THE DOTE TO DO YOUR JOB?
You must be very patient, try to establish a dialogue and understand. Sometimes even big actors in front of the lens are very shy, acting is one thing, posing in front of a photographer's goal is like getting naked and discovering a very intimate part of yourself.
For some people it is not easy; others, on the other hand, are great professionals used to being in front of the camera lens, highlighting an uncommon naturalness. People must feel comfortable, be relaxed; They must let go of their fears. It is a relationship that is built through esteem and trust. Many, despite being great professionals, have their own shyness and are afraid of not being good enough. Others, on the other hand, live the situation with calm.
For example, with Al Pacino it was simple because he was able to be at his best right away. Abatantuono is a big man, he has an important body, but he is also a person who have a sense of humor. As a result, I realized a very effective portrait with him. Along with Silvio Orlando I did also an extraordinary job.
When I photograph a person, I'm not just looking for the harmony of shapes and color, but also for humanity, I’m talking about the emotions that transmit you the presence of a human being.
HOW WAS BORN THE PROJECT "STAIRS OBSESSION"?
Last year I fell down the stairs and broke both my feet. It took me six months to get back to walking well and about a year to recover completely.
Last autumn, my gallery owner Valerio Tazzetti made an exhibition on rationalist architecture asking me if I wanted to participate with images (as you know, I deal with architecture even if in all honesty I find it cold, I prefer the human relationship, I decided to orient myself to the portrait in which I find my ideal dimension). The proposal still seemed interesting to me and I started looking around for rationalist buildings. In Turin I discover a beautiful palace designed by Carlo Mollino at the turn of the sixties and seventies.
On entering, I was fascinated by a marvelous staircase. The feeling was that the building was built around this staircase and the chandelier that goes down eight floors. I fell in love with the place and I realized the shot of a woman as if she fell down the stairs. Looking at the shot I realized that I had staged my pain, my fall and my story. This image belonged to me very intimately. Something had moved in me to the point that I began to look for large helical scales to continue this research on the spiral, which is also the spiral of female pain and frailty. The project was thus born from a strange coincidence that led me to the elaboration through the photography of my recent pain.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF PARIS AND PARISIANS?
Parisians love photography and contemporary art because Paris has always been a city of art. The Parisians have been educated by many generations to appreciate it,
thanks also to the presence of galleries, museums, fairs that during the year offer continuous exhibitions for a wide and heterogeneous public.
FROM WHERE THE IDEA OF YOUR BOOK IS COMING "ONE HUNDRED PORTRAITS"
Published by Skira publisher in 2014, it is a selection of 100 portraits of actors, actresses and international directors. For many years I have been a portrait photographer especially in the world of cinema. I was sent to film festivals: Venice, Cannes, Berlin, just to mention the most important. But I also worked for women's mags, always photographing people. After more than 20 years, I thought about collecting part of my work in this book.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF YOUR BOOK "EAT ME"?
It was born in collaboration with a chef who asked me to represent his special recipes with a photographic exhibition. The chef abandoned the project and then I took it back two years after 2015. The protagonist was the relationship between women and food, sometimes it is a very conflictual one, because today women are asked to be “forever young, beautiful and skinny”. The book contains 40 sometimes funny and even surreal images of women in relation with food. It was like a game for me to tell women to stay themselves. Beauty means "uniqueness". Do not be conditioned by imposed stereotypes. "Eat Me" is a work full of irony and with a touch of surrealism.
YOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC DREAM?
I never stop dreaming, I have several projects in mind that I would like to realize, in what order I will not decide. What can I say and that it will be a female project; a topic that is very close to my heart.
Photo 1: Miss Mc #14
Photo 2: Mix of photos from book EAT ME
Photo 3: Smoking pizza #21
Photo 4: Virtual fruit #25
Photo 5: Book cover "One hundred portraits"
Photo 6: Book cover "Eat Me"
Photo 7: Portrait of photographer Angela Lo Priore