1- Are you a professional photographer? No. I have been a teacher, a journalist and a children's writer for a long time, with several dozen titles published not only in Italy but also in other European and non-European countries. Then, having retired as a teacher and having given my journalist card back, I decided to give up writing as well, and dedicate myself in total, individualistic, anarchic freedom to photography.
2- Why street photography? In reality, my passion for photography has covered many fields over the years, from youthful research about popular architecture of my land (Sardinia), to documentary photos of Roma friends (“gipsies”), to the landscape and more. Then arrive at street photography, in ways that often approach reportage, as a real landing place. This is my ideal theatre.
3- How would you describe your photography style? Purely instinctive. Everything else is just attention and care for what the eye and the lens have already captured.
4- What makes a good picture from your point of view? What do you look for in an image? I believe that photos always return a point of view that goes beyond the taken scene, so that by observing it we also see fragments of the history, culture and personality of its author, regardless of belonging to any photographic genre. What fascinates me is always beauty, which can reside in a suggested form, in an evoked reference, in a cut of shadow or in a hollowed out face. On the other hand, I hate excessive artificiality.
5- How do you educate yourself to take better photos? Basically looking at other’s photos and constantly learning from my mistakes, still too many…
6- Where in the world would you most like to photograph? Literally everywhere.
7- Who would you most like to photograph and what kind of pictures do you avoid to shoot? I am by nature an omnivorous and voracious photographer, I rarely forbid myself to shoot. However, this does not mean that all the photos I take are then made public. There are moments of extreme weakness regarding illness, poverty and old age that I don't like to publish, unless I believe their ethical and social value prevails over all other considerations: but even in this case it is not easy to convince myself.
8- Have you been confronted by someone whose photo you took on the street? What would be your advices how to avoid confrontation when doing Street Photography? It happens many times. In some cases even in situations that could become dangerous. The problem is that it's impossible to predict people's reactions. Sometimes a smile is enough to overcome moments of tension. Sometimes it's better instead to hide behind a not too intelligent expression and pretend not to understand what's going on. In reality, then, I believe that all street photographers are trained to evaluate in a split second the potential negative reactions of the subjects they photograph, as well as the possibility of being able to kindly explain their motivations.
9- Your favourite street image of your own to date and why? An ante litteram street photo from about thirty-five years ago. A Roma girl who on a summer afternoon was begging in my city, Cagliari. Very small, with a tattered white dress and huge sandals on her feet. When a year later I made friends with a group of Roma, and one of them asked me to accompany him to the hospital because a girl in his group had been run over, I found the same girl on the morgue table, who was seven years old and whose name was Nazifa Baby. Her photo had already been published in a magazine, Linea d'Ombra by Goffredo Fofi, but from that moment I withdrew it and republished it on my personal website only many years later, when I first wrote a story and then a novel about Nazifa Bebé.
10- Your favourite piece of equipment? Since the advent of digital-only Canon cameras, usually reflexes but lately also mirrorless, with a range of L-series lenses that I use according to field conditions, from 17-40 mm up to 70-300 mm and 100-400, which I don't forbid myself to use also for the street.
11- What are your favourite settings (Aperture. Shutter Speed, ISO, White Balance, Focus, Manual/Auto, Image Format – RAW/JPEG) for Street Photography and why? Always aperture priority, always raw, everything else depends on the shooting conditions. For example, for the photos of a project called Windows on the Rain, photographs of people on means of transport on particularly dark and stormy days, usually taken from a distance with 70-300 mm, the ISO shoots up to no less than 1600 with a maximum aperture of diaphragm. In ideal shooting conditions my priorities are always the maximum possible depth of field and a slight underexposure.
12- Is photography art? Yes, it is. Because it is able to subjectify any type of object reality, regardless of the genres of reference and the aesthetic canons used.
13- Black And White or Colour? Both, but for the street almost always black and white.
14-What are your thoughts on editing? Whether or not to engage in editing is an absolutely subjective choice. For me, it is an essential phase of "excavation" of the raw to bring to light what I consider essential and nothing more. For a long time, I looked at specialized digital programs with suspicion, until I told myself that basically all the work that we "of the old school" once did it in the darkroom was nothing more than editing. The important thing is not to be tempted by the infinite possibilities of manipulation.
15- Why do you share to Progressive Street and who would you like to see showcased from Progressive Street? For its absolute singularity. No author in particular: I have the impression that everyone I've been following for some time is already inside.