studios to exploit the intimate. Nothing is not seen. Bedrooms with duvet sculptures in black and white surveillance footage, where the obvious sexual events have taken place. The color section in the centre of the book functions literally like an explosion. A grew-some series of girls fighting scenes is on display. The fact that the images are blurred makes them even more impactful. The book is so impactful, because Calvelli focussed on the sculptural elements that can be seen in this subculture. I know for sure that: ‘Looking at Calvelli’s book is gonna be like the first time you tried something unexpected’." Diary of disgust by Erik Kessels


2023 [Book] 1st Place, Professional Book, Self-Published, International Photography Awards
2023 [Book] Finalist, Encontros da Imagem Photobook Award, PT
2022 [Project] Shortlisted, Belfast Photo Festival, UK
2021 [Project] Selected and exhibited, Noorderlicht International Photo Festival, NL