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His photos seem to be a romantic reportage of intimate situations, collection of moments which we would not be able to see without his help. Sensual and nude women completely at ease, like the photographer does not exist at all, like us the observers are spying the secret of femininity through the sight of a man.
So let’s read the point of view of this young artist about the analogical photography, his projects and his thoughts regarding the models. Here I am at his place in Bologna, surrounded by infinite books and movies, while he is petting this wonderful white cat that appears in so many photos.
I see that you have a lot of vinyls and as many photo books. Do you, perhaps, get inspiration from music or from photographers you admire in order to create something on your own?
Basically I started taking pictures because in that period of my life I could no longer write music. The music has always been the engine of all that my life was. So when I was not able to play live anymore, trivially I started suffering from panic attacks and I had to wreak it in some other way than what I’ve been doing before thanks to the music. That’s why I started taking pictures. Then, during the photoset, for me is extremely natural, even if unintentionally, to listen to a song or to an entire album by one band or another. Well, in regards to the other photographers… Well, I adore photo books, I think that if I had a lot of money I would buy them all, even the bad ones [smiles]. So sometimes it happens that I see a picture I particularly like and I try to make it mine as much as possible, to reinterpret it.
Tell us: what are you looking for within photography? What do you expect from this passion? How do you think you can contribute with your photos?
“Well… There are a lot of different answers to these questions, it depends on the period you’re asking about. In this exact moment what I’m looking for within photography is sincerity. I’m not saying that I’m sure I will find it or I’m making it, but I would like to. I would like that the pictures I take were sincere as much as possible, that they were staged the least possible. I’d like to leave my photos reveal the person I photograph, or the state of mind of this person, or a situation. It happens often to me that some girls ask me to pose for me and they ask me to talk about my ideas of how to photograph them. Here is the problem. I can’t have a precise idea of how to take a picture of a person I don’t know at all, because without knowing my models I can’t make my art sincere. It’s important to know the person and let the person choose the way of posing. Sometimes you have the possibility to make a strong connection with the model, in that case you can recreate some situations, but that’s because when you know a person very well you can ask her to act an emotion and you will know that the expression she’s making is part of her state of mind. It means that is real and… sincere.
So how can I contribute with my photos… Well, it’s not obligatory that the others are touched by my photos, but I like that the viewer can in some way know a person which otherwise he would have never known. In the moment the viewer is watching the picture he’s inside the situation which I lived with my model during the shoot.”
You practically answered my following question about how you interact with your models! So let’s go the the next point. Most of your photos are on film. Your digital shots are beautiful as well your analogical pictures, so why do you prefer the latter?
You surprised me with this question, because I never noticed before that I have so many analogue pictures! Well, I shoot on film from the moment Andrea Colombo [a dear friend of Gabriele, one of the photographers from Four Line project] bought the SX70 camera, because I saw his pictures and I fell in love with polaroids, still my main passion, even if I didn’t take so many photos in this period. Then I discovered Leica m6 and a lot of my pictures are shoot with that camera. For the moment I shoot almost exclusively in digital because of my work, but I’d like to use it more in my artistic photos to grow up in some way in my job, too. Anyway, the thing that I really like about analogical shots is that you don’t have the complete control on the result, you can’t see immediately what have you done. So you think you did a great job, but you have to wait to be sure.
Continuing to talk about polaroids, I’d like to ask you something about the Four Lines Project, the journey you made to Scandinavia with three other people (Andrea Colombo, Elena Vaninetti and Anna Morosini) 2 years ago. So you guys documented the travel exclusively with polaroids and once back in Italy you organized a lot of exhibitions. Why just Scandinavia? How did the idea come into your mind and why did you choose to do it in May?
To tell you why Scandinavia is like to tell you how did we get the idea. It all was born watching Fargo [1996, Coen]. So the idea was to take really graphic pictures: strips of white snow, strips of dark water, strips of sharp sky. But in Norway there are mountains everywhere so… my graphic idea of photos went to hell [laughs]. Anyway the choice to go to Scandinavia came to our minds because we wanted to see and shoot something really different from Italian landscapes. Everything became easier, because each corner was wonderful just because we never saw it before. And May… Well, maybe it was just a case, because our project was ready for that month. In reality it was a perfect moment because of the light, in Norway you have really long days in that period, so you can shoot whenever you want and, last but not least, it wasn’t that cold!
We’re going to conclude our chat, so just out of curiosity tell us what would you do if photography didn´t exist?
[long silence] The fact is I’m not good at drawing! I have never met a person worse than me at drawing. But I’d so love to draw, I adore comics! So… I know it may seem banal, but I’d try to write a book, already knowing I’d fail. Writing it’s in some way like photographing, it’s not required to be shown or to be a great book, it’s something you do for yourself. So my book would be a portrait of me in that precise moment of my life.
Interview by Nina Sever
www.fourlines.it
gabriele.carbonmade.com
www.ninasever.com
