It’s the moment to confess it : he has been one of my secret obsessions and a model to follow for so many years and he still is! He has inspired me, a lot. Why’s that ?
As a creative, a front-runner he was able to foresee new perspectives in the photography industry and to preceed many others in the development of new schemes and themes. He has been able to mix old with new communication vectors, capturing immediately, sometimes harshly the attention of the spectators.
He has broken up with the iconic figure of the traditional photographer and has created a multi-purposed and nuanced one. An marketing strategist, a communicator, a photographer and a teacher, he has made his fortune creating a new, polyvalent role.
He has played, tried and explored in his curiosity several options, making some conflictual choices but he has always kept his feet firmly on the ground. He has wisely combined commercial to social projects and in his work there has been a consequential and logical evolution.
The key behind is success ? His open-mindedness, his audacity, the capacity to decide and to astonish, the timing and the focus, the opposition of the contrasts and the rules and a powerful imaginery. The idea that the concept, the project, come before the techniques and prevail on the subjects. These become one piece, they are a “detail” in the composition of the artistic masterpiece.
In most of his studio’s portraits, the background made of one solid, single color, can be flat, boring even although this is irrilevant since it has been put in place to allow the subject to empower the scene.
I have always loved his work and I believe he has deserved the succes. I am also proud that an Italian photographer had such a global impact on the western society. To me he represents commitment apart from being driven by an idea that he is capable to develop in a clear, unconventional form.
Elena Arvasi Portrait Photographer 