Tinto Studio artists
O.S.S. and care work
This care-work project grew out of Flavia's experience. An artist and painter living in Friuli, northern Italy, she became interested in care work after hearing about the shortage of nursing staff.
She enrolled in training for the Italian Operatore Socio Sanitario (O.S.S.) qualification, drawn to the role's emphasis on everyday care. Her training included time in a hospital in Udine; she later worked in disability support, care for older people, and residential care settings. Some experiences were difficult. She completed the course while continuing to make and exhibit art.
In the shared Tinto images, the subject is not documentary reporting. It is a way to hold attention on care, shortage, dignity, and the human atmosphere around work that is often essential but not well supported.
Story
Care work and image-making
Flavia's training and Italian O.S.S. qualification meet Matteo's image-making process in this series. Portraits, hospital corridors, and quiet symbolic scenes give visual form to that experience. The central O.S.S. portrait is an imagined depiction of Flavia, not an actual photograph of her.
The works invite care workers, families, cultural groups, and health-care communities to see hospital labor as human, emotional, and worthy of attention.
Care appears here as symbol, atmosphere, and public attention rather than documentary portraiture.