1- Are you a professional photographer? Sometimes. More and more… I am a biologist but in the last years, I find my voice in photography more than in scientific publications. And I started to earn money with my photography: photo prints, the books I write on photo soft skills and talks, coachings and workshops.
2- Why street photography? Trying to capture the normal, ephemerous moments of everyday life in an interesting way is my daily challenge and a good way to understand and express my relationship with humanity.
3- How would you describe your photography style? Colour! Life above all.
4- What makes a good picture from your point of view? What do you look for in an image? Good images, no matter how different, all come from the same source: they tell a story, have a vision for the photo, and express this as effectively as possible. That's why every element in the photo has a purpose. Nothing in it is there just because that's how the scene was, and I couldn't find a better angle. Or, even worse, because I didn't give the image enough time and attention to create a different perspective and composition.
5- How do you educate yourself to take better photos? I love to look at pictures in good books that are well edited. I also like to go to museums and talk to artists at exhibitions. The dialogue makes me grow as a photographer.
6- Where in the world would you most like to photograph? I would like to travel to the big colourful metropoles of the world, but also find the hidden secrets of small cities in the middle of nowhere. I look forward to photographing in India one day.
7- Who would you most like to photograph and what kind of pictures do you avoid to shoot? I like to photograph extravagant people who present themselves in a way that explicitly draws attention to them. I do not take photos of people who are in difficult situations, those who live on the street or who had too big a party.
8- Have you been confronted by someone whose photo you took on the street? What would be your advice, how to avoid confrontation when doing Street Photography? I try to always be respectful and nice to people, not to steal something from them that they do not want to share. It happened only once that someone was upset, it was probably a criminal situation which I was not aware of. I excused myself and said I was only a tourist and walked away. I was lucky. My advice is to treat others sensitively and respectfully, and to pay attention to small signs. The body language usually says enough to understand when better not to push the button.
9- Your favourite street image of your own to date and why? I do not have that one photo and not that one style. I experiment and try different things. The one important thing is to have fun and be patient in order to capture the right moment.
10- Your favourite piece of equipment? Just a fix wide angle lens and a full battery.
11- What are your favourite settings (Aperture. Shutter Speed, ISO, White Balance, Focus, Manual/Auto, Image Format – RAW/JPEG) for Street Photography and why? Aperture 8 and Shutter Speed 500 whenever possible. I would rather have a high automatic ISO than a blurred photo – unless I want blur on purpose. I use exposure compensation a lot to enhance contrast and dark tones (-1, -2). Sometimes I play around with extreme White Balance (Tungsten effect). I use manual focus but I also like backbutton focus. I use a 3:2 format and shoot in RAW + jpg but I work only with the jpgs. I store the raw files on an external drive just in case I need a large size print.
12- Is photography art? Yes, absolutely! Not all photography, but the times when good photos were not considered artworks are over, luckily.
13- Black And White or Colour? Colour! Life in the streets is colourful to me. I sometimes use B/W for conceptual works with a specific focus.
14- What are your thoughts on editing? Editing is the most important part when it comes to determining the photos for a series, an exhibition, or a book. A series of photos that go well together give a result that is more than the sum of the pictures. On the other hand, even strong pictures can lose their strength through a poorly edited series.
15-Why do you share to Progressive Street and who would you like to see showcased from Progressive Street? I like the exchange of ideas, photos, attitudes, and methods and therefore I am happy to be part of this creative group. I would like to see every member showcased because everybody is different.