Wedding photo-reportage: my interview for Extra-Ordinary-People.it
Through my wedding photo-reportage I tell stories. I feel like a digital storyteller, with an analogical and “slow” soul. Abruzzo, the country where I live, is the kingdom of the slow. An ancient refuge from the fast-paced world of digital photography that runs fast and burns everything. Here my art is born.
Today I would like you to read an interesting interview that tells a little about what I am, both from a professional point of view as a wedding photographer and from a point of view a little’ more reserved. I must say that it turned out a good job, thanks to the authenticity of Rho, a career blogger. The interview was published on his blog https://extra-ordinary-people.it , dedicated – she says – to extraordinary people.
I don’t hide it from this that I felt incredulous and at the same time proud. Oh well, now I leave you to the interview.
Q. Tell us about your wedding photo-reportage. When and how did you start doing it?
A. It was a long and stormy night… no oh, it’s a joke hahaha. But I can say that at the time I had a stormy night inside me. I was just a little provincial employee. I filled myself with numbers, cards and dreams. The biggest? Obviously the wedding reportage. Implementing the theory of communicating vessels, I waited that the spring was loaded of “leave everything and run “. And so, from night to day, I left a good job, a good salary and the beautiful people I worked with, to throw myself headlong into the world of photography !!
Q. Your shots are not photographs of a wedding; they go deeper and they can tell us differentstories every time. How do you do? How do you manage to empathize with your subjects?
A. Do you know when people said that “this guy has a gift”? well, I think my gift is to understand people. Obviously I am not here to take away the work of psychologists, but I am not exaggerating when I say that, looking into the eyes of those who photograph, I can understand many things. Emotions, feelings and empathy.
Q. What was your greatest job satisfaction?
A. My greatest satisfaction is the “Thank You” of the people who look with shining eyes at my … their wedding photo-reportage.
Q. I read in your biography that you left the “permanent job” to pursue a completely different career … As you say, you left the certain for the uncertain. When you made the big jump were you afraid? Have there ever been times when you thought you had made a wrong choice? What sensations did this new wave of freedom bring you into a life that perhaps didn’t fit you so well?
A. Let’s say that when you make a choice it is normal to be afraid and it is normal to think that you have got it all wrong. It was a bit like when you want to cross the street: look for the pedestrian crossing, check that everything is ok and decisively cross the street. There! Exactly like that. You only have fear when you DO NOT know a thing. When you throw yourself into something you don’t know: I had everything inside. It was like entering a world I already knew!
Q. Tell us about the place where you live. Such as? What scents does it evoke? Have you ever thought of moving elsewhere?
A. The country where I live is the realm of SLOW. It is a refuge from the world that constantly runs against itself. It is a mountain town exactly in the center of Abruzzo, where children play on the street, where there are still keys attached to the front door of the house, where people greet each other and where the bread smells of bread. Here: this question drives me crazy. because I live on scents and sensations. In this period (winter) I find entrancing going around on foot in the evening and feeling the silence enveloped by the smell of burnt wood from the chimneys of almost all the houses. Yes the chimneys, the return to the hearth, to the pot that slowly cooks the beans: that’s what’s in my photographs. Slowness
Q. The 3 favorite songs?
A. Music: wow! I live on music. I listen to the order in the morning as soon as I wake up, in the car, in the office, at lunch and dinner, while I take a shower, when I sleep. The music is crazy. It is art. And art evokes art! the three favorite songs? I think I don’t have any. It would be a waste to leave behind the other thousand thousand photographs I love. I can tell you though that I listen to a genre of music based on what I’m doing. An example: when I choose the photographs of a wedding I listen to Jazz, when I do post-production listening to Metal. I let the music help me !! P.S. the only group I have always loved: Pearl Jam.
Q. Which, among the great photographers, do you love most?
A. I have never had a predisposition for IDOLS (in politics as in art). This is a question I am asked in many, indeed. My answer is always the same: I admire photographers who are first and foremost beautiful people. Those rich people inside and cheerful outside. And then they know how to tell the life they see with their eyes, through the camera. There was a guy who said that the photographs are not faded with the camera: but with the eyes and the heart and the head (HCB)
Q. At this moment, if you look up and look around you a little, what do you find most appealing to you?
A. The light. I am fascinated by light, by how it falls on objects and the shadows it creates. Don’t you find it incredible that light creates shadow?
Q. Tell us a little about your photography workshops. When, where and how do they take place?
A. Mine are not old-fashioned workshops, where 30-40 photographers do nothing but photographs models. My ws are up to 10 colleagues. We talk about photography, light, a “slow” approach to an increasingly frenetic world of photography. Where do they take place? Where I find inspiration. The next one will be in the beautiful hills of the Marche. It will be devoted entirely to analogue photography (yes, we will develop photos in the dark room) and we will talk about storytelling: how to tell a story in photography. It’s one thing to take pictures, another is to tell a story
Q. I know you are passionate about “old-fashioned” photography with a roll and an analog camera. Can you talk about it? Of course the arrival of digital has greatly facilitated the average user in taking photographs, but what has been lost? And how much can you recover in terms of “magic” in one click?
A. In these questions, you again have hit the target. MAGIC. Here’s what there is in taking wedding photo-reportage with film. It’s all so incredible. It pushes you to think before taking the picture. You cross the times and the diaphragms, then you look at what happens beyond the objective and finally you frame and shoot. And what did you take? how did the photograph come about? and here I borrow the advertising of my beloved CAMPARI: “the expectation of pleasure is pleasure itself”. Here comes the talk of SLOW waiting for calm to breathe and wait. The picture you took can only be seen when you develop it. In a day, two a week. And you are there that you go crazy with “pleasure”: that will explode when development comes to you. All this has been completely erased by technology, from iPhones for example. We are inundated with photographs. Who will never see anyone. Of which we will forget the existence. Take a roll of 24 and it will be your 24 photographs!
Q. In your shots how much post-production is there? I have seen, on certain occasions, retouching, to say the least abominable. How do you manage this phase? Do you also take care of printing and layout of the albums? What kind of album do you prefer and propose to your customers?
A. If the objective is analog photography, post production is close to zero! 10 years ago I started doing photography by telling myself: the photographs are made when they are taken. If the photo is “corrected” to the computer, that is Graphics not photography. That’s why I love the roll: photography is what it is! My albums: I absolutely print them. I know what I want to achieve, how much they must be “hot” and personal Ah, mold on Fine Art paper. Nothing could be more magical. When you browse through my album, you look at it and caress it
Q. If you could enter a painting, which would you choose?
A. Obviously “The vocation of San Matteo” by Caravaggio. I would like to learn that light
Q. You travel a lot for work. This will keep you away from your family but at the same time will give you the opportunity to see wonderful places. Is there any place that has entered your heart particularly?
A. The journey has always been a passion of mine. Italy is a wonderful country and I feel fortunate to be able to visit it far and wide. Going away from home to work definitely keeps me away from the family. But all I do, I do it for them. The embrace of my 3 women when she returns home, I fill more than anything else.
Q. If you could talk for an hour with a person of your choice, anyone, alive or dead, who would you , where would you take him and what would you ask him?
A. If I talked to you as a photographer I would like to talk to the aforementioned Caravaggio. I wouldn’t ask him anything: I’d let him talk WOW … !!! If I talked to you, instead, from Andrea, I would like to talk to my grandfather: I would ask him how he managed to survive the Nazi concentration camp (in Dachau) and how he managed to walk back from Germany to Italy. My hero.
Q. What father are you? How hard is it to be a parent for you? What is the most important message you are constantly trying to convey to your daughters? And how would you like them to grow up?
A. I’m myself. I am cheerful and I am (semi) severe when needed. But above all, happiness predominates. Talk, sing, play together as soon as we can. But above all teach one of the most important values: respect. Always respect everyone and above all respect their thoughts. I would like them to grow slow inside but 100% dynamic. But above all I would like them to do just what makes them happy.
Q. What is your biggest fear?
A. It’s not being able to answer all the questions of this interview hahahah.
Q. You attend many marriages every year but the percentages speak for themselves. According to ISTAT, between 1991 and 2018 we witnessed a real divorce boom. 375.569 divorced in 91 against more than 1.6 million in 2018. What do you think it could depend on? What is the secret to a peaceful and lasting marriage?
A. The secret? Ask my wife hahah. In my opinion the secret of a good marriage is compromise. Or better: the step backwards. Let me explain. I’ve always considered it childish and useless when a person says “It’s a question of principle” How many times have you heard it? Well, if between two people who live together, you do not take a step back on some issues, these become problems, walls arise and you end up as a lawyer. Does your husband ever put the cap on toothpaste? put it on your own. If you get angry and ruin your liver for a cork … well … I would say that the end is near !!!
Q. How does your perfect day begin and end?
A. My perfect day starts with music and ends with music, my perfect day starts with leaving the girls in school and kindergarten and ends with a good night kiss, my perfect day starts with a good job for my wife and ends … oh well by..imagine…. my perfect day is made up of everyday life, of achievements, of light and shadows
Q. Your worst fault?
A. I’m messy but perfectly organized !!!
Q. Which camera would you recommend to an “average user”? And what do you think is the top of the range right now?
A. Interesting question. As a camera, I would recommend a Canon from 1978 on film. 70-80 euros of pure magic. Unfortunately I’m not an amateur photographer: I’m not interested in camera models: I’m not interested in the medium, I’m interested in the result. I work with a little camera (the digital one) that is 7-8 years old I think. Ah, but it’s old. No it is functional.
Q. In recent years there has been a boom of photographers. Just look at Instagram and it turns out that there are really a lot of people who can take good pictures. What do you think about it? Do you like it to become a “viral” form of expression or annoys you?
A. Instagram Facebook Pinterest Youtube. All interesting and stimulating stuff. It only annoys me that we tend to believe that is reality. For me it is worth “Being famous on facebook, it’s like being rich with Monopoly money”
Q. Is there a character of the last century whom you particularly admire?
A. Yes there is. And it is Ernesto Guevara. I have an idea of him that I’ve been carrying since I was a teenager. It’s a simple idea: to give everything for an idea. I brought it with me in the demonstrations around Italy, in Genoa against the G8. It was always there: as a stimulus. Always fight for your idea.
Q. What would you like to find this year under the Christmas tree?
A. New York ! I have projects in the pipeline and I hope they come true !!!