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Talking about Trust and Photography (and a king of the road)

One of the key things I have personally understood of photography is that you have to have a certain set of skills. This list is not unique, everything depends by what are your targets in the field. Do you want to be a photojournalist, or do you want to focus on the fashion field? Are you interested in being commercial or is photography your great hobby, but nothing more?

In the last months I have had a strong voice inside myself, asking the same question over and over again:

“What is photography to Carlo?”

And Fabiana have had a very similar question she asked herself:

“What is photography to Fabiana?”

Therefore is safe to assume that, being the couple we are, the real question would be:

“What is photography to Fabiana and Carlo?”

When we started, our goal was to produce some photos we saw in some website or in some prints. It was more than two years ago, but then goals changed while we were reaching them.

“What is photography to Fabiana and Carlo?”

Every time we are this close to reaching our goals, they start growing bigger and bigger, and we like very much to challenge ourselves. When I personally had a lot of troubles stopping people on the street I did it more than a thousand times in one weekend (Thanks Eamon, I owe you one). Guess what? I do not have any problem asking a perfect stranger if I can take his/her photo! The real point is that I am realising that is not what I want to do.

“What is photography to Fabiana and Carlo?”

Two years ago we did not know what a flash REALLY was. It was not even interesting to us, but in these days we have received only good feedback to the workshop we are holding (are you interested? :P)! Moreover we have discovered a pleasure in dealing with the business side of photography.

“What is photography to Fabiana and Carlo?”

There is no answer, as what the future was one minute ago is the past right now. I still do not know where we are going as photographers, but it is a fantastic path the one we are following and I am extremely happy about it, and more happy to be able to walk with Fabiana close to my side.

“What REALLY is photography to Fabiana and Carlo?”

…Ok, but who am I kidding? We are on the Commercial side of photography, but I do not know if tomorrow or in a year time, we do not know and we are not scared about it. I have learned that you need to be not only skilled in taking photos, but if you want to survive you also need to be smart from a business perspective.

One of the things I have discovered is that there is one key thing you NEED to have: you have to trust in yourself. Do you really think this guy does not trust himself? Honestly?

…Do you really think we do not trust ourselves?

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Those Big Fashion Glasses

Lately I shocked myself and Fabiana saying that I quite like those huge black glasses so trendy in these days. Yes, I know it is very strange said from someone like me, but in the end I see them as part of a culture that will last few months and that will be replaced by something else even more strange. Those sort of huge black things(!) do not suit everyone, maybe just few of the wearer were ok with them, but my vision is that they create a huge contrast with the today’s idea of fashion. Yes, because in the end it is all about fashion, isn’t it?

A colleague of mine told me yesterday that he was shocked by the fact that French and Italians tend to dress better than English in many occasions. He underlined the fact that just to go to a club, in Paris and Milan everyone is perfectly dressed, while in London the culture is completely different. I would say that, generally speaking, he is right where the “generally” avoids to keep into consideration the clubs in London where fashion is the main theme. Italians and French live much more of appearance than British people do. It is always “Dress to Impress” and too many times that is more important than simply being and the interest of a person is defined by his/her clothes and not his/her ideas.

The huge black glasses fall in the category of the “dress to impress”, nothing excessive, just that detail that, deviating from the logic of yesterday’s fashion, creates an interesting shape in the faces of the wearers. Moreover, they are so huge that they allow a good vision of the eyes, enhancing them in some faces!

Do you love or do you hate them?

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The Photographer's Eye

One of the most important characteristic for a photographer, in my opinion, is the capacity to see a photo before pressing the shutter, before even framing the scene. When I started going around London with my camera I felt frustrated, as I was not able to see interesting things and those I saw I was not able to capture in time. For a long time I attributed this to the fact that I was not “gifted” with the “photographer’s eye”: I was wrong. There are people who have this attention to details as an innate capacity, but for everyone else exercise and practice can fill the gap! So if someone tells you that you do not possess the eye a photographer must have, don’t listen, but take your camera and go out shooting: if photography were an exclusive of the “naturals”, we would not have seen so many fantastic and iconic images.

“The devil is in the details” is a quote from V for Vendetta, if I am not mistaken, and it summarise the truth behind the “photographic eye”. We are snowed under a tons of visual information while we are out and around, and we generally avoid noticing all those details who are not important enough. I believe we do so because we are lazy, because our culture made of TV and computers wants us to eat pre-digested details and because there are so many details that our culture do not require us to pay attention to all of them. I was exactly like this: I did not notice a particular pair of shoes, or something someone was wearing because I thought it would have been to complex to keep everything in mind (a sort of “Buffer Overflow” for the geeks like me out there).

I was wrong!

Our mind is fantastic and is able to see and analyse an incredible number of details and whilst in the day to day life this may help giving a better flavour of life, in the photographic world this is the difference between a snapshot and a great photo. The details are the difference between the photo of a nice woman and the one of an interesting one. Giving time, this attention to detail will start unconsciously shout in your mind “Bring the camera to your eye. NOW!” Believe me, there are times when I feel the urge to frame something particular, without a conscious reason. Many times I have dismissed this feeling, losing too many great moments. Our subconscious, if trained enough, will be able to direct you before things actually happen. You can call this sixth sense, photographer’s eye or simply great attention to human patterns and details, but the really important thing from a photographic perspective is that you start learning to trust your senses and, given enough time, you are able to capture great images. There are few things thought, that you have to do in order to gain this degree of skill.

- You have to look around. Even when you do not have a camera you have to notice things, details, actions and moments.

- You have to be confident. If you see something interesting, worth documenting you need to take the photo. Every time you do not press the shutter the moment is gone.

- You have to TRUST your senses. In the beginning you will feel stupid (“Why should I frame THAT bloke?”… just to realise too late he was going to do something REALLY interesting) and many times, especially in the first periods, this sixth sense will fail, but you need to give it time to develop.

- Have a camera always with you!

…and always remember…

Practice makes perfect!

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