Luvelli, Frost (2013-15). Courtesy of the artist and Monk Talent Agency.
In his captivating and gritty black-and-white photographs, Jon Luvelli details the overlooked stories and rural idiosyncrasies of Midwestern American life.
Luvelli (who goes primarily by just his last name) has a unique insider-outsider perspective to the environments he documents. Born in Italy to an Italian father and an African-Italian mother, Luvelli was adopted at just six days old and was brought to the United States, where he was raised on a small-town farm in Missouri.
From a young age, photography offered him a way of processing the world. He began taking pictures as a child after being introduced to the medium by his grandfather, a photographer and United States Navy veteran who documented his service in Guam.