Pacific Standard Magazine

Some of my images are featured in an article on the May/June issue of the Pacific Standard, which is an amazing publication: it features in-depth articles about economy, education, culture, environment, etc… It is true journalism, which is really hard to find nowadays, where we check news on the web for no more than a couple of minutes/clicks. For the italian people, “Internazionale” is the magazine that can be compared to it, in term of quality and content.

A few months ago, my friend Lucas Aznar (who shot beautiful portraits for the same article) and I have been sent to Pismo beach to shoot “Pismodise”, a trailer park where people retire, right in front of the sandy beaches of Pismo, California. We’ve spent two days there, following the life of a small group of people, to document their life. Despite the premises (you cannot live in the trailer park if you are younger than 55), I had one of the most fun time since I came in the U.S.. Since death is so close, a small group of people created a daily “teraphy session”, which takes place in Deenah’s porch, usually at 3PM. During these sessions, they have a drink (ehm, more than one actually), chat, and have fun. I’ve spent there a wonderful afternoon, and when I arrived home my face was hurting for how much I’ve laughed. Here’s a photo I took during my therapy session. Needless to say that therapy really works! Click here to read the full article.

Surfers – A few more words on my new portrait project

Tom, Hawaiian surfer

I wanted to talk more about my new project: Surfers. As I said in my previous post I’m working on a series of portraits of surfers, mostly in California. This is not the usual tribute to pro surfers, or to the cool surfing spots in the world, or to the surf lifestyle, which is beautiful, of course, but not always true.

Surf is a lot more. And this project is my tribute to this MORE. Surf is made of real people, like you and me, who share the same passion. This passion makes them wake up in the early morning, maybe on a cloudy day, in winter, and drive two hours to get to the right spot. It’s very different from the idealized sunny day, where the water is warm and the girls are pretty. Most waters in California are cold, especially considering that winter is the best season for surf. So you have to wear your wetsuit, and maybe you can consider the water to not be “that cold” (I still can’t). Anyway, these people make a lot of sacrifices to fulfill their passion. For these reasons I’ve decided to do these series of portraits with a different style from my own, which is usually clean and polished. I wanted to be able to show the realness of these people. So, to capture it, I had to shoot them when they just came out of the water. I wanted to get the EXPERIENCE they had that day, surfing. If anybody of you have ever surfed, then you must know that the experience stays alive for a couple of hours after it: it’s a feeling of peace and accomplishment, that I’ve only experienced when surfing or swimming. There something magical in being in the water for long, the mind gets clear, and everything vanishes.

This is what I wanted to capture.

So, this is how I met Tom, from Hawaii, where the water is really warm compared to here. I’ve seen him coming out of the water, and I rushed to stop him. We started chatting. He was visiting a friend, and on this cloudy morning, he decided to grab a wetsuit and a surfboard, and went to Emma Wood beach, close to Ventura. There’s something really cool in his story, in the fact that even if he was travelling outside of his country, he decided to go surfing, alone. 

That was the moment. Can I take a few portraits of you, Tom?

Sure.

Tom, Hawaiian surfer

P:S. In the next weeks I’m going to post more photos from this project, and I’ll also go out shooting again, stay tuned.

Surfers

I’m working on a new personal project, a series of portraits of surfers. I’ve always been fascinated by the surf culture and this project is a great opportunity for me to learn about it through the people who made surf what it is, in one of the most popular places for surfing, California.

This is one of the people I’ve been photographing today in Pitas Point, close to Ventura.

His name is Steven.

I’ve talked to Steven for a little while, right after he came out of the water, his family waiting for him.

“How long have you been surfing?”

“For all my life.”

Subtleties

When you shoot a portrait, subtleties make a huge difference. When you edit a portrait session  you can see that each moment is different from the previous, and that there’s no possibility of having the same photographs or expressions. And that’s because when you shoot a person there are many dynamics involved: how you relate to the person you shoot, how you direct them, and how you manage to get the expression you want from them. These are all variables which you can’t predict. For these reasons edit down the photos and pick “the best one” (if you can actually say that there’s a “best one”, when it’s most correct to say that there’s a favorite one) is the most difficult moment of the entire shooting.

Without talking about the light and the impact it has on the mood of the photograph and on the facial features of a person, there are many other factors that change one photo to the next, like the direction of the gaze, a subtle tilt of the head to the back shoulder or to the front, the chin up or down, framing in the perfect center or close to one border, get close by some inches, tilt the camera just a bit to the left… These are all small adjustments that change completely the photograph.

Here’s a portrait session I had with my friend and photographer Lucas Aznar, and as you can see each of these photos tells a completely different story.

Which one is your favorite, and why?

Portrait of Lucas

Considerations

Since I’ve started the Brooks Institute of photography, in August 2011, I’ve been shooting the most diverse things: landscapes, products, architecture, stock, lifestyle. Even if I don’t like to put myself in a box, and restrict my work on a single category, I have to say that shooting people is one of the things that I like the most. It’s a process that involve all your skills as a photographer, but beyond that, it also show the person you are, more than every other kind of photography. When you shoot a person you have to communicate, give direction to make your vision understandable by the person you are photographing, but at the same time you have to leave the freedom of expression that you want from the person in front of you. It’s an evolving process that is never the same. That’s why I like it.

Daniel Johung, photographer and friend

Here are some photos that I’ve taken lately. They were shot not to far apart from each other. In these different sets of photographs, to my surprise, I see a different me. I can’t say what’s the direction I’m taking, but I’m just enjoying this moment, and the more it takes me off guard, the more I enjoy it. This is because photography doesn’t stop after you’ve pressed the shutter. Photography is going back to yourself to reflect on who you are. That’s why most people stop doing it, because they either don’t like what they see, or they are afraid of it, or they are afraid of what other people might think of their work (and in doing so, they are afraid of what other people think of them). But you have to sit back and relax, and enjoy what you see, because you did it, it’s your work, not everybody else’s.

Ben Flynn, photographer and friend

Daniel Johung, photographer and friend

THE LONGEST WAY HOME – THE IMAGES

My first personal exhibition has ended. For those of you who didn’t make it, here are some of the images that were shown. These images are a collection of my works, from the moment I’ve started taking pictures till now. For me, It was a good way to remember all the steps that I did to become the photographer I am now, and along with this, who I became. “The longest way home” really intended to be this: the road that each of us do everyday to become who we are. In my case, I had to go far away from Italy, my home, to study at the Brooks Institute of photography in Santa Barbara, California.

From the exhibition manifesto:

“There are people who are satisfied with what they have. Some other can appreciate what they have only when this is lost. Like me. For this reason traveling is something that I need, beyond being a pleasure. It’s the need of let everything go, to take a break from everyday’s life to really understand its value. But travelling is also memory, and photography is what makes it still alive and present. It let us go back to moments that would be lost otherwise. And it lets us relive them, and mostly, it let us understand what they meant to us.

This photographs are exactly the attempt to go back to places and emotions that are far away, to better understand them. Through this photographs of places, people or animals, it relives my memory and my unconscious gaze on it. The famous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson used to say that to photograph means putting one’s head, one’s eye and one’s heart on the same axis. If photographing is really this act, then a photograph is the tangible result of it to which another ingredient is added: memory.

It is only thanks to memory that we can say who we are. It is only our story that defines us as unique and diverse from each other.

“It’s not were you are at, It’s the journey you’ve taken.”

THE LONGEST WAY HOME

I’m really happy to announce that my first personal exhibition is going to take place at the Queriniana library in my own town, Brescia, tomorrow, friday December 16th. It’s a great honor and pleasure for me, because I’m currently living in Santa Barbara: it’s nice to be able to go back to my own town and share what I do with my people. The show is going to end on December 30th, so if you are around, come and take a look! I would love to have a feedback.

The exhibition is going to be at the Queriniana Library of Brescia (photos below). It’s a great location with beautiful paintings and old books: it feels great to have my work displayed in such a cool place.

I would like to thank all the people who helped me in doing this. A special thank to Mario Baldoli, Andrea Zucchini and Piera Maculotti for the precious help.

Sono molto felice di avere la mia prima mostra personale domani, venerdì 16 Dicembre, alla biblioteca Queriniana della mia città, Brescia. Vivendo a Santa Barbara, per me è un grande onore e un grande piacere condividere con le persone della mia città il mio lavoro. La mostra durerà fino al 31 Dicembre, se siete da queste parti, fateci un salto!

La mostra sarà in una biblioteca con affreschi stupendi e antichi libri: è bello poter esporre i miei lavori in un ambiente del genere.

Vorrei ringraziare tutti quelli che mi hanno aiutato a rendere questo possibile. Un ringraziamento speciale a Mario Baldoli, Andrea Zucchini, e Piera Maculotti.

Classmates

A few months ago I’ve shot these pictures of my friends Ben, Chelsea and Lexus. I’ve stumbled on ‘em today while I was selecting some images to print for a portfolio review. Even if it wasn’t that much ago, it really feels like years, for how much I’ve been working lately!

Here they are.

P A R A D I G M

Since tomorrow I’ll be in charge of the editorial line of the Paradigm website. My friend Ben Flynn (who’s a great photographer too) gave me the opportunity of run his blog for a week. Paradigm is a great concept: it’s a blog like this, but of a different kind. It’s a place to share pictures that inspire you for their visual style, their content or their beauty. Or it’s simply to share something that you like. It’s more direct, as you display the picture in a grid, and you scroll down and down. It’s great if you are a visual person. First of all, because you can be inspired by watching so many pictures, and second and most important, it’s something that help you build your own style. By saying “I like it”, you become more aware of what you find interesting, of what you want to be. And most important, you get to know yourself even more. 

I’m very excited to do this! I believe that having a place where you can put the images you like, it’s like having a box where you only put the things that have a meaning, that you want to save forever.

And it’s even better to share this with others, so that they may find to have something in common with you, or even find your style boring or ugly. That’s ok, it’s part of the game.

See you on PARADIGM (click on it to check it out!)

HOME

I’m almost leaving Santa Barbara for the Christmas vacation, I have the bus to L.A. in less than an hour. I’ll be on a 24 hr trip! It’s gonna be long as it has been being away from home for this four months.

Studying at Brooks is a privilege but I really miss home, my love, my family, my one year old niece, and my friends. I’ve made a lot of new experiences, I’ve learned so much on photography, but right now I just want to have my old life back, and relax with the people I love and that matter to me.

Merry Christmas everybody! See you next year!