Andrea Pistolesi Photographer

THE "OTHER" BURMA

2012-01-17T04:06:00.001+01:00

If you think of Burma like golden pagodas, saffron monks and political trouble, well, think again! There is a subtle revolution taking place in the country that no military or political power can control, also because is starting in their own households, with their own sons. Globalization is setting in the new generations with the regional pace, that means fast. As a lady from the Burmese exiled elite was noticing "skirts are going from ankle to groin forgetting the knees".
For the moment it is largely concentrated in the main cities, but is involving all social classes. The Iron Cross hard rock band has is supporters in every social group (buying Chines clothes, jeans, make up is very cheap) and the transformation can bypass the political control to change society from it's roots.
Fashion, cinema, music, shopping trends are redefining the inner core of the national soul, and the recent political openings will be probably the entrance for an avalanche that will change this country forever.
I have been visiting Myanmar for over 13 years now, noticing little changes until my last visit, in December. Now everything feels like near an explosion: when the opening will arrive, and it will be pretty soon, this country will become a huge market for powerful multinational companies (that are operating there already, despite of international sanctions), as they will find a crowd craving for novelties, modernity, mass-market products. In a few years the bare landscape will resemble the one of Thailand, with large roads and electric lines everywhere. There is no scarcity of natural resources in here.
So, if you wish to give a last glimpse to the last country preserving an Asia traditional flavor, this is the time to go.
For an insight to the future preparing it's ground you can give a look to my story, in PadPlaces (The Other Burma).

2012 CALENDAR IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

2011-12-07T10:22:00.001+01:00

I have been very silent on the blog this year, but I had my reasons: a lot of thinking, planning and, thankfully, working. I promise you, and myself, to put more of my professional brainstorming in these notes next year.
In the meanwhile here is the 2012 Calendar, a desktop version with some of my most recent images.
You can download it from this website link.

January is an iconic Buddha in the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh.
February a Bangkok skyline from the Italian Ambassador office.
March in the new Transport Museum in Glasgow by Zaha Hadid.
April the lantern festival in Seoul.
May is in Seoul again: a futuristic moment.
June is my landmark image of the Buddha in Wat Suthat, Bangkok.
July is my favorite: a moment in Piazza Cordusio, Milan.
August is the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, an incredible art environment.
September is from my recent Seville Flamenco story.
October is one of the fantastic skies I found in Norway.
November is an intense moment of prayer in Phnom Penh.
December finally is the classic Peak View in Hong Kong.

DANCING BELLY FLAMENCO

2011-11-10T05:52:00.001+01:00

I landed in Istanbul on November 1976. It was my first flight ever. I had a camera in my bag, but I didn't know how to use it and burned all the films. The sky was overcast and the colors brownish. But the images of the city were so powerful that will stay in my mind all my life. An anthill of humans that were moving like in a circle of hell, among old grouted american cars, carrying impossible burdens on their backs.
When I went back there, not even a decade after, the city had changed: it was modern, already moving forward. The border between Europe and Asia had vanished: it was one planet now.
In 1977 I travelled, once again with my travelmate Sauro, on the road through Spain. The country had just been freed after the Franco's years. We had an old Renault 4 and two blond girls as companions. We went everywhere, we sow a lot and understood little. On the other end even the Spanish people were trying to re-focus themselves.
The seventies, I come to realize now, where the threshold from the past to the global.
Istanbul was still different, Seville still Andalusian, Italy still ideological. Then everything vanished in the melting pot..Well, maybe not everything, but I'm not sure I should add fortunately. But we can rejoice: the global world is not only creating monstruos cultural reserves called museums, it's also spreading a fluid mix of traditions, common places, confused passions that will pave the way to the inevitable ethnic fusion.
In September I went to Istanbul to shoot a story on the local modern music scene. The city has become a cult place for the cultural cross-over.. Yes, you understand, the continental border, the Bosphorus, the Middle East, the Balkans.. So clever..If you mix everything, something original comes out, the new is invented.. Or not?
You know what was the most surprising thing I found there? Xing! A 24 years young Chinese girl that, among many things she does, wants to be a belly dancer. She misses a major attribute: a big belly to shake, but she's not giving up.. And to achieve excellence she has become personal assistant to Selma Yildiz, a world famous Turkish belly dancer. Her world, the Eastern world, is eager to absorb all what is worth to know, metabolize and reinvent it.. Ours is steady and deadlocked instead.
In October I went to Seville, the story to shoot was on the evolution of Flamenco. Guess.. There was Kaytlin, from Korea, 27 years of attitude and foot-stamping that could shake half world. I met her in one of the several Flamenco schools of the city. Many of the other girls confessed that the passion to dance was in reality a less boring alternative to the gym. Kay has well other plans: giving shows in Seoul, obviously with an improbable Flamenco dress over a thin body. Still here she is: a confirmation that culture and tradition are changing faster then our assumptions.
On the other end Carmen Ledesma, a fascinating Flamenco maestra, told me that what is really important in a dancer is the inner passion, the will and capacity to transmit it, the sincerity of the performer. A different face is not an obstacle to this. A different cultural background may be, but time will overcome it.
All this to confirm me in my idea that our task of photo-reporters, witnesses of this melting humanity, is to show and tell the story. We are so absorbed and part of the process that we risk to miss the magnitude of it, the epochal change of wich we are actors and victims. Our effort must be to capture the subtle details that represent the set. Our life set.

NEW PORTFOLIOS ON THE WEBSITE

2011-10-09T20:03:00.002+02:00

The portfolios are now updated and available for download on the website.

As usual I have edited three very different portfolios: the Reportage/Documentary, with a chronological presentation of my works; the Travel, ordered by thematic orientation; and finally the Professional, with an overview on my activity.

PISA PER LA FOTOGRAFIA & SES SHOW

2011-10-06T20:18:00.001+02:00

I would like to thank the Pisa per la Fotografia (Pisa for Photography) association within the local university for granting me their yearly recognition. The motivation is the bulk of my professional photo production, something I'm very proud of, of course, and is a good occasion to look back. This is something that normally I don't like to do: far from neglecting my past, I think the personal experiences are inevitably part of who we are, they are deep in our personality and influence what we do, therefore they should be only the base for our essential evolution. It's already so difficult to move from something going well to experiment new ways that spending too much time in front of the mirror seems dangerous to me. But for once, a very good once, it's ok.
On October 22nd, in Pisa, in the evening, there will be a retrospective presentation and on the 23rd a meeting with photographers.

On October 22nd, in the afternoon, I will inaugurate in the Museo della Grafica, Palazzo Lanfranchi, the show SES, South East Synopsis, 64 prints dedicated to my recent work in that region where I reside for an half of every year. It's a synopsis because I selected two photos for each story I shoot in the past four years: the essence being a portrait of this fantastic part of the world where everything is changing fast, with striking contrasts and contradictions. It's a bulk of work to which I recognize a lot of significance, but, at the same time, as I indicated before, I consider it just the platform to start new experiences.
The images are already visible in PadPlaces, but I wait you there, if you can, to browse the prints and talk...

THANK YOU STEVE

2011-10-06T10:14:00.000+02:00

I bought my first Apple in 1985, and Mac has been with my work ever since. You changed the world, certainly my world, for good. Very few people can say they did. Thank you Steve!

IMAGES SHOWED IN CHIARAVALLE

2011-10-02T17:23:00.001+02:00

In the Abbey of Chiaravalle, just outside Milan, a photo show on the abbey itself was inaugurated today. It was a coincidence that I shoot a story for Focus magazine two weeks ago, and Carlo, a friend printing for my forthcoming Pisa show and this one as well, asked me to join. Thanks for this opportunity. I gave 4 images for showing.
Chiaravalle is a magic place: many will see it as a church, a building, a retreat. But it has some incredible magic in itself. It deserves a deeper knowledge to grasp some of this. But this is true for many special places that religions transformed in sanctuaries all over the world. They knew where to place their souls from ever...

INTERVIEW ON FEEL NIKON (In Italian)

2011-09-30T20:40:00.002+02:00

This is in Italian for Italians (sorry)... About a new interview on Feel Nikon on-line magazine.
Potete trovare l'intervista, davvero molto interessante, a questo link.

TPW IN CORTONA IS DONE - THANKS

2011-08-01T19:22:00.000+02:00

The TPW "Making of a Story" is over and, once again, I'm here to thank all the staff in Cortona, Carlo Roberti in particular.
This time the TPW experience was combined with the CORTONA ON THE MOVE photo festival, with my show BANGKOK SOUL alongside those of David Alan Harvey, Antonin Kratochvil, Alex Majoli, Arno Minkkinen (being in such an important company is sincerely humbling for me!) and emerging photographers that showed fantastic ideas and enthusiasm. The shows will remain open until September, so plan a visit there. Thanking to the Cortona guys who started all this is a must.
More thanks goes to the other teachers at TPW that created the usual environment for sharing intense and sincere human and photographic experiences and emotions.
Last but not least my thanks to my students from whom I always absorb a lot of enthusiasm. Their final work is the video above.
I'll post later some thoughts from this intense experience.

BANGKOK SOUL at CORTONA ON THE MOVE

2011-06-30T19:06:00.001+02:00

BANGKOK SOUL is a show that will be part of CORTONA ON THE MOVE travel photo festival. Here is a short presentation.
You can preview the images on your iPad within PadPlaces.

These photos are not a "project". Or rather, are not part of any "photographic project" as it is understood today. Perhaps they can be considered the clipboard for a life project instead.
For mid-year Bangkok is the city where I live as the opposite to my Florence metropolitan museum. Whereas the Tuscan hills, that I continue to love more than any other landscape, make me calm, in this city I am forced to live, to move, to evolve.
I came here for the first time in 1978, and I saw her transforming from capital of new and exotic aromas into a bustling modern metropolis.
I see Thais as the Italians of Asia: lovers of pleasure, of beauty, able to work without making it a religion. The right humanity, that is.
These photos represents my perception of this. A vision irregular, since I don't go around with a camera hanging from the neck at all times, but now rich of ideas, sometimes dramatic.
We are travelers able for "the forest and coast" as we used to say, and basically the city requires it. There are wealth and poverty, spirituality, and perversity, modernity and tradition, resignation and revolution, a melting pot where everything is mixed but does not melt.

BANGKOK SOUL will be exhibited at CORTONA ON THE MOVE photo festival
from July 21 through September 4, 2011

Visit the CORTONA ON THE MOVE web site

PADPLACES IS BECOMING ADULT...

2011-06-11T12:17:00.000+02:00

Version 2.0 of PadPlaces is now available on iTunes for download or update.

Although many will see little change at first sight we have worked under the hood to give better performance and go a step forward in creating a veritable photo publishing platform.

First of all you will notice a dynamic presentation in the four sections of the app, with images that will introduce the most recent highlights available for download. This is as close to a magazine as we could imagine.
Until now free stories were limited to the Portfolios section while now you'll start finding free essays throughout all sections.
Portfolios section is now called Photography because will be devoted more to photo essays then to the professional portfolios presentation alone.
Videos are a very important addition too: it will take time to download them (please be patient and let the app work) but they will be a nice experience. The very new Magical Tattoo video is already available for free.
Finally, when you will start the stories already downloaded to your library you will go to the intro page rather then directly to the slideshow. I feel this is a nice touch but will require you to download the stories again when you update your app (you'll not need to pay again for purchased stories, of course).

We keep working on giving PadPlaces a solid reality and your support will be much appreciated. Feedback, interaction and also rating this app, are essential on your side to keep this experiment in self-publishing alive!

ANOTHER (WARM) WINTER HAS GONE....

2011-05-28T14:26:00.000+02:00

Bangkok is saying goodbye with rain and sun.. The first is telling me it's time to go west, the other is reminding me that is only for some time.. Yes, another winter has passed and I can gladly say I have no regrets of the time spent in here.
In this city I really feel like I cannot escape living my life. While back in Italy everything seems to be in a limbo, awaiting for what the rest of the world will decide to do, here the pulse is regular. Not crazy, not Japanese or Newyorker: people here are very simple, easy going, passionate and direct. I could say Thai are the Italians of Asia, if Italians were not lost in a dramatic telenovela.
What a winter has been. I was regretting that I have not started my professional revolution, the new way I'm still envisaging. Then I reflected that things have happened without me noticing, like real life is. I've been shooting videos for two months, like a game in the beginning, may be different in the near future. I was searching ideas for stories, then I realized that I was photographing what I wanted, not what I supposed "they" could want.. Maybe it's my silent change taking shape..
And before work, yes, before, there was life. I've lost a friend under a truck in Sukhumvit, I lost love and find others, I met new friends.. From Sri Lanka to Seoul I met wonderful people, I appreciated the differences and, above all, the common humanity and the positive response you always get when you smile..
Now the rain has stopped and the sun is setting.. It's time to go to the airport..

EXOTIC AND DISENCHANTED

2011-05-22T05:09:00.000+02:00

A few years back, during a presentation of my NAG (Not Yet Global) book, a gentlemen pointed out to his impression that I still had an exotic view of the world. With an opposite view others are suggesting that too much and too long traveling have made me disenchanted in front of the world wonders. Contrasting reactions to my work are not surprising: I struggle to find a personal vision of the contemporary world, and I may be as confused as everybody else living these times of global transformation.
Everything is changing fast these days. The world wide web has destroyed the previous communications system and has not created a new one, yet. So the speed of globalization is faster then how a human being can adapt and develop ideas in this unstable cultural environment. What is left to us to tell? To show in images? To interpreter with a personal vision?
The obvious answer would seems to be the evolution itself: the changing, the consequences on society, on individuals. In the travel photography field of expertise, we should probably show not what is left to see of the traditional (exotic) world, but why is still worth to fly hours to understand the underneath cultural differences in a world that may seems already flattened. To be in the streets of Seoul, Singapore, Sao Paulo or New York may seems no different, and in fact the visual impact is the same, but the life is not. Is a subtle difference, much more difficult to render through images then what it was to show costumes and villages. But this is the challenge for the contemporary photojournalist, and the public will be interested, at least a part of it.
I will not surrender to the idea that the forthcoming world for travelers will be composed only by beach resorts, cities for shopping, a few museums. Culture is inside the human being, and is expressed not just by it's dressing and tech gadgets, but also by ideas, behaviour, ancestral inheritance.
So much for my exotic vision of the world, that would be just ridiculous. And about enchantment.. well, I have developed an high threshold to achieve it, but I long for every opportunity to find it.. even if it is a sunset that let me put down the camera and enjoy it just to myself, just for the sake of it.

TPW 2011 WORKSHOPS: PALIO & MAKING OF A PHOTO STORY

2011-05-01T17:48:00.000+02:00

It's time for the TPW 2011 workshops... As usual you can get more info on the TPW website. And here below are the presentations.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE PALIO
June 28 - July 3, 2011

This workshop will take place during the famous Palio of Siena in July. It’s not easy to describe what the Palio of Siena is, and a workshop on this subject is equally complicated! But let's try.The Palio of Siena is the most ancient horse race (and here is the first error because it is much more than just a race) in the world it began in 1644.Of all the popular manifestations that have remained in the world, the Palio of Siena is one of the truest, most passionately-lived, and most influential on social life: it is not folkloristic, and it is not for tourists. It is quite the opposite.
It is the fruit of life for the contrada (a clan, community, or neighborhood within Siena) that takes place all year long and has been going on for more than 400 years.There are 10 horses with riders (and the rule is that it is the horse that wins the race, with or without its rider) that represent different contrade. They must complete three laps around the perimeter of the spectacular Piazza del Campo and the first to finish wins the race. Three minutes. This is the short version of the story.
The long version is infinite. On Google there are 2,570,000 results.We need to begin by speaking about the 17 different contrade that divide the territory of the city of Siena. Then, there is the passion of the people of Siena for the Palio, which is their life. Finally, there are the fantini (riders), berberi, capitani, cavalli scossi, mossa, berci, canape; Casato, cencio.The only thing that everyone agrees on is that, in order to enjoy the energy of the Palio to its maximum degree, you must experience it for the entire four days that it goes on, following a contrada, if possible, and having a contradaioli (a member of the contrada) as your guide. You should stay with the contrada until the day of the Palio and celebrate the victory with them, or suffer the defeat, or even worse, suffer the victory of the contrada’s adversary!If you don’t come from Siena, or you don’t have friends that are loyal to a particular contrada, choose one to your liking, because you like the name: there are many to choose from and any of them will be fine.Nicchio (Seashell), Valdimontone (Ram), Leocorno (Unicorn), Civetta (Owl), Torre (Tower), Onda (Wave), Chiocciola (Snail), Tartuca (Turtle), Aquila (Eagle), Pantera (Pantheress), Selva (Forrest), Drago (Dragon), Bruco (Caterpillar), Giraffa (Giraffe), Oca (Goose), Lupa (She-wolf), Istrice (Porcupine).In the days preceding the Palio, there are two trials a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. You will have the whole day available to live the life of the contrada, to get to know the people around you, and in the evening, to eat dinner in the streets together with the true members of the contrada in the most beautiful city in the world. Maybe one day you can also take advantage of visiting the surroundings of Siena: but I doubt that you will be able to distract yourselves from the fever of the Palio.Our point of view will be a privileged one from the inside. We want to make you understand the mechanisms of the Palio, have you participate in the life of the contrada, and immerse ourselves in this atmosphere, the only one like it in the world. We will not be tourist spectators, but instead we will engross ourselves in the spirit of this experience that must not be missed. Every day, we will meet to critique the photographic work but also to discuss the correct strategies for making the most of these days.

THE MAKING OF A PHOTO STORY
July 24-30, 2011

The photographic profession is a balanced combination between creativity, craft and commercial strategy. Making a reportage cannot be pure artistic exercise, but must take into consideration the needs of the person who will have to publish the final work. The visual language, the making and diffusion of the images change; the media have to adjust to all this, so even the creativity and productivity of the artist must evolve.

Our workshop is dedicated to the philosophy of trying to find a visible compromise between the market needs and the work quality. In the first place there is the making of a photo story: the style, the contents, the ideation and definition of the assignments, the making of complex projects; then, also important, is the trip organization, the photographic shoots, organizational methodology once on the field. In one word, the actual photographic work.

Then the boring but necessary phase comes in: the digitalization of the work intended both as dark rooms work (on the computer) and as the preparation of images to be easily filed and ready for high quality diffusion. This is the workflow, which has become an important moment in the life of the photographer as means between the shooting and the publication. We will also dedicate much attention to the methods of presentation and diffusion of the images.

Finally the image marketing, the phase from which of a professional photographers survival depends upon: how to make and present a first portfolio, how to mount and distribute a photo story, how to enter the locked doors in Italy and abroad. There are no secrets, but obvious and hard methodologies which only need to be focalized and encouraged: that is our goal in this workshop. It will be the occasion to look inside yourself, understand how much of our life you are willing to dedicate to this passion, which direction to take trying to avoid useless deviations, and finally make photography your own profession.

VIDEO AND VIDEOGRAPHY

2011-03-25T05:49:00.000+01:00

Long time away from the blog.. but I was busy shooting videos for a tourist operator mainly between Laos and Cambodia.
This is confirming some ideas I had about this dual productions (photos and videos): or you do the one or the other. The way you think is completely different. The searching of situations, the concept, the approach, the planning of the final work, require a very different thinking and, at least for me, switching from one to the other on the spot, is not easy. In front of a landscape, or a monument, you have all the time you need, but when it comes to people you need to make a choice.
Video has great advantages on photography when movement is involved; it's weaker when the situations are static. Still you have to combine the various components in one, rational and comprehensive message.
On the other hand there are some great opportunities for creativity here. Even during this very commercial assignment I came to realize that there is space for what many people call "videography": applying our photographic skills and visions to the movie. Using a digital camera and it's fantastic lenses is compensating for the tech limits of a videorecorder (even if the sensor is not as good).
Many people that live photography as a purist art will object that this is just another thing. And I agree. All the same I think it's time for the creative photographer to move forward and explore new opportunities. When I experimented with videos around ten years ago the tech options were very basic, and the presentations were limited to short, small movies visible on CDs. Nowadays the web revolution is making video a universal language.. Time to explore it, with the brain, not just the eyes..

WHEN PHOTOGRAPHY BECOMES A RELIGION

2011-02-08T13:00:00.001+01:00

After shooting religious subjects for over 10 years I've become very familiar with the matter. I never liked, and still despise, concepts like blind faith, dogma, absolute truth. They are much more human then divine and their final results are never positive, at least in they way I see life and social order.
Maybe is because of this that I become intolerant when I see the same principles applied to my life, embedded in photography of course.
I wonder who elected the priests and philosophers who dictate dogmas, the do and don't of photography, and on what book is based their wisdom. I'm not surprised that they find a wide audience of followers and believers: who doesn't in these times of emptiness?
The story of absolute truths in photography is long.
I still remember when "they" asserted then only black & white was the real photography, color being only a commercial emanation.
When "they" declared that digital was nothing, destined to a lower level of the art.
When digital printing was pilloried for being nothing less then a sin, a blasphemy.

Of course the digital era was a flood, but "they" found many arks, it seems.
So, after rapidly adapting to the new religion, the new dogmas were quickly posted on the web.
Basically the most recent commandments dictate that the only licit retouching of a photo are those that were possible on film and in the chemical darkroom. I wonder if this is because these are the only one they know.
You cannot crop an image more then a certain percentage. Again, what if the photographer has a camera with a viewfinder that does not show the whole frame?
You cannot remove even a cigarette butt from a photo, but is not important if you shoot only the dying man and leave the killer out of the frame.
And, what I find really funny, now you can shoot a digital color photo and convert it to black & white (this is licit and even admirable) but cannot change the colors (unless resembling the chemical cross-process or similar). When you decided to shoot with a film instead of another, was this admissible, even with completely different colors resulting?

I'm tempted to describe all this as crazy and stupid, but now that I know the sensitivity of a religion I'm careful. Not because I respect the priests or the believers, just because I can ignore them.
Basically this is the philosophy of the non-photographer, of the non-creative, the conservative that makes it's living talking about photography and not selling (which means showing to an interested public) the contents of those marvelous little squares called photos. It's a crowd that has populated our world since the beginning.
"They" talk like if this art is a set of rules, like if it's a game. In these times when photography has become a matter of contests more then publication, "they" thrive on the crisis, ignore or even deny it. Certainly are not contributing to the evolution of ideas.

If you happen to be a believer, try to make a step back and give a look to the all theater, not just to the stage. You may have a different impression. And start doubting the priests words. You may save photography doing this.

THE LUCKY GENERATION, OR 20 YEARS TOO LATE..

2011-01-22T07:19:00.001+01:00

I have been repeating for years that the greatest luck of my generation was to live the Millennium passage, not for the numerical factor of course (having this value only for Christians), but rather for the possibility of having had a foot in the world of cultural differences and the other in the beginning of the globalized culture. The decision I took when I was eighteen, to dedicate my life to explore human and geographical differences on earth, would have much less sense today, if any at all. From the photography point of view this was even more true: if it had a sense and worthiness to show the beauty and differences on the globe twenty years ago, we can now only search for contemporary matters that are common to the largest part of humanity. Photography became my way to analyze things, to offer my interpretation, and, ultimately, to make a living out of my continuous traveling.
Coming to Sri Lanka now is confirming this view of mine. I wanted to come here long time ago, attracted by tales and images. I wanted to come when I was working on the book on Buddhism. And again I wanted to come when I was in Tamil Nadu, just across the sea. But for several reasons it never happened. What I found nowadays, finally here, is what I expected: a nice country, a great natural environment, a historical heritage well protected by UNESCO. All within a modern nation of proud people, with poverty and problems of course, but who doesn't at this latitude? But original culture is gone, dresses are modern, cars are increasing in number and cellphones are for everybody. My iPhone is well connected to the net, Internet cafe are closing because obsolete. That's good for the people living standard, much worse for their culture and identity. But how can we criticize, us who were the first to be globalized?
Only in religion I still see a peculiar identity, and this probably why I have concentrated on this anthropological subject in the past ten years. Here Buddhism is a national matter, non just a belief. A Buddhism that has very close, obvious but still strange interconnections with Hinduism. A faith that is deeply embedded in the social structure.
This is the new world we live in, the glimpse to the future. We are definitely on the second foot on our life walk. Still an interesting journey, don't you agree?
(See a gallery of iPhone images from Sri Lanka on this facebook gallery)

MR PRESIDENT, SIR... THANKS!

2011-01-06T12:02:00.000+01:00

I love India (what photographer doesn't? I keep saying that shooting people there is not easy: if they see you they start combing their hairs and smile...) and so I was pleased and honored to be invited as president of the large Global Photography Talent group ob Facebook that has been started there. Although like all presidents in the world, I'm afraid I'll be a very absent (due to duty, no intention) representative figure, I feel like to give some indications to the fellow members of GPT.
Let me offer a general consideration that may be difficult to resume shortly. The positive thing is that photography in Asia is, as a mass accessible expression media, a relatively new opportunity. What I see here is the popular enthusiasm that we had in the West in the 80s, and this is great. I see also the generalist approach to the visual language we experienced though: going beyond the obvious is a task possible for those with a real vocation, not for everybody. It's in the nature of human beings: don't ask me to sing..
So, while in the West photography is undergoing a deep rethinking due to a wide crisis that wiped away many of the media where images were the core, (see many recent posts in this blog) and also by the fact that everybody today has a "camera" in his pocket, here the road is wide and long. What a great opportunity.
But to take real advantage of this global historical situation the new coming photographers must be wise. The advantage of the fast-growing cultures is to learn from the history and the mistakes done in the past by others: Africans will not wait for a telephone wire to call, they'll have cellphones instead!
So, to finalize my idea, a suggestion: look at the images done in the past 40 years in the West, at the magazines that made photography great, at the work of great photographers. Understand, absorb and digest this mass of cultural history. Then just forget it. This is the past. Will be part of you visual DNA, but nothing more. You task is to start now, from here, to develop your visual language, your expression, the future of photography. Your photography.

PLUG IN TO THE FUTURE

2011-01-02T13:27:00.003+01:00

an Holga like picture of Moskow, shoot with a Nikon D3

Now that we all live the Digital culture and Photoshop is our definitive guru I feel it's time to move on. Most of you will know by now what a Plug In (PI) is and what is offered in the market. Practically, to make it simple, a PI is just a shortcut for functions already existing into Photoshop. If you wish to recreate a cross-process color cast to your image you could do it regulating the curves (actually there is also a preset in CS5). But commercial PIs are coming in many forms that will make the job for you. Of course they have gone a long way further: now you can have a Holga looking image, which is a combination of several regulations, in one single step. And the list is long.
But it's here that I have a lot to discuss. The vast majority of popular PI are offering a range of regulations that will recreate the results of traditional photography. From B&W as shoot on several type of films, to slide or negative film tonalities (and even grain), to vignetting and chemical alterations. In short, they are looking back, not forward. In doing so they answer the desire of photographers to perpetuate their style with the new digital media but jeopardize the potential wish for a stylistic evolution. Digital is offering a great freedom of expression (shooting at low light, shooting a lot, seeing what you are getting on the spot): why aren't we using it do develop new potential forms of expression? Why we keep looking back?
The reasons are obvious, having to do with our visual culture and history. But I keep saying that if photography does not evolve will be condemned to oblivion. At least that photography that wishes to express itself at a higher level, representing a message and not just a visual chronicle of something.
We hope we will not need "third party" tech help to develop these new ways. In music, video, art in general, the evolution is clear. Sometimes controversial, but unmistakably underway. Photography needs new visionaries with great ideas..

EMBEDDED PHOTOGRAPHY PRODUCES EMBEDDED OPINION

2010-12-28T11:29:00.001+01:00

This is a post that will move some reaction, and probably many will think there is something personal.. My intentions wish to go much further then individual photographers experiences and stories.
When I see war images nowadays I mostly see stories shoot while embedded within an Army, or escorted by some force. There are some personal and regional exception, of course, and sometimes I see a story as "seen and told" from the "other side".
In certain cases it might be the relative facility to access a difficult situation (and also the relative safety) to induce the photographer to go this way, but the larger reality is that the big guys have learned the lesson and are avoiding the old mistakes.
It's well known that the US lost the Vietnam war more for the protests back home then for the Vietcong fighters. They just don't want this to happen again. So they will not allow photographers and journalists to go too close to certain realities, and even less to tell the story from the opposed side. This is understandable, but not acceptable.
We hear frequent reports of civilian victims in Afghanistan due to mistaken military actions, but I have never seen photos of those victims. In Vietnam the Mylay massacre on the contrary sparkled open discussions and criticism on certain behaviour of the army toward the population.
Even worse, introducing the concept of privacy (in a war? Please! nothing is private for a soldier in a war!) the governments are now asking not to publish images of wounded or dead soldiers (even their coffins going back home were off-limits to reporters). Again, you may remember how impressive were the photos of actual wounded and suffering young Americans in Vietnam.
The worst part though is the general assumption that there are no doubts on the rightness of an action or a war, or better, no doubts should be stated in the media. Of course I'm not defending the Talebans, or Saddam Hussein, but I have never read of any possible argument the other side could stand for. There was open criticism on the rightness of the Iraq intervention, but never a discussion on principles.
Going back to war photography today. I see very good images of "our" soldiers in action, their tensions, some interactions with civilians. Some of these works are really strong (think of the Restrepo documentary), and telling these stories is good. But it's an incomplete panorama for most of the reportages I see: where are the civilians? Where are the enemies? Where are the consequences of the fights on both sides?
If photojournalism will not fight to get it's independence back it will lose all it's credibility and, in the end, all the interest from the narrow market left for it. But, above all, it's a matter of intellectual and human freedom that is at stake here. We criticise China for it's media control without seeing that the Western media are even more "controlled". We have to get it back! Us, the photographers.

PHNOM PENH 24-1.4

2010-12-24T09:03:00.000+01:00

Photography is, or should be, the exercise of searching, thinking, experimenting. Especially now that digital (and optical) technology is offering us daily improvements and goes beyond the limits we have suffered for years.

In my last visit to Phnom Penh last week, a short three days stay, I decided to play this vital game. With a Nikon D3S that can easily shoot at low light and a 24mm F1.4 lens I went around without no precise scope except keeping the maximum aperture on the lens, whenever possible.

I posted a short portfolio in Padplaces (for free download; if you don't have an iPad yet sorry, you'll have to wait for the next Apple OS).

I love technology when it gives you freedom of expression: we just have to be careful and not become slaves to it!

THE 2011 CALENDAR IS NOW ON LINE

2010-12-20T10:09:00.001+01:00

The 2011 desktop calendar is ready and available for download from the website. Just go to this link and choose your screen format. I hope you like it and will be a good omen for next year! Manolesta did a great job, once again!

IT'S NOT A LAND OF SMILES..

2010-12-15T17:00:00.001+01:00

The first thing you notice arriving in Cambodia after spending times in Thailand is the absence of open smiles on people's faces. When you cross your sight with a passerby in Bangkok, when you ask for information to somebody that doesn't even speak English, what you get is that, a smile. Even during the red shirts revolution on the barricades you would mostly notice smiles (until the shootout started, of course). In Phnom Penh the mood is different. Culture is certainly different, the character is different, but what is really different, is my opinion, is the recent history of these countries. Thailand has not known the war for centuries now: it was untouched in the 2nd WW and it was an heaven during the Vietnam war. Cambodia, viceversa, is still recovering from the deepest darkness, social and human darkness, we can imagine: decades of war, civil repression, massacres, poverty. Even worse then Vietnam, in many ways. Today it's economy is slowly growing, but under the heavy hand of China that is not paying much attention to social differences here.
I visited the Tuol Sleng today, the Genocide Museum that was the slaughterhouse under the Khmer Rouge regime. A long gallery of cells, torture chambers, and thousands of pictures of people that died here. And then you understand why people are not smiling, at least not yet. It will take generations for wounds to heal, for Cambodians to look at others seeing friendly visitors, or at least not indifferent foreigners. The world was silent, for too long.

INTRODUCING PADPLACES

2010-12-04T15:40:00.001+01:00

I have been silent these days, but definitely not inactive. I'm introducing PadPlaces, the application for iPad that wants to respond to the radical changes of our editorial market.
Here is an introduction to it, but you are invited to follow it on it's BLOG, or WEBSITE, or FACEBOOK, or download the app on your iPad.
But, above all, please send me you opinions and feedback!

WHAT IS PadPlaces?

It's the new way to distribute photo stories and documentary reportages on the iPad and other tablets that will follow.
The application is a browser that will allow you to see what's available and download to your iPad full stories for a minimal price and portfolios for free.
At the moment I keep this platform open to my stories only, but it's possible I will enlarge the number of fellow photographers showing.
Stories are divided into New (the most recent stories), Travel and Documentary, depending on subject and style.

WHY PadPlaces?

iPad has changed the way editorial publications are distributed.
Now we are able to show full stories (not just the selection published on magazines) in the style (often not reproduced by printed publications) and sequence that represents the original author's idea and work.
For a small price, that will depend on novelty and number of images, you can download and keep on you tablet the full stories for future review.

WHAT THERE IS INSIDE AND WHAT THERE WILL BE?

Recent stories will be uploaded.
My plan is to include E-photo books that will have a proper section and will represent a new media experience.
We are thinking also of video and audio addition.

HOW WILL I COMMUNICATE WITH YOU?

The website padplaces.com will give indications on content and news.
This blog will be the opinion and comments exchange place between author and viewers: you are invited to participate on any matter.
Through twitter we'll also give updates on new stories addition and relevant news.

TPW ORIENT - BURMA & MEKONG

2010-11-06T14:43:00.002+01:00

TPW Orient, the new project dedicated to South East Asia, is ready with details. At this point I can announce the two traveling programs that i will direct in February and March 2011. A first trip will be through Burma, into the very heart of the country, and a second on the most culturally rich section of the Mekong River, between Laos and Cambodia.
In both cases this will not be yet another tour with many cameras on the shoulders, but rather a true, intense photographic workshop where participants will be encouraged to work on personal projects and evolve their vision.
I know both areas very well, and I can count on excellent local connections. This will ensure the best possible attention to the relevant travel aspects, going out of the obvious touristic routes and icons, concentrating our attention to the essence of the amazing situations we will find.
Visit the TPW website for a program presentation, (of Burma or Mekong) and keep in mind that details will be available very soon.
TPW Orient is planning also a two weeks teaching program, like in Tuscany with several photographers, based in Bangkok. That full schedule is available on TPW website.

WHAT IDEA FOR THIS FORMAT? OR VICEVERSA?

2010-10-17T22:50:00.002+02:00

It's a common assumption that your camera will determine how you photograph. Your Leica will let you interact with your subject. The wide angle will push you closer. A medium format camera will force more attention to composition and details. A square frame will pull attention to the centre and give you more focus. As a consequence many photographers decide to use certain equipment on which to base their vision: but is this the right approach?
I think it should be exactly the opposite. The author should develop an idea and then make a decision on what equipment is more suitable to obtain the desired results. Yes, I know, this is the Utopian world where you can afford the (very expensive) cameras and lenses you want, but I'm talking principles here. Why you can't envision a square frame image in your 35mm digital camera and you think you need a Hasselblad?
In today's photography the lack of original ideas is pushing the search toward any possible shortcut and diversion, including giving the precedence to technique over idea. Nothing is more self-deceiving then this: your camera is, or should be, the extension of your mind, the instrument to realize your vision, to put into a bi-dimensional frame your idea. This is true also with post-production techniques, of course: the implementation of color and exposure transformation (still based on the chemical precesses, and why, I wonder why, we don't explore new expressions) cannot cover the emptiness of weak images.
Let's keep creating, starting with the strongest instrument we already have: our brain. And it's still free!

MORE ON DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

2010-10-11T12:20:00.001+02:00

I find myself in total agreement with the comment left by "Art Sediments" on my latest post that I have decided to publish it, hoping this will give more food for thought!

"I have no doubt that this is a period of self-analysis and transition for photography. As you rightly point out, everyone has a cheap fool-proof camera in his pocket. Does this means that I see more interesting pictures around? I would say no. Kitsch is the dominating trend, meaning that digital photography most of the time is trying to emulate Kodachrome or B&W in the same way photography in the XIX centuries tried to emulate paintings.

I believe digital photography has still to find his own voice, as photography did many years after its started with Weston or Strand. Is conceptual art the path? I don't believe so. Art can be conceptual, but does not need to. But it is mandatory for art to create real emotions. From what I see around, the emotion created by digital photography are based on the mimicking of traditional photography. As I can be moved by Ingres, but not by an arty photograph of the XIX century, I can cry in front of a great B&W print, but not in front of a Photoshop creation copying Cartier-Bresson. Is not about being purist, is about moving forward..."

CONCEPT TIMES

2010-10-10T19:07:00.002+02:00

Contemporary art is conceptual. This means the idea behind the artwork is more important then the technical skill. You can be an artist, say a painter, without knowing how to use a brush, or a sculptor just making a drawing that will then be carved out of marble by a capable "scarpellino" in a Carrara workshop. Even more contentious is the installation world, where an empty environment, pieces of materials, blinking bulbs or static videos are considered as artistic as a Michelangelo's Sacred Family. Many people refuse to accept this art (I always remember the fantastic movie with Alberto Sordi and wife visiting the Biennale in Venice!) but it has too long a story to be labeled as a cheap trick.
The question is how this culture is influencing photography, the most technical of modern arts. Since everybody is talking of how the Photographer should identify himself in this world where everybody is owning and carrying a camera in his pocket, style and ideas become crucial. Should we go concept?
That a photo just depicting a place or event without a personal interpretation has no photographic sense or monetary value nowadays is common agreement. But how far the personal touch and interpretation of the artist should go in this conceptual panorama is everybody's guess, or madness. Let's leave photojournalism aside in this path: the need to report the truth -even if with a personal eye and approach- has (or should have) the precedence on any artistic ambition. The fine art world is completely different, though. Honestly I'm really fed up with photos of cypress trees and empty country roads ant dusk printed extremely large on grainy papers. This is just concept conceptualism, food for marketing critics that will make a lot of money out of certified smoke. But an image that can transmit you a sense of loneliness, longing, that makes you think and wonder even without a clear subject depicted, is something that we have to appreciate. Probably a visual language that we should learn, develop, introduce to our vision.

WISE GOVERNMENT IS GOOD!

2010-09-23T21:22:00.001+02:00

In 1977 I wandered the roads of Spain with friends on a old Renault 4. When we sow the industrial-smog-blackened roofs of Bilbao we just kept going: it was a dreadful nothingness. In 1997 the local government, induced by the industrial crisis, had invited Guggenheim to open their European landmark museum in the city. In 1998 I came to shoot a story on positive change: how the dreamy shapes of Frank Ghery were attracting visitors, educated ones. It was incredible how this single landmark was already redefining the perception of this unknown industrial city to the whole continent.
Today I'm back here, to shoot a story on a city that did not stop at that successful step but kept investing on art and architecture as a meaning of development. And I'm astonished again. So many famous architects have been invited to work here that is difficult even to give a serious panorama. Spain has changed as a whole, it's true, and Spanish people are perfect Europeans nowadays, but this city is really special.
Just think of the Alhondiga. An old building whose redevelopment as a public space was assigned to a visionary like Philippe Starck. An amazing concentrate of dreamy design and useful utilities: a pool on the roof (transparent from below the building) with a gigantic open air platform that becomes a beach in summer; a mediateca large like a whole museum; a gymnasium as wide as a stadium, and so on..
Among so many negative stories of bad government and corruption is refreshing to see something so promising and enriching for the people. If, as I said in a previous post, Europe is a living museum, this place is the avantgarde of it!

WORKING FOR A NEW WAY

2010-09-14T09:29:00.001+02:00

The iPad introduction to the media market has started a veritable revolution in the communication world. Many will dislike what the new media represents, but, like every technical instrument, the way it is used will determine it's true value.
The iPad, and the other tablets that will follow, have changed the concept of how the media contents will be created, distributed and consumed. More multimedia platforms will give more freedom of expression, more space (written stories are already longer then on printed newspapers, more images will be visible). Publishers jumped to ask money for content (a step that was necessary to keep the industry alive) but will need to offer quality to justify this request and beat the very large competition. Content consumers finally will have a huge choice, easy interaction with authors and producers, and will become more selective.
But what I find really exciting is a completely new opening of the creative to the public. Publishers will be important for aggregation and focus, but will not be an indispensable gate. We can offer our productions directly to the public, and bet only on our quality for acceptance and diffusion. This is challenging, but a fantastic opportunity.
I'm working on such a way, and will keep you posted on progress. But rest assured, a great revolution in publishing has started, and you may be part of it!

LOOK, THINK (POSITIVE), AND SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT...

2010-09-03T16:23:00.001+02:00

I have friends that fear my analysis of the actual professional situation may sound too pessimist.. People who knows me know very well that my attitude is quite the opposite. Sure, I tend to criticize what I see, an ancient Tuscan attitude, but I mean this as an incentive to myself as well as to others. Self satisfaction is deceiving and dangerous, although we certainly need gratifications. But I well aware of being part of that lucky portion of humanity that can express itself with no real limits, with plenty of freedom, with great instruments of expression.
Facing the reality is not pessimism: it is, or wants to be, a push toward change. Change for good!
Therefore, my message to all people is: keep making photos to express yourself! But think a lot, face realities, catch something that is good for others as well as for yourself.. If you are a pro and/or a photojournalist taking photos is also a social responsibility.. But keep shooting, shooting, shooting...

EUROPEAN LIVING MUSEUM

2010-08-28T23:47:00.001+02:00

I just finished an assignment through the Norwegian Fjords (you can see some iPhone images in this Facebook gallery). The nature is still awesome, powerful, immense. The weather is really dominating your destiny here, and you feel overwhelmed by the light even in a rainy day!
But the country, the humanized part of it, has changed a lot. Even with this population, probably the European one whose life is the most depending on nature, and therefore very mindful of it in habits and sensibilities, modernity has traced changes. Behind the red huts reflecting in every fjord shoreline, there is a technological evolution that has completely changed the way of life in the vastness of the countryside. Maybe alcohol is still a stigma, but internet goes well with it! And Oil is pumping money!
But my thoughts are going to a much larger point of reflexion then the Norwegian life. Is the condition of the European continent in this century that is really interesting me.
We, the modern Europeans, are part of a living museum. From Greece to Italy, from France to England, we were the cradle of western civilization. Art, philosophy, industry, social order were born here and then given, or imposed, to the world. Of course the past century has seen the passage of power to the American continent. Still today are the United States the place where ideas are born and developed. Asia is still only the large factory to these ideas: nothing really new is coming from there, yet. It will come, eventually, in a few decades.
But Europe has lost for good. It's is a good place to live. Probably the best in the world. From the fjords here to the Greek islands; from the art cities of Italy to the Highlands of Scotland; from the vineyards of France to Andalusia.. and endless gallery of beauty and social peace and wealth that fears no comparison. Or it does?
If you are a young European with ideas, do you feel you are in the right continent? Or you feel like innovation, creativity, inventiveness are escaping you? The world is shaping up somewhere else, and I feel like we lost the train.
But the entire humanity is globalized and connected. It's easy to get off. If you feel like you want to be part of the changing, with an active role, don't sit in this comfortable chair overlooking ancient beauty. Go where the heart is beating, be part of the big game, do something good.

WHY YOU WANT TO BE A PROFESSIONAL?

2010-08-20T19:52:00.003+02:00

If you are passionate with bricolage (Do It Yourself) generally you don't wish to become a carpenter! For years I have wondered why this is different in photography: whoever has a camera thinks that the obvious way to evolve is to go professional. Nothing is wronger then this, of course. First of all if you are a pro you must photograph not only what your client wants rather then what you like, but also in a way that responds as close as possible to the client needs and not to your personal creativity. This is the exact opposite of any photographer wish and dream.
I understand very well that the idea of earning a life through traveling and taking pictures is a great attraction to many, but this possibility is long gone (see the recent posts on the crisis of travel photography) and the opportunities of something similar are fewer and fewer as the days passes by. We, my generation and few others, were lucky enough to have some of these opportunities, but time have changed for good (for bad, actually!).
So, why would you want to become a professional photographer today? If your passion is photography, go for what you like to do and forget the business side. If you are good that will be the natural consequence of your evolution, eventually. If travel and/or documentary are what you like (as it is in the vast majority of cases) use photography as your way of interpreting and going deeper into the situations you find. Leave the thought of a possible publication: it's a far possibility that will spoil your true expression. Instead free your creativity and vision into a personal and innovative way of reporting: if you are really good success will find you.
Going professional is a though choice, a difficult way to follow, especially nowadays. Business matters will be well prevailing over aesthetic ones, and few people have this in mind (or are able to face it). I think that if you are really willing to do something in this life you can achieve it. But this is true for a few, capable and determined guys. If you think you are one of them...

PUBLISHERS

2010-08-16T18:23:00.001+02:00

Another follow up to the ongoing discussion on the Travel Photography crisis/changes in the world. Some friends suggested that publishers should be the principal actors in the evolution of the market. They should create publications (on paper or on the web) that answer the changing expectations of the public, still pointing to a quality that should give reasons to search for something else (e.g. better) then the avalanche of images freely available on the net. Yes, they should: if they were still there. Unfortunately real publishers are gone from several years!
Big good publishing names are still there (Time Inc, Newsweek, NYT, Gruner, The Time, NGS and others) but they represent only a small portion of the Travel Publishing world market. And the problem in basically on quality evaluation.
An long experienced editor, Luciano di Pietro, that just retired after a life spent in reporting and publishing, pointed out the essence of the drama. He said that real publishers had gone leaving their companies in the hands on managers with no attention at all to contents and quality. The Italian story is emblematic. We had really great guys who started a florid season of media evolution in the 60s: Mondadori, Rusconi, Rizzoli created little empires still prolific. They were entrepreneurs, looking for profit, but recognized the value of quality and would not renounce an author they considered valuable. They have been replaced today by managers (the dreaded CEO) that come from different industries and go to others with only numbers in their minds. There is only the cost of a photo in proportion to the page-filled space, the quality of it is insignificant. Their major attention is to their personal careers, determined by the profit realized in the few years of activity in this industry. Why they should worry if they'll be selling burgers in a year of two?
Of course this is not always the case, but it is for the vast majority of the market, and this trend has compromised not only the quality offered but the public expectations as well. The real question is, in fact, how many people will appreciate quality over fast-consuming quantity in the near future? Will the young generations still appreciate good images over mobile snapshots? The multinationals wish, work and push for a massified, low requiring market, and they are strong. But we can resist, resist resist....

A STONE IN THE SWAMP

2010-08-06T19:31:00.001+02:00

I expected some reaction to my post on the crisis of Travel Photography, but I was surprised by the quantity of mails and feedback I received. I did some clarification with another post, but I have obviously thrown a heavy stone in the pond, or should I call it the swamp, given the situation.
Fellow photographers posted some comments on their blogs (Bob Krist and Tewfic el-Sawy among others, thanks again!) and media groups started discussions on the matter.
I feel like further clarification is appropriate.

I don't think photography as communication media is becoming obsolete: quite the contrary. The consumption of images is larger and larger every day. Unfortunately is also faster and more superficial. It is in fact a consumption, not an appreciation. This is due to the nature of the new media, to the cultural web-scene, to the modern lifestyle, to the mass-ignorance promoted to the new global society. Whatever the fault the results are clear: no publishing space for quality content, no money into quality productions. Yes, there is a small portion of humanity still interested and concerned, and this should be the target of whoever is interested in quality over profit, but we need new, modern media to show them our work.

If we don't stop thinking of photography as we have done in the past half century we are condemned to extinction. The profession of the reporter, half journalist half artist, has been obliterated by television, video, web: in general the visual language has developed fast while the photographers were producing the same kind of images they had for decades. Everybody is a photographer in the literal sense of the word, if you have a cellphone in your pocket. We need to go further, much further. Actualized content, language, style and technique are all essential components of the visual culture to come.

Knowledge, creativity, professional skill are our strength. We need to put them into productions that will compete in the globalized world. Once people see something good, not the stereotyped publication or product, the appreciate and choose it. Not many, but enough to support a quality niche that can preserve a decent level of knowledge.

In conclusion, my requiem for Travel Photography (I stand by it) is a requiem for the photography of the past decades: it was worth, it was good, often honest and appropriate, occasionally even of great quality. But now is gone.
It's time to look forward, become creative and inventive again. Our cameras are more powerful, faster, they see in the dark. Our computers are giving us ten times the freedom we had in the darkroom. We can easily access the whole world, talk among us and foreign people, discuss topics. The interactive showing space and communication are limitless. Isn't it time for our mind to follow up?

WHY A WORKSHOP TODAY?

2010-08-01T18:15:00.002+02:00

(photo © Igor Boscolo, TPW 2010 student)

The recent conclusion of my TPW workshop gave me reasons to think about the meaning of a (serious) workshop nowadays.
For years I have been repeating that photographers teach when they don't have to shoot (any photographer prefers to shoot over anything else..). People that teach a lot have very few assignments, is my guess. But this is partly true. The experience is an enrichment for the teacher too: discussing ideas with young students, browsing the pattern and experiences of other great teachers, and above all vampiring the enthusiasm that we tend to lose after some professionally-troubled years. And, yes, also the wish to pass on some personal knowledge.
But why should people become students in a workshop? There are some good reasons to do it, and some not to: depends who you are and what you are looking for.
A workshop cannot teach how to photograph in one week; neither can give (not existing) tricks to accelerate the process to go pro. These are the dreams of dreamers, of people that give photography a superficial approach not appreciating the long way this art-profession has already gone through, and even less, the crucial radical changes that we are living today. Indeed these are the times of a revolution that we need to ride, not the comfortable re-run of past experiences (I mean, nobody will have the story and experiences of photographers that worked between the 50's and the 90's: that way of life is gone forever).
On the other end a workshop can give you a lot of useful time-saving indications. If the student is willing to listen (not an easy assumption) can obtain from a (honest) teacher useful informations on how not waste time and energy in useless, but generally wrongly perceived, ways of growing. Can rather learn how to focus her/his creativity in realistic and contemporary projects, professional trends, artistic perceptions. This is a priceless support that only a workshop can pass on.
Therefore the workshop today should be open to people willing to enhance their perception of photography, developing their personal focus and style, regardless of professional intentions they may have. Actually I think photography, the "real one", will be more for non-professionals in the future: the freedom from monetary burdens and subject requirements will give creativity and inventiveness a rare opportunity.
I posted the final results of my students in Facebook, as well as my personal presentation. Just follow the links to see. Till the next teaching... Thanks guys!

THE TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER BLOG MENTION

2010-07-25T17:52:00.001+02:00

I would like to thank Tewfic el-Sawy for the post regarding me on "The Travel Photographer" blog.
It's easy to agree on most of our common problems, especially if we face them daily.
But we need to resist, reinvent, go ahead.. And we'll certainly do it!

RENCONTRES D'ARLES

2010-07-14T18:36:00.001+02:00

French are good at lighting monuments and streets, designing wine labels, creating myths. So is not surprising that the "Rencontres d'Arles" dedicated to Art photography are a perfect window for our small world of creativity. They make a show (that succeed in create discussions - wow!) at every night projection in the Roman theater (great setting), and the night-long spread of projection screens throughout the city is a real happening, a must-be-there occasion in the year. Well done, my American friends will say!

Let's give a look at the substance of it, just to stay on the real side of the profession. There were ideas and some good pictures, although I found more inspiring for pure photography the shows of Giacomelli and Haas (from the 50ies!). But, as a whole, there is a clear sign of a new direction in which different forms of art and communication will merge. The concept of single prints is opening up to a more complex combination of messages, contents, interactions. Maybe the goal is not clear yet, but I think this evolution is needed and positive. I have seen some young photographer's work that is meaningful and strong: let's just hope they'll find the way to have their ideas supported and developed. There were also areas full of emptiness, but this part of the game, of course.

The better part is the sensation of easiness and pleasure that visitors and professionals created there. So different from the tense desperation of Perpignan, the tragic "end of photojournalism!". I think this positiveness is a good starting point for photographers: take it easy, we are still producing art! And, as Franco Fontana once said in a interview "Our is not hard work! Hard work is in the mines!"

RE-EVOLUTION IS NOT ALL BAD NEWS...

2010-07-07T14:23:00.000+02:00

My latest post moved many friendly reactions, and words of support.. Well, thanks, but I didn't want to sound too pessimist, or even less in the mood to surrender: quite the contrary! Let me clarify my personal perception of the situation.

When I talk of Travel Photography I refer only to the professional work normally published on travel magazines or books, certainly not to the documentary or reportage work that, obviously, requires traveling (otherwise any picture shoot more the 1 km from home would be travel).

I think is better to face a crisis before is definitive, so we can search solutions, new expression, new media without a sense of vacuum under our feet. See the Einstein citation in the right column of this blog: that is exactly how I see it!

This is the time to start the Re-Evolution of this profession. This is the time for ideas and creativity, but also the time to explore the development of media where the artist can have more control. Because we know that many of the problems for our profession are due to the disappearance or real publishers..

So, keep smiling, and above all, keep thinking, shooting, creating....

A REQUIEM FOR TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

2010-07-06T16:24:00.001+02:00

I did a lot of thinking, waiting, looking (and posting on this blog).. I wanted to be sure, double sure, that my predictions were only a "pessimistic state of mind" consequence.. But now I can say that they were real and realistic, unfortunately.
Professional Travel Photography is gone for good. Or better, the Travel Publications are gone, with a few exceptions. The big international magazines are still there, but with badly reduced number of pages, of readers, of stories. And, what's worst, with confused identities and scopes. Even generic magazines have renounced their travel section after they had produced, or just worsened, the specialized one's crisis.
The reasons are obvious: what is the sense of describing places and destinations in this globalized world? Or even giving practical suggestions when the web is providing very efficient real-time informations?
For photographers like myself, deeply rooted in a geographical culture and background, the problem has two interconnected sides: the artistic and the professional. What to photograph is as important as How to do it. As I repeated several times, identifying interesting stories and giving a personal interpretation is a must. But then comes the Why (which is the same as the professional problem): what are the media that will publish (distribute, show, expose) these works? The photographer has no control of this essential part of the process. I keep seeing many colleagues that join forces in creating new agencies to face the sales vacuum. But it seems obvious to me that the real problem is the absence of the media market to sell to, not the way we try to sell! Maybe we should group to create sensible media, unless we look for selling brand instead of photos.
I keep thinking that the world has a lot of stories worth to be covered photographically. The real task is to modernize our scope, create new ways of distribution (using the new technologies, think of the iPad per example), reach the young reader.
For the Travel Photographer the time has come to drop the "Travel" label. Everybody has a camera in his pocket today. The photographer is somebody able to see in a personal, strong way, and pass the message on..
I SUGGEST YOU READ ALSO THE MORE RECENT POSTS ON THIS SUBJECT..

NEW PORTFOLIOS

2010-06-16T18:30:00.002+02:00

The new PORTFOLIOS are now on the web site. I have included the most recent works and updated the "travel" concept trying to give a clearer scope to my professional attitudes.
You can download them from the portfolios page to review. Any suggestion will be welcomed!!!

STORIES & WORKSHOP

2010-06-11T13:00:00.003+02:00

Back in Italy and time to plan the summer work... In the meanwhile all the stories shoot in Asia in the past seven months are now on the website. Furthermore, the TPW summer workshop should be decided in these days. For those interested and with queries please send me a message and we can talk. What I can say is that, like we did last year with great results, I'll concentrate more on the creative side rather then on the professional one: it's time to give photography a completely new scope, adapting our vision tho the fast changing times.
Please visit the new TPW website and ask Carlo Roberti for special discounts that we have agreed upon.

HOME

2010-05-20T05:38:00.000+02:00

I landed in Bangkok in October, on a humid sunrise at the end of the rainy season. Now, after over seven months, the rain is not coming back yet. Instead a revolution has taken place, leaving an uncertain situation. Bangkok is burning: the future at risk. It is time to fly home. But where is "home"? What is "home"? An proverb says that "home is where the heart is".. partly it's true, but it's not all.
For me the feeling of being "home" is a little more complicated, maybe because I try to live, as Theroux indicates, traveling, and "Travel is at its most rewarding when it ceases to be about your reaching a destination and becomes indistinguishable from living your life".
The places where I feel home are more then one: Tuscany, Sicily, Bangkok, Bali, Brazil.. Besides Tuscany, where obviously I was born and have my house and work, I came to realize that what makes me feel "homely" are the people more then the environment. I'm Latin, I love a positive approach to life. Even in tough times I'm conscious that I was born in a lucky time and place, and I should always look at the "half full glass", having witnessed other's many empty glasses until now. In those places people share the same philosophy. And love. (With some obvious, tragic, temporary exception.. of course).
So, here comes the time to board a plane and pass from a summer to the other. But are only the seasons of life that are shifting.. I hope peace prevails in this "other home" of mine...

THIS WAS A BIT TOO CLOSE...

2010-05-19T17:29:00.006+02:00

They finally crushed the protests. This morning the Army attacked, with a relatively low number of casualties. But the real mess is starting now: Bangkok is on fire, the rest of the country seems to have the same situation in various places. We are under curfew here. I guess they want free ground to wipe out the groups of arsonists and looters. What will happen from tomorrow is the most uncertain and tragic of forecasts. A bloodshed is not a far possibility.
The Italian photographer Fabio Polenghi went in with the first wave and was killed. Other reporters were severely wounded. When I followed, about an hour after, I thought the ground was safe. But in a second a big exchange of fire started, and I was blocked among soldier that were hiding on the ground. The worst place to be. Me and other reporters followed the troops when they could leave the bad spot, after two grenades exploded nearby.. Fortunately we made it back. This was too close.
I am very sorry for Fabio. The crazy reality today is this professional situation that pushes the photographer to search for the extraordinary image to make a living. In this war environment the push can easily take you to death. I don't think this sacrifice will make the people that should (the editors and publishers) reconsider this profession problems.
I'm not a war photographer. I have followed this revolution because I consider Bangkok a second home, and I feel very involved. The cultural aspects of this major event were too compelling to me: that's it. But for all the young guys that risk their lives to report, please give them a serious support.

ON THE BRINK OF TRAGEDY

2010-05-16T19:04:00.004+02:00

The situation in Bangkok is on the brink of tragedy: should the Army attack the protesters ground the number of casualties will be great. In the meantime the Red Shirts are fighting in the streets around, trying to escape the siege. Scenes of violence, on both sides, are changing the perception of this land and people. I'm not surprised: Asia is famous for smiles transformed in atrocities in the blink of an eye. The worst part, for a Westerner, is that predict that moment is impossible. The number of deaths is over 60, with over 1700 wounded until now. And the battle goes on in the soi of the city. The greater fear is that such a situation, should it create the martyrs that many people wish for, will leave a condition where terror and violence could linger for the years to come.
I have now posted a multiple selection of images that resume the revolution until now. You can see it on the web site. And will keep following..

SEH DAENG

2010-05-14T07:31:00.002+02:00

The one thing I mostly despise is violence, especially State organized violence. And the Army is the obvious incarnation of it (should I add the oddity of ranks, orders to be followed without personal discrimination, and so on?). And war, to cite Bertrand Russel again, "does not show who is right, only who is left".
But on a personal point of view, I admire people that stand their ideas, whatever these ideas are, even if they are opposite to mine.
General Seh Daeng was shot last night, almost certainly by an Army sniper that received orders to decapitate the Red Shirts military wing. This man, who spent his life believing in force, violence, military strategies (he even proposed to bombard opponents with poisonous snakes!) made the mistake to choose the rebels side and was finally "terminated" by his own side: the Army. That same Army that has shown an incredible level of incapacity on the ground and has even refused to follow (fortunately!) the Government orders to crackdown the protesters.
I last sow him a couple of days ago, training a group of would be militia armed with bamboo sticks to go inspecting the barricade he had designed. He went with them in the open ground and when he faced the police, that was supposed to arrest him, was yes surrounded but by policemen that were asking for his autograph and taking pictures with him.
General Seh Daeng was not a nice man, but he was the only military man on the scene.
The situation is on the brink of tragedy. The Red Shirts leaders are divided and have no real control. Large posters announce a non-violent movement, but from the stage they promise to "fight" not to "resist" until the end. And they have arms. And they are now completely surrounded by the Army. Gandhi would disagree on the whole strategy: but this is not British India.

SHOWDOWN TIME? OR MORE OF THE SAME...

2010-05-13T09:16:00.000+02:00

The talking, the guessing, the (Western) logic, the magical predictions and political analysis, all went to hell.. The proposed solutions were rejected, the requests avoided.. My sensation is that the Red leaders and the Government are now playing with the life of the people: of the many people still protesting for right reasons but with a questionable leadership. Is true that compromise is not an easy dish for the square, and many wish to push the confrontation to the definitive showdown. But, I repeat myself, after the fight, the blood, the deaths, who will be left will be the same leaders, on both sides, talking of the need to compromise for the common good. They all still have time, but it look like they don't want to use it..
New images of the ongoing confrontation are now on the website. But may need an update soon..

LADIES & GEORGE WORKSHOP

2010-05-12T18:26:00.001+02:00

It's Revolution in the afternoon and Photographic workshop in the morning: Thai oddities are endless and contagious.. Take five nice Italian ladies and an English gentleman with a great passion for photography. Add some very basic digital cameras (I mean, compact single lens, 200$, snapshot cameras!) and the will to brave the almost 40° temperatures of Bangkok afternoons. Give them a direction, some adjustments, a little help, and you may get the results you can appreciate in the final 5-days-5-pictures-each projection. Not bad, not bad at all! And thanks!

THE BORING TIME OF A REVOLUTION

2010-05-04T09:33:00.001+02:00

I had an English teacher in High School, Mr Carlucci, an expert in Hemingway prose, that told us what were the major obstacles to a Revolution: mothers and wives! He said they would ask sons and husbands to stay home after the first days with casualties. This was over 30 years ago, in the West. In Thailand today it's obviously another story.
Are still men to wear uniforms (Reds militia and Army), but women are present everywhere, and they are really passionate, on both sides of the barricades. Now that the standoff is lasting days between threats and conciliatory proposals, the real risk for the Red Shirts revolution is boredom. Fewer people are left in the besieged Bangkok intersection, and the rain season is beginning with sudden downpours that are not an easy challenge when you sleep in the streets. The rebellion leaders are not talking from the stage anymore, a precaution against the snipers placed on the buildings around: they have been replaced by singers and comedians. Yesterday afternoon the public jumped and danced when the first notes of "I will survive" started from the stage. Women have not only left home: they are defying boredom!
But the threat of a military crackdown is still real, and dangerous. If only the hardliners will be left in the square the "non violent" movement may have his martyrs.

XXI CENTURY REVOLUTION: WHAT'S THE SENSE?

2010-05-01T08:16:00.000+02:00

Being May 1st, and being myself in the middle of a revolution (well, sort of), I feel like a reflexion is needed. What is the sense of this popular revolution? But, above all, what is really moving and driving it? Maybe the real question should be "who" is driving it..
Although I feel empathically near the red Shirts reasons (for the first time in the history of this kingdom the neglected masses are acquiring a "class consciousness", are discussing the philosophy of undiscussed loyalty to the noble rich oligarchy) I remain deeply suspicious of the leadership that inspired and still controls the movement. Thaksin is closer to Berlusconi then to Lenin; he never discussed the economical system of the country, being one of the richest tycoon on earth: he merely gave some economical benefits to the large countryside population to obtain a solid electoral base, to be transformed into power. The subsequent turmoil was a power struggle among rich and powerful, not a popular revolt: a confrontation deeply rooted into tradition and religion more then in ideology and politics.
Even in these days, when thousands of people are fighting for their new social identity, the signs of this "controlled rage" are clear. The Red Shirts are occupying the business centre of Bangkok, barricaded in a large intersection, an area that has become a village, like the "Paris Commune". They sleep in tents in the streets, shower behind veils, get ready for a fight: many truly believe this is their occasion in history.
But there are questions. Who is paying for the electricity generators, the television broadcast, the freely distributed food, the countless printing and gadgets? And more then this: on the sides of the camps are the largest, most up-market shopping malls and luxury hotels in Thailand. They closed, of course, but not a scratch has happened to the properties (in any other country the people would be sleeping in the rooms of the Four Seasons by now).
The conclusion is clear: "You shall fight, even be ready to die (over 30 till now), but you shall not discuss the economic system, the private property!"
It's so strange when you see the flow of thousands of motorcycles riding the streets of the capital, with red flags and shirts, chanting slogans and calling for change, stopping at a red traffic light! I guess this is a XXI century revolution: to stop it takes little more then a traffic policeman.
My wish is that not many people will be killed and wounded from now on. This would be an useless sacrifice since (as history shows) in a few months everybody will be back to it's life, with social roles unchanged. Only a few gadgets added to their wealth. Whoever the "winner" will be.

REVOLUTION IN PROGRESS... (new images)

2010-04-25T07:45:00.002+02:00

Bangkok confrontation is continuing.. More deaths, more trouble, endless uncertainty.. What seems obvious to our Western thinking must be very far from the Thai way of doing things. New images are now on the Web Site page: I wished this was not becoming a work in progress, but well, it did.. And the progress is completely confused!
I came back from Bali to follow the events, even if they had been quite for a while. Government supporters had gathered to confront the Red Shirts, in fact provoking them with slogans and offenses. The Reds were now barricaded in the business district, and the loudspeakers exchanged "greetings".. sometimes words were replaced by stones and bottles. Suddenly some loud explosion happened not far from where I was: it seems the Reds had turned to launching grenades instead of stones (of course they deny this) that exploded on the Sky Train station and then among the opposition supporters. The situation grow confused, the Army searching for snipers, the people running away from Silom street, Pat Pong night market deserted with the incredible scene of soldiers and prostitutes left to see the disaster.. 3 more deaths, many more wounded, and the image of "gentle smiling people" fading forever.. I'll keep following the destruction of my temporary homeland, I hope for a short time to come, but..

(I'm not against) BLACK & WHITE

2010-04-20T11:08:00.004+02:00

This is a subject that has recurred in many of my workshops and talks on photography: "Why I don't create B&W images? Do I dislike them?"
First of all I love B&W photography (when it makes sense), and I don't exclude that I'll use this visual language in future works (if I consider it appropriate) as I have sometimes used in the past. Some clarification is needed.
Now that nonsense like "B&W is the photography closer to reality" (yes, in a world of color-blinded people!) or that "B&W is the only real photography" are subsiding to the evidence of times and evolution, and now that B&W is to be considered just another potential elaboration out of a color-digitally-shoot file, choosing to go this way is only a matter of interpretation. B&W has the power of giving force to "the situation" depicted avoiding the "distraction" of the environment's atmosphere. Sometimes B&W is used to make weak images look more powerful, but this trick is not resisting when the reading goes beyond the first impression. On the contrary: it can only outline the weaknesses of the composition.
I think the photographer should have only one thing in mind: the final image as he had (or should had) envisioned from the moment before he shoot to the final step of the creation (print or else). When you "see" an image you already know if this will be a strong photo, and what you "see" in that first moment is the finished picture. Adding or subtracting effects will only weaken your vision. If you see in B&W (not because you are color-blind) then go for it.. The freedom and vastness creativity has obtained in recent times by digital technology is amazing: abusing it would be counterproductive.

NEW WORKS NOW ON THE WEBSITE

2010-04-12T14:36:00.003+02:00

Three new stories are now visible on the website, in the Stories/Reportages section. I consider them important works. The Sak Yant-Magical Tattoo is a large photo research lasted three months between Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia. Although there are many pictures on the site they are only part of the whole body of work. Jakarta was shoot only last week, and shows how changing the city is just before Obama goes back where he was a child. Last, but more sensible to me, being the city where I spend most of my time these days, a short gallery of faces shoot on the Black Saturday in Bangkok. 21 deaths til now: I hope I don't have to call this a work in progress!!!

AND BLOOD CAME..

2010-04-11T07:25:00.003+02:00

Yesterday I followed the confrontation between Red Shirts and the Army in Bangkok all day long. I was shooting for a story on the faces of this "revolution". The situation was tense. A large number of soldier had been arriving in the city. The Red Shirts leaders felt the pressure rising. But shooting on both sides I lived again the feeling I had in the seventies, when I was part of it: on both sides young faces pushed to the fight by leaders that will certainly end sitting together and sharing power in a near future. There is no right and wrong here: if the government is non-elected and represents the wealthy part of the nation, the Red Shirts (don't be mislead by the color, no communist reference) are asking for the sacred right to have their vote counted, but are inspired and controlled by a leader that is closer to Berlusconi then to Lenin.
And after a long day the worst happened: the Reds, probably reacting to the pressure, pushed and the military shoot. The Reds shoot too. Until now over 19 deaths and over 800 wounded are counted. In the square where this happened the situation was tragic: I was running and leaning down with the crowd to dodge the rubber bullets, but the people in the front fell on both sides. A young Cambodian girls was terrified: she found herself in the middle of the fight just below her home. The military decided to retreat to avoid more casualties, leaving empty tanks that were dismantled by the crowd. On the ground the blood of the dead was honored. But it's too late.. This is still another setback for the idea of "the land of smiles".. And it's not over yet..

REVOLUTION!!!! (THAI STYLE)

2010-04-09T14:55:00.003+02:00

The confrontation goes on in Bangkok (although an outcome should be near..). The Red Shirts are not giving up, the government has declared the Emergency Status. Everything is possible. I tend to think they'll find a solution, although Asian history is full of smiles turned bloody. I hope this is not the case now!
But the mood of the Thai people is well represented by what I sow today. After a short, almost violent confrontation between Red Shirts and Police they created a short space among themselves. Then the Reds allowed a group of Monks on the front line, asking for calm and peace. The police responded deploying five lines of female policewomen. Because causing the Monks to get in touch with women would have been a terrible sin the physical fight was impossible. And everybody retired calmly, but only after the few minutes of silent attention dedicate to the National Anthem. This is still Asia, after all...

INDONESIA LIKE BRAZIL... SAME SAME, NO DIFFERENT...

2010-04-04T05:19:00.005+02:00

Jakarta has gone a long way since my first visit here 32 years ago. Here I had my very first encounter with real poverty and desperation: I still remember I cried seeing children searching for food in the rubbish mountains left in the very center of the city; entire families living in cartoon boxes on every sidewalk; people washing dishes and themselves in the very same putrid water of the canals where another desperate was defecating half meter away..
I came several times after that. In the 90s poverty had already moved out of the center: there are over 18 millions people living in the metropolitan area today. God knows how.
Jakarta has become an archipelago: high-rise buildings, compounds of wealth, are floating in a sea of settled humanity. We are here to tell the bright side of this story: very wealthy people driving their suvs in streets that are clogged with traffic that are no conceived for walking. Walking is actually impossible, most of the time. The success of Indonesia is obvious: rich in natural resources and with a huge population spread on a large area, the country likes to be considered the Brazil of Asia and wants to join the small group of new economical powers. This is quite possible, but comes with the same problem Brazil has to face... Outside the Dragonfly disco, where the powerful pay 300$ for a bottle of Champagne, you can still find desperate faces. And at the feet of the brand new Bakrie Tower (a new landmark skyscraper erected by the tycoon Mr Bakrie) people are still sleeping on the sidewalk.
Real progress is reducing differences: if you don't accept this and work for it you are bound for trouble. We are bound for trouble...

HAPPIEST DAY IN THEIR LIFE?

2010-03-28T17:17:00.002+02:00

Finally searching what is left of Bugis seafarers culture in Indonesia is making a twenty years old idea coming true. This people traveled the whole Indonesian archipelago and as far as India and Australia on sail ships they built (and still build) without a single piece of iron. They traded and exchanged goods, and from their home in South Sulawesi created colonies in many other islands. Few are left carrying goods on their traditional vessels (no more sails, engines have replaced them), and for a few years more will keep moving east, where large cargoes have no reason to go. Then they'll be a thing of the past, like many other cultures.. I first heard of them when I was shooting for my book on Indonesia, in 1990, and few things have changed since then.
Weddings, also among simple couples, certainly haven't. First the man has to ask to buy the wife from her family, bargaining as much as possible, to finally achieve happiness. Then the ceremony -lots of food and drinks- makes the whole village happy. Not the bride though: she's not allowed to smile during the wedding day as this would bring bad fortune to the marriage. Well, the husband was not smiling either, maybe because he was still thinking to the amount of money that had coasted him to start a family... My wishes to them is "keep your culture and customs alive".. happiness will come from your simple life, hopefully..

CREATIVITY IN TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

2010-03-21T15:43:00.004+01:00

Travel photography is often considered an "inferior" field of profession when compared to the documentary reportage. It's true that the subjects are almost always less interesting from a social point of view, and the impact perceived equally weaker, but shouldn't we consider the freedom of expression that the "lightness" of the subjects allow the photographer?
"Truth in Travel" is the motto of Conde Nast Traveler, but for years the magazine has featured images that are far from a pure presentation of touristic destinations. Most of the time the photos are strongly interpretative, showing meaningful details (well, sometimes not so meaningful, must say..) or almost abstract panoramas. The idea is simple: the public is well educated on travel, knows what will find in the various places, therefore what a modern magazine should do is suggesting a clever way to enjoy it. This was an idea not received by many European publications that have then succumbed to the web era.
For the photographer the task is less simple then what may appear after this statement. If you don't limit yourself to the representation of a place what you need to do is understand the soul of it, focus on one or more aspects that may symbolize this soul, and then give a personal interpretation. This requires quite a lot of experience, especially because the time to do the work is often very limited. But then comes the good part of the story: yes, the personal interpretation that all photographers love to be requested for! Going creative is all it takes, and your limit is the sky (or a conservative photo editor)!
So travel photography can be really creative if the end user is well educated and ready to face the modern public. Still will be confronted with the documentary photography that requires travel: not the same thing obviously, but many people tend to forget the deep difference and think that once you go away from home the job will be the same. As I mentioned in a previous post, during a shared slide presentation at TPW with Alexandra Boulat, we also shared many comments. She had edited my selection and she noted how more difficult it is to obtain an approval for a "travel" image compared to another showing some tragic event. A starving child will always be more engaging to the photo passionate then a white sand beach!

PAUL THEROUX

2010-03-12T16:00:00.007+01:00

Paul Theroux is one of the travel writers that most inspired me. To be honest it was not for indications on where to go and how. In his pages I rather found a reassuring common feeling with the solitary traveler, a coincidence with his vision of the social folds and his realistic schedule (more focused on the experience of traveling then on a deep exploration of single realities, a predilection I share). So I was very happy to find his latest book "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star", the diary of his journey retracing, after 30 years, his Asian journey narrated in "The Great Railway Bazaar". He wanted to see how the world had changed, but, more then this, he wanted to discover how himself had changed the perception of his experiences. This is something too interesting for me as well, after 30 years on the road.
He writes something that may seems an addendum to my previous post. "The world of settled people has evolved into a world of people wishing to emigrate. There was hardly any distinction, and not much romance, in being a traveler. It was now a world of travelers, or people dreaming of a life elsewhere-far away". Well, change the "travel" with "photography" and there you go: the two components of my profession seriously jeopardized!
But he also writes: "Travel means living among strangers, their characteristic stinks and sour perfumes, eating their food, listening to their dramas, enduring their opinions, often with no language in common, being always on the move toward an uncertain destination, creating an itinerary that is continually shifting, sleeping alone, inventing the trip, cobbling together a set of habits in order to stay sane and rational, finding ways to fill the day and be enlightened, avoiding danger, keeping out of trouble, (..) writing everything down in order to remember, reflecting on where I am and what I'm doing."
Who wants to give this up?

RE-EVOLUTION STARTS FROM HISTORY

2010-03-07T10:24:00.017+01:00

These are time of brain storming, coming changes, radical changes.. What I call a re-evolution of my job. The reason why I write this post is mostly for my own sake, to make a point. But is also a reaction to so called artistic experiments that I find empty and useless. I should say hopeless, as they are intended to find new professional solutions through superficial shortcuts.
Re-evolution starts from history. And here is my professional history.
Beginning of the 80’s I started my (five years) long pursue of a space in the travel editorial market. The photographers that most inspired me at that time were Ansel Adams, Ernst Haas, Fulvio Roiter. Being a traveling geographer by vocation, landscape was my main focus. I soon realized that my Florentine roots had impressed a strong (even too fixed) sense of Renaissance composition to the images I produced. I bought a Pentax 6x7 for medium format and a Sinar field camera besides my Olympus OM2 (then OM3 and OM4) 35mm cameras.
In 1985 I decided to jump into the full time profession. It was a gamble, but I succeeded. By the end of the 80’s I was working for Bonechi travel books (I published over 120 books with them in a 15 years cooperation) as financial support. But I also published 3 major books for the Italian Touring Club (New Zealand, Indonesia, South Africa) among others, and regularly contributed to the major Italian and American travel magazines of the time. Massimo Morello, with whom I’m traveling in Asia most of my time today, was then the editor of Atlante. He pointed out how I had developed a very personal style, maybe even too refined as I was making even tragic situations looking beautiful. It was ok though, but I had the sad privilege of signing the last cover of this glorious geographical magazine on February 1993 (US Highway 1 driven from snowy Maine to sunny Key West).
Mid 90’s is when I started my digital exploration. Yes, it was over 15 years ago, when nobody was talking about the digital future: no digital cameras, basic scanners, bad printers. But I had the support of courageous editors. Andrea Scandolara, the editor of Weekend magazine, published very experimental stories. I did the Fiesta in Pamplona in red tones, the Bilbao Guggenheim museum in the same colors of the building, Oktoberfest in the tone of beer. Luciano Di Pietro did a special issue on Bell'Europa with photos I had transformed as if they were modern azulejos. And many more.. Travel was a matter of photographic interpretation: I was working with Leica or Nikon by now.
A selection of those works were published in “Back in Town”, in 1998, my first portfolio book. The book never went to the bookshops but was distributed by Nikon Italy and the Image Bank, in a number of copies that would be a dream today. It was good: I had made my point, in a way..
I also started with multimedia experiments: small videos and an interactive CD were produced but never published. The publishers called it “too new”. When they finally understood it the content was already too old, and CDs outdated by the web.
But for me was time of changes again. Probably it was a mistake from the professional point of view, but I wanted to follow my “traveling geographer” vocation above all. I had started discovering the human being in the years: the most challenging subject for any artist. I thought applying my experimental style to cultural reportage would have worked. And partly did. But the past decade was full of changes, doomed by continued crisis, uncertainties. Magazines were confused, had no idea of what the public wanted. Probably the public just didn’t want magazine at all: their time had finished.
But I published some interesting stories and books nonetheless. My project on major world religions started with 3 books by the Touring Club (Buddhism, Hinduism, Orthodox) and ended with Io Credo, a brick-size thick book on prayer throughout all major religions. The echo of the work was really strong.
In 2007 NAG (Not Yet Global) was published: my second portfolio book. For me the closing step of this “experimental reportage” phase of my personal journey.
And here we are.. In a middle of a mess that sees all the old editorial world crumble with the rest of western certainties thanks to a crisis that is not only economical. I made several posts on this: on how we need to reinvent not only our profession but the sense of calling ourselves “photographer” in times when every person has a camera in his pocket..
This time is different from the past. An adjustment will not be enough. A re-evolution is essential if we want to keep traveling with a camera, a real one, in our hands.

LO MA STORY

2010-02-27T12:55:00.006+01:00

Lo Ma is a thirteen years old girl living near Buriram, in the backward region of Isaan, Northeast Thailand. She has a simple family and goes to school: a normal life. But she has a passion that makes her special: she loves Muay Thai boxing, and she's very good at it.
When I started working on this story dedicated to women in Muay Thai I thought of a more professional approach. Covering clubs and major competitions, visiting large venues and even stadiums. But the family-size experience of Lo Ma is too compelling. The gym, just a hut between the house and the rice field. The father training her every afternoon. The mother, former boxer herself, overlooking alongside grandmother and sisters. The little niche decorated with boxer's posters where she sleeps. It's one of these simple life stories that nobody is telling anymore, but that should be told for it's simplicity in this time of forced complications.
I followed her, the whole family, to a match during the festival in a Buddhist temple. She prepared herself like the other boys in the open ground. Her father spread oil on her body, put on her gloves, and then she was ready to walk to the ring, to the sixth match of the night. The public was as passionate as was with her male counterparts before, and her opponent bigger, and more angry.
She won. But I had to ask if she had indeed. There were no jumps, jubilation, screams. What is fascinating in Lo Ma is the way she lives all of this: the shy simplicity of a thirteen years old girl that punch and kick like she was playing with a doll.
I'll keep looking...

WHO IS THE SNAKE? WHO IS THE VICTIM?

2010-02-23T03:24:00.004+01:00

The King Cobra village, in northern Thailand, has developed a local business out of a problematic co-existence with a large community of Cobra snakes, up to 3 meters long poisonous unfriendly wanderers. The Cobra Fight is a show where villagers, old and young, confront a snake in a proof of courage. In fact the villagers keep the poor Cobras even at home, in wooden boxes, feed them with smaller snakes and pat them on the head like friendly pets. Therefore the fight is really a family matter. Where one member of the family is indeed a real snake!
But looking at the show my preference for other animals over humans comes back, even with such improbable counterpart. Looking at the face of the "human fighter" just about to swallow the head of the King Cobra, I can't avoid wondering who the most dangerous is. The proud villain used to wander the countryside chasing rats, and now is a prisoner, a gladiator called to fight in a ridiculous arena. As I said for the Corrida, that i still like (I would prefer to be a Corrida Bull then a cow slaughtered for steaks!), let it be, but allow me to be a fan for the Cobra! (This guy was bitten 47 times: we are not even, but...)

BANG RAK HOTEL

2010-02-19T12:45:00.011+01:00

I'm making friends in Bang Rak, the Bangkok quarter where I live. I love the area for it's mix of modernity (above the first floor) and popular street life (at ground level). You can find everything here, and I mean everything.. From computer parts, even Apple, to Som Tam salad.. from the Chinese Christian school below my window to the massage shop with improbable "therapists".. from a fake Rolex to an original Timberland shirt.. The Sky Train rolls in front of my residence leading to the uptown glitters; the Chao Phraya river flows nearby, and the public boats carry you to the historical temples and palaces, or to the anonymous condominiums downstream..
It's hot, it's humid, it's polluted.. but I smoke my cigar under the Saphan Taksin bridge and feel very reassured by the waves of life going around me. With my job I have come to know several people at every social level, and here social level has quite a big relevance.. It's not India with it's Casts, but it's not that much different. Being a "Farang", a Western foreigner, I'm off the social scale comparison, thanks God!
Of all the acquaintances made, those that I find more reliable are the homeless residing on the sidewalks. The elder lady above sleeps on the same step every night from October: I wonder what will be of her 10pm bedtime punctuality when the monsoon comes. The guys below at least have a decent protection from the overpassing highway, and certainly don't worry about security having the police booth right at their feet. The darker side of the "city of nightlife" is not really dark after all: everybody can see it, and make his own opinion, and do something if they wish..
Wake up guys, this is the Asia of contradictions.. But talk silently please: the old lady needs a good sleep til sunrise comes..

..AND ABOUT THE TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER PRESENT (AND FUTURE)

2010-02-18T15:10:00.018+01:00

As a follow-up to the recent post concerning the Travel Journalist destiny, let me talk of a matter much closer to my -and probably most of the readers- personal life and profession: what is the sense of being a Travel Photographer nowadays. First of all let me clarify that I define "Travel Photographer" only the one focused on presenting places and cultural venues, not those dedicated to the larger news arena, a field of photography formerly known as Reportage and today going under the less fashionable definition of Documentary. Somebody likes also the name Photojournalist.
I can't be too short in making my point or I'll be misunderstood. The travel editorial market was really born in the 80's: travelers were still a small number and magazines were showing dream destinations. The photographers had an easy life: show how nice or interesting a place is at the best of your skills. And not much skills were requested! Plus money was flowing: in a rich environment, airlines and tour operators would finance any project to attract tourists. So good to remember the old days!
In the 90's the market was mature. Many travel publications were produced everywhere. But the mass tourism was a reality by now, therefore the target was adjusted: mass oriented presentations or sophisticated suggestions on specific destinations, or interpretations on the way to visit famous places. Go to Paris, but stay in a boutique hotel, and look at Montmartre in this "artistic" way. Personally I can say it was the best of times, professionally: I was allowed the peak of experimenting in photography. With the first digital manipulation of scanned images I published stories of the Fiesta in Pamplona in a red dominance; the Oktoberfest pictures had the tone of beer; Salvador and Manaus were only partly turned to B&W.. And, above all, it was free interpretation of the places: out of focus, panning, night lights were all right!
Then came the dreadful new century, Internet developed, printed paper started being obsolete.. Confusion reigned. Why would any young guy, under-educated on laptop and cellphones, buy a magazine? And these started struggling for impossible ideas, in fact for a reason to exist, to stay alive.. An impossible task, that have lasted ten years nonetheless..
Here we are, asking ourselves what has become of our profession, or our photographic language.. With this history in mind is not difficult to understand how desperate the task is this time! Telling how a place is in the time of mass travel and communication in a globalized world is ridiculous.. Interpretations are considered eccentric, and they have no space for publication anyway.. Travel suggestions are ok, but organizing trips through the web is so easy and cheaper.. What should we photograph? And how? but, above all, why? For Whom?
My answer is a cross-border migration. For years now what I shoot, and the way I shoot it, can be defined in between "Travel" and "Documentary" photography (even if, for professional clarity, I keep two separated sections on my web site). If showing how a place is has lost interest, telling stories that happens there, especially in a global environment, has not! I'm not saying that there is a large, concerned public for it, but we must make for what we have: the small part of humanity still capable of using the brain in a personal way.
In other words the Travel Photographer should become a Photojournalist dedicated to show not how the world is but rather what is going on in it. Culture is changing fast, many will say it's disappearing in a globalized market: but this reality needs to be told, denounced through specific stories. Identify these significant stories and tell them in an effective way is today's task. Again, not an easy task when the editorial counterparts don't offer you any feedback, as it's happening nowadays.
Finally, about photographic style. Experimenting in color, light and composition to make a story more effective is a must. We live in a time when technology is revolutionizing everything: it would be suicidal for photography -both as language and philosophy- to avoid it's self-evolution. And really upsets me when I hear comments on what is or is not "real photography" based on the chemical history of the media: like saying that music on CD is not good because it's not on vinyl... But the photographer should never forget that the content (it's subject and the situation he's capturing) is it's primary target. Searching the "photographic effect" for itself may be right in fine-art, it's definitely not in photojournalism (see also my older post on it). I see too many images that are nice, sometimes strong, but then I end wondering what they want to say besides the aesthetic beauty.
And the final question remain. If photography is, as it is, communication, we cannot going on without a public to communicate to, and the media to do it adequately. Is this public still there? And will it be there in the future under-educated-globalized society? I'm afraid of the answer.. I prefer to avoid it...

DO I REALLY NEED A LEICA TO THINK DIFFERENT?

2010-02-17T04:40:00.007+01:00

I've been shooting only with the latest Nikon cameras for the past five years: D3X and now a D3S that has just replaced my gloriously performing D3. And mostly with zoom lenses. The 24-70 is what stays on my bodies most of the time. In my "small" bag are also a 14-24, a 70-200, a 28 f1,4, and a 85 f1,4. That's it. Nothing compared to the years of 3 bodies-12 lenses in a back-breaking Temba bag. And I have no nostalgia for film: D3X is producing images that are better then Velvia while D3S is shooting in a darkness where even 3200ASA would make it impossible to see. Plus, and is not little problem for the travel photographer, I go through airports with no fear of X-ray machines and load problems.
Yet I keep having nostalgia of my Leicas sitting at home for years. Bodies and lenses that were with me in the most memorable trips, in the most difficult situations. Film bodies (M6 and M7), not digital. Too complicated to use them in such mixed works as a several month "trip" requires.
But what is that make the "Leica difference"? No, not quality: Nikon fixed lenses have nothing to envy to the German counterparts. It's the way of approaching photography that is completely different: the need to think twice to overcome the optical "rigidity"; the need to interact with your subject rather then the technical ability to "steal" an image; the lightness of a small body that makes you look inconspicuous..
So, last week in Phnom Penh I decided to give Nikon a Leica try.. I put my (very old) 28 on the D3S and decided that that would be the only lens for the whole reportage. It was a good experience: the need to think twice is a good exercise for the eye.. And I think I'll repeat it..
You can see the Phnom Penh story on my website, and make an opinion for yourself.. Keeping in mind that what really matters is your eye and vision, your idea, last and least your camera!

MASSES: DID I CONTRIBUTE TO THE DESTRUCTION? AND A REQUIEM

2010-02-07T03:11:00.004+01:00

Angkor 17 years after is "same same but different".. Same grandeur and beauty.. Same angles of peace, of deep shadows, of hidden atmospheres.. But different in the crowds that now climb on it's stones, take snapshots in front of the carvings, scream in the corners of the temples.. Tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world (but mostly Chinese) have transformed the place in yet another mass-tourism destination, to be visited with no real interest in mind: just another souvenir photo to show friends back home, of this place "in Asia", no more to add..
I've been complaining of this over and over again. Useless to criticize this business that moves crowds with no real interest or knowledge in the most beautiful places in the world, de facto destroying any atmosphere and pleasure to visit them. Who am I to denounce, coming from Florence, one of the first and most notorious victims of this?
To those that affirm the right of everybody to visit nice places I answer that only people moved by real knowledge and interest should be allowed to go. To go just because a place is in a organized itinerary is just human pollution, depriving really interested people from fully enjoying something they may have been wishing to visit for years.
But my real point is more personal: did I contribute with my work to this pollution? Was my travel photo-journalism encouraging this dramatic evolution (like some friend suggested)?
No, not really, thanks God!!! What I've been publishing for years were ideas and particular destinations.. The magazines I worked for were in fact suggesting how to avoid the clichés and look to different places, or how to look at the same places in a different light. An elite mission that has sinked with the decadence of culture altogether.
It's news of last week that the Italian travel magazine VS has folded. VS was in fact what was left of the original Weekend magazine, the most prestigious travel publication in the 80's and 90's. On it's pages I published the most experimental works: digital manipulations as early as 1996. Video recorded images in 1998. A way of seeing that not even CN Traveler US had started yet.. And many friends contributed to that effort..
Paolo, the last editor, told me last week that "he'll spit to those that will talk of quality again".. and he's probably right, since quality did not save the magazine, the jobs, the message.. Still I think it was worth doing it: for the few and fewer people that appreciated it, for the sake of personal accomplishment, for ourself... Thanks guys, it was great! Let's start something as good as that! Just for the sake of it!!!

3 NEW STORIES ON THE WEBSITE

2010-01-29T05:13:00.004+01:00

3 new stories are now on-line in the website. Modern dance in Phnom Penh and Koh Kong, the Thai Hong Kong of the future, on the documetary side. And Malacca & Penang in the travel section. These are works from November 2009.
Also, the 2010 Calendar download will still be available for some time.

IS TRAVEL-JOURNALISM GOING TO SURVIVE?

2010-01-15T07:54:00.006+01:00

This crisis has put the most of us travel professionals in a state of complete confusion, if not real depression. Let me make my point.
The job of travel-journalist (I'll talk of the travel photographer in a future post) was in dire waters well before the economy crashed: uncertainty on subjects and contents, the reality of the Internet real time information, the few space for publications left, the miserable compensations, had everybody complaining. But the financial crash came like a storm, pulling down the dead branches to which many of us were still hanging, barely... Travel magazines are now folding in scores, and news publications are equally reducing the space dedicated to travel.
If you look at this from a detached point of view, it's a good thing. What we were doing was of scarce interest to the multitude, good only to fill pages between and advert and the other. If we pride what we do we could only be frustrated by this reality.
But here we are, with a lot of ruins under our feet, and with the difficult task to rebuild a profession that must be new, different, interesting to the public. Easily say then done. Especially for the large number of under-talented professionals that were parasites to the system and produced more sponsored works then real information.

The way I see it (as I said in previous posts, and I know that to many I'll say something very obvious) is that being a pure travel-journalist (telling and showing how a place is) is real nonsense today. Same nonsense is jumping disorderly from a travel story to a documentary one, and back. The task is to identify reasons to travel, reasons that are in fact "stories", and tell them in a modern way with the advantage (not the conservative rejection) of the new technologies. This, in fact, is much harder then what it may appear: the hidden obvious is transparent to experienced eyes, and to imagine what the larger public may be attracted to, is everybody guess. And note that I say the "larger public": to produce something for an passionate few is easy, but "evolutionary" useless. We need to target a large scale audience!
Because the real problem, my friends, are the media! Talented journalists may develop interesting ideas and present them in a modern, even interactive way, but they are left in a confusing vacuum if there is no a counterpart to discuss and then publish them making sure that they reach this large audience. And publishers will be the real obstacle to the revival of our profession if they don't show the guts and the will to invest in talent and ideas like the big names did in the past. It's money at the base of everything, of course we know, but is only investing in quality and ideas that projects become economically remunerative.

So, on the optimist side, wishing and hoping for a market that will recover, publishers that will invest and (the toughest part) a public that will be interested, we should start on our paths of evolution, or revolution, and be ready for the coming "new". Because is us that must create this "new"!

IN PRAISE OF IDLENESS

2010-01-07T07:08:00.003+01:00

Bertrand Russell is the philosopher I love the most, probably the thinker that most influenced my whole way of life. The title of this post is also the title of one of his best essay. It came to me while I was thinking on how to describe Vientiane state of mind. Maybe it suffice to express the whole of nothingness..
Laos is renown for this quietness that dominates life in all of it's aspects, so a capital city that incarnates this dimension is no surprise. But contradictions abound all around.
This is a Socialist country with a deep Buddhist soul. Language and culture are close to the Thai one, but the dynamism of evolution is left stranded right across the Mekong. French culture is still evident in every aspect, with baguettes, official international language, cafè on the corners, but is China that is really overtaking Vietnam as the new political wing on the country. And people are mild and gentle, yes, but capable of not forgiving the Hmong minorities 50 years after the war against America is finished. In fact still persecuting them now that are repatriated by the Thais.
But the overwhelming impression is this silent tranquillity in which life seems to happen somewhere else, hardly touching you. So strange in the heart of South East Asia, the place where everything seems to be evolving fast, everybody being on the run. Is not like the reflexive state of meditation foreseen by Russell: is more a condition of disillusioned acceptance of a condition in which your say has no relevance. More renounce then peace.
How will Laos enter our photo-journalistic project on the Mekong basin? Hard to say.. What they'll do about this fundamental component of their culture and economy will be decided by somebody else somewhere else.. So disarming..

MUST BE A VOCATION...

2010-01-01T10:41:00.003+01:00

Last night I headed to Siam, the heart of the "glamorous" Bangkok, to participate the New Year celebration. Bottle and glasses on hand and all the classic paraphernalia ready. Thai dinner at the Paragon, walk down Sukhumvit road (only for pedestrians last night!) and almost at the epicentre of Central World.. Then the sound of a Buddhist prayer came out of Wat Pathum Wanaram Ratchaworawam, the temple surrounded today by gigantic shopping mall. What can I say, must be what remains of years shooting religious subjects, or an hidden vocation for the spiritual side, but I walked in to find a rare ceremony to celebrate not only the new year but rather the coincidence of the (bright, over standing) full moon.. The atmosphere was fantastic, the other side of some (rather subdued) pagan celebrations out on the road..
Well I made it back on Sukhumvit one minute before midnight, right on time to open the bottle and find myself wet with champagne and holy water from the monk's benediction.. And definitely happy for such a beginning!

2010: BACK&FORWARD... FAST FORWARD

2009-12-31T11:41:00.005+01:00

2010 is almost here... welcome! 2010 will reveal us some important news.. News about what our job will really need to become to survive. And what our life will become if we really want to follow up the news. Some guys are already opting for the way back: film, black and white, and a different job to make enough money to live. Others are decidedly going forward: photo, video, audio, mixed together and web-ready. Some keep covering news, in a good way sometimes, and wish for the world to show some interest. Many seat and wait. They wait to see where we are really heading, planning to join on the way. As usual they will not make it.
Me? Well, "me" is planning to keep doing what "me" likes, finds interesting, and hopes others will find interesting too. Mostly "me" will try to put a lot of evolution in his photographic style, in his way to show a situation and his way to tell a story.
2010 will be a difficult year. But is in difficult times that the best comes out, or disappear forever. Happy 2010!

VENTURA X-MAS

2009-12-25T05:44:00.003+01:00

Many (but really many, many) years ago, feels like another life, while shooting the book on LA for Bonechi publisher, I was driving with my friend Graziano my convertible on the Ventura Highway going to Santa Barbara to visit my friends at Islands magazine. Then the radio played Ventura Highway by the America, and, gosh, the feeling for two former DJ was amazing.. like being in the real thing come true from just a song..
Yesterday I had almost the same feeling hearing the children of the Christian school just outside my window in Bangkok singing Christmas songs. Well, honestly my first reaction was "I can't escape X-mas even in Buddhist Thailand!" But then, well, I had to realize that the world is coming to this. This amazing mix of cultures and traditions that will make everybody better (??!!??)...
It's useless to escape life.. Better try to understand and embrace it with all what it takes.. After all, before Christians transformed it, this was the pagan celebration of the winter solstice, the beginning of nature rebirth after the fall.. Let's look at it this way.. I don't know how real this rebirth will be in our world, but better be part of it then consider it an alien celebration..
So, "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence"...

ETHIC & AESTHETIC

2009-12-23T03:53:00.002+01:00

I was at a documentary photography show here in Bangkok recently. Some well known photographers (I'll skip the names) are exposing some strong images of news events around the region. At first I was impressed, but then the familiar sensation of uneasiness came to me.
The photos were perfect, just too perfect. Perfect balance in light, composition, combination. Nothing against it, of course: I am a strong supporter of well composed images. But I find questionable the intentions behind them. After many years of profession, living in the photography environment, doing and seeing workshops, I know that the photo itself is the real scope of many authors. The suffering of the subjects is just an excuse, a drama addition to a purely aesthetic project.
I think a great misunderstanding has developed in the photographer's scope. The famous photos of Life magazine, the perfectly composed Ethiopia and Workers images of Sebastiao Salgado, have been seen as something different from their journalistic message. Photography has become self-referential. This is a major problem that, I think, will lead to the end of photojournalism as a real profession leaving only artists on the way.
One should be honest in declaring his own intentions. Too much talking about style and technique and no mention of the situations photographed is a clear sign of this trend. Years ago, Alexandra Boulat, while we were teaching at TPW, talked to me after my slide show. She had the same feeling I had and criticized the easiness with which a tragic moment can add strength to an image. Her photos were journalistic, she died searching stories, not aesthetic options.
Young photographers should keep this in mind. Using the suffering of people as a mere addendum to their composition is not only ethically unfair, is also the betrayal of a honest documentary photographer.

CALENDAR 2010.. BUT FOR YOUR DESKTOP ONLY!

2009-12-14T10:27:00.002+01:00

Sorry guys, no printed calendar for 2010! We have to save money to keep the studio going! But I asked Walter (Manolesta) to design one for your desktop anyway.. Not same same, as they say here, but better then nothing!
You can download the images from my website at THIS LINK in different formats, depending on your screen. Only the largest are full frame, otherwise they are cropped.
If you encounter any problem let me know. Thanks! And let's wish ourself a better 2010. As Garfield says "good times are in the past, good times are ahead, one thing is sure, they are not here right now!"

A HOUSE ON THE LAKE

2009-12-13T10:00:00.004+01:00

Just back in Bangkok after two weeks in Burma. I find the modern city a bit deceiving. Over the border the air is less tense then usual, and bits of openings are clear. You can have a telephone card, although very limited; you can browse most of the Internet except sensible sites; you can use your GMail account (all the others are blocked, probably because checking a single one is easier). People are also much more relaxed and hopeful: next year elections are seen as a great opportunity, even if other occasions have failed in the past. But to a more attentive look you can't miss the obvious: the menacing grim on the soldier faces; the privileges that the few in the establishment have, preserve and show-off; the sense of fear that emerges when one's feel has gone "too far".
Once again I understand that the international community may push the military rulers to release some of the control, convince China that it's control would be not compromised by a bit of freedom, but in the end only the people could change things. That people have the government they deserves is a fact. Burmese are really lacking the urge to react, the will to change for good. It's true that the country separation in major ethnic groups plays in the hands of the dictators, but every group seems to be minding it's own interests only. And the Burmese, the ruling group, are not willing to give up their control, with or without the military in power.
What will happen in this wonderful land is not easy to guess, although probably change will be slow, to avoid an inter-ethnic bloodshed. And when change will come everybody is ready to jump in. The cultural and artistic treasures, really unique, will be surrounded by fast development like in the rest of Asia, and most of the soul will vaporize. "Freedom" will be costly, right but costly.
Enlightened Burmese know this danger, and demand evolution rather the revolution. But the outside pressure will be too big to hold. China is already building a major containers port on the Indian Ocean and the road to carry it's merchandise there. Thailand is pumping most of the country gas. India is using it's oil. While in here electricity is scarce, gasoline expensive, vehicles 20 years old.
There is this house on the lake in Yangon. Aung San Suu Kyi lives here, less guarded then the houses of her jailers. She represents the contradictions of this nation, but also the right to determine freely everybody's own destiny. As far as the world will let Burmese awake and grow.

OFF TO BURMA... OFF THE CONNECTED WORLD

2009-11-29T16:41:00.003+01:00

Time do head to Myanmar. Two weeks in the beloved land of smiles, of shadows, of fear. My travel plans there are not clear, and even if they were it would be better not to announce them on line. They will change daily anyway, given the punctual obstacles created...
Just to say that I'll be back in Bangkok around December 13th...
Oh, yes: Max has a new apartment here in Bangkok. This is HIS private view... Don't jump!

WHERE ARE THE PROSTITUTES? WHERE ARE THE PEDOPHILES?

2009-11-24T08:30:00.005+01:00

We (me and Massimo Morello) were really enraged last night. We were told on how some colleagues, or kind of, and obviously with a larger wallet and narrower experience, on a well paid assignment in Cambodia, were asking to visit the "brothel area" in Phnom Penh (there is not such thing here, although prostitution is widespread) possibly to catch pedophiles in action..
How can a professional be so narrow minded? How can he fall into such superficial reading of a tragic reality that is not unique to this country? What is this, "pedophiles wonderland"?
Reading the Italian newspapers these days one should think that trans-gression is as common in our Catholic nation as it is in here... At least here they post large billboards advising against it: do use child prostitution and you'll end in jail.. for good!
It's the same common place I have to face every time I say I'm based in Bangkok for months in a year: smiles, chit-chat, requests of practical indications. Like if the Orient has one thing only: long strips full of brothels. And brothels full of children for sale. Come on!
Yes, this is a tragic problem (of which, by the way, our magazine refuse to talk because it's well too known, and not interesting anymore!!) but is common to many parts of the world. To our cities suburbs, per instance (see my post on Vigevano, for once).
But this problem has a different background in this part of Asia (also different dimensions, I agree) and is part of a cultural reality that deserves to be analyzed. Asia, and South East Asia are a complex reality that is more vital, both economically and socially, then the west. They are overtaking us, guys!!!
So, stop thinking of this part of the world as a gigantic open-air brothel: this is the Asia Century going fast.. with a lot of problems and contradictions yes! That's the larger story! Dear colleagues, read more and open your mind..
(By the way, for those who need indications.. this picture was taken last Friday, in remote Koh Kong. There there is a brothel alley, with huts hided in the countryside, full of young, destitute girls. They wait for Indonesian sailors, and costs 4 Euro an hour. No telephone though.)

HANDS ON... HANDS OFF... CAMBODIA'S UNCERTAINTY..

2009-11-23T12:03:00.003+01:00

"Nice nails, miss... but keep that passport behind... please?" She pushes her way to the hole in the customs window, on the Thai-Cambodia border. Standing in line is not the national sport here, but the farang (foreigners) still gain some respect, or contempt... enough to keep your position anyway!
This may be one of the many growing contradictions in today's Cambodia: pink fake nails change the look, not the attitude...
Cambodia is changing, yes, but how? The hundreds of NGO, that have been creating for years now a kingdom of privileges inside the kingdom of poverty and desperation, are finally achieving some evident results. Something eventually ended to the Cambodians too. To some Cambodians, at least. Lexus and Hummers are to be seen in the jam of motorcycles and Tuck-Tuck, and elegant villas are visible behind trees, high walls and tons of barbed wire. Elegant malls are appearing, but small shops still prevail. No big names in the windows, yet.
NGO Land has it's own quarter in the capital city: small "boutique" hotels and trendy cafes respond to the young "volunteers workers" need to feel comfortable -like modern colonialists- but not guilty, patronizing large estabilishments.
The Phnom Penh contradictions are on every corner and every street. You don't need to go in the suburbs or in the countryside (that would make an easy target for critics like myself). The fact is I don't really grasp the sense of the place: sitting on the Mekong riverside, in the French-style bistro, I feel comfortable, like in the old-backpack-smart-times. In the Silver Pagoda walls I see the frescos falling and decaying: how nice for pictures. And then there are shops, boutiques, Chinese stands, food... If it was not for the guy walking on his hands, reminding me that we are in a country where arms and legs are an optional, I would wonder... Where am I? In the heart of Asia's transition? Transition?

ONE VISA FOR HELL, ONE FOR NIRVANA...

2009-11-14T07:23:00.004+01:00

Got the Visa to enter Burma, once again... This time it sounded less obvious, even if they say the country is "opening"... I really thought they would deny me the possibility to go back into the land I really love, as photographer as well as traveler..
My first time there was in 1998, and very little has changed. Practically nothing for the Burmese. This may be a photographer paradise, but represents a drama to the population. We know and understand why. I have some difficult program there: let's see what I'll be able to achieve..
At the same time we keep working on the magical tattoo practice between Thailand and Cambodia: and this is considered a Visa stamped on your body for protection, or for a straight passage to heaven!
Hard to believe how easier it is to get a Visa for Heaven instead of one for Hell..

WHILE MY ICE IS MELTING...

2009-11-07T17:31:00.002+01:00

When the sun is hot (really hot) and you need a break, you seat and drink.. Here, in Malacca, the day was really hot.. They say that a Coke is as good as Polase to reintegrate your salts.. But even a Coke is no help when the heat cooks your brain. So my mind wanders as my iPhone takes pictures of the melting ice, but with little avail..
With Massimo we talk of ideas, projects, coming travels.. and then we realize the desolation of what we left home, the scarcity of stimulus, the absence of counterparts.. But, we tell ourselves, with indomitable optimism, that this is the time to chase new ways and evolve old ideas.. This is the time to put our many years of experience at work.. It's on us, the experienced, the task to trace new ways, eventually new patterns.. But is it worth, is it required, is it wished for?
And so we keep cooking our brains until they melt like my Coke ice.. And finally it's time to stand up and go back to shoot. Colonial Malacca is out here, full of the global stereotypes.. What a drag!

THE JUNGLE MAKES ME ROMANTIC...

2009-11-04T13:08:00.003+01:00

Well, sort of.. romantic! Walking again in (what is left) of the original forest in Cameron Highlands, in the heart of the Malaysian peninsula, allows my thoughts to flow.. and they flow far, probably as far as they can from the daily reality..
Ok, I could talk of those buildings emerging from the trees (destruction of the environment, disappearance of the forest).. Or I could remember the desolation I find back home when I try to communicate these stories (crisis: editorial, economical, cultural).. Or, well, more empty glasses..
But I rather talk of the Dragon I found in George Town, Penang, exactly 31 years after.. Still on the tile of the Chinese Clan House, still looking with a mix of compassion and longing the other Dragon swallowed by the waves.. Still sweet and reassuring in it's kindness..
Well, we live in a age of snakes, but some are dragons, and it's worth looking for them.. Keep look for them..

VIETNAM WORKSHOP ON MARCH 2010

2009-10-25T12:17:00.004+01:00

The TPW HANOI WORKSHOP is now officially planned. Below is the presentation. For more detail visit the TPW website.

The soul of contemporary Vietnam is a mosaic of histories. Those that left their mark more than others are the thousand plus years of Chinese domination, French colonialism, and the final push westward in the war of liberation against the United States. However, it is the personality of the Vietnamese that emerges intact overall: proud, indomitable nationalists, flexible and resistant like bamboo. Hanoi is the city that best synthesizes this reality: the least recent history in the Taoist temples, the charm of French architecture and habits, and the desire for American modernization. The millions of motorcycles that flood the streets are the blood of a rapidly-growing body, despite its one thousand years of life. In the semi-darkness of the houses, there are scenes of life that go from one extreme to another.

Our workshop wants to try and document this exact variety. Not the distraction of monuments that don’t exist or fading panoramas, but rather the research of human stories that are different, yet parallel. The exploration of different quarters, different souls, and contrasting cultures despite the same past and a common future.

To establish a relationship with the Vietnamese is easy. The challenge will be to go beyond, to deepen the acquaintance, gathering it in particularly conspicuous aspects and significant images. In other words, to construct a history of today’s Vietnamese, very far from those represented in post-Vietnam movies on the war (an event that, on the other hand, the young Vietnamese don’t remember at all). Finally, a “dissertation” on Halong Bay, one of the natural wonders of the world. Even the Chinese emperors considered it a tourist destination. For us, it will be a further chance to see how the modern Vietnam deals with tourism.

We will spend one day and night on a junk (small boat) and will visit small towns like Cat Ba, which have transformed into small Miami Beaches where kitsch dominates.

A FEELING I LIKE...

2009-10-23T16:46:00.002+02:00

What is the "feeling at home" sensation we always talk about? Is it the reassurance of a place, a house, friends and family or familiar faces? Maybe the knowledge that such a place exists even when you are away for long periods, and that you'll find it when you'll be back? Or is just the familiarity of a street corner where you cross the road every day, have your food every night, smile to smiling faces?
To me it's difficult to say nowadays. I feel like I'm achieving that state of mind when your home is more then one. Your friends are widespread in the whole world (this was happening from a long time, though) and I thank Facebook because I can keep contacts that were long faded before..
My project for life, roughly decided when I was 18, at the very end of my first trip, was to dedicate it to discover this world. The meaning was different then: people and customs were different from a country to the other, let alone continents. What my life experience can testify is how humanity has globalized itself. Europeans are much more similar and united then their governments; developing countries are now becoming super-powers and soon will be controlling their controllers.
And so I find myself in this global environment, feeling comfortable among the food stalls of Bangkok as sitting in my Tuscan garden. Achievement or Loss? Achievement, I hope... Even in these hard times, even in the face of a worldwide crisis with deepening prospectives, I think I can cross the patterns of humanity with relative ease.
Exotic is nothing, except what we want to see as such... The tale we need to tell, to photograph, is not that of different places but rather that of common people with common life goals...

FOIANO FOTOGRAFIA FRIENDS & Co

2009-10-19T17:59:00.003+02:00

Thanks everybody for the time, energy and ideas shared at Foiano. The show has a great environment and presentation, yes, but above all is all the enthusiasm emanating from the young photographers that is a beam of light in this time of darkness... keep the light alight!!!

MILIONE WORKSHOP FINAL SHOTS

2009-10-19T11:05:00.002+02:00

Was a good, intense, working weekend in Pisa, at the Milione Travel Writing and Photography workshop. As usual the best feeling is coming from the enthusiasm of the participants, but also from sharing experiences and ideas. I need to thank all of the guys there, Alessandro and all the stuff for keeping the intense program going.. And here are some images from all of the 19 protagonists: not bad for just 3 hours of shooting..

BUSY WEEK... PISA & FOIANO...

2009-10-09T16:45:00.002+02:00

Next week will be busy, and, hopefully, interesting..
Thursday through Saturday the collective workshop in Pisa (already booked out) then...
on Saturday evening the inauguration of Foiano Fotografia, with my show on China Influence among other interesting shows and events... Friends are invited..

PROVINCIAL LIFE

2009-10-05T22:47:00.004+02:00

Shooting the Piazza Ducale of Vigenano (not far from Milan). I was spending the weekend contemplating the quintessence of the provincial life in this wealthy region of northern Italy. How regular, conventional, tranquil, and rich it all appears. Teenagers show-off their signed casual look and prepare for the next stage. Which is being 35 years old couples strolling with their newborn. Middle aged gentleman sips their aperitifs, read the center-right wing newspapers, talk politics. And aged ladies, in perfect attires, comment on life, gossip on neighbors, and compliment the new perfect-looking-35-years-old-couples- with babies and good jobs, even if... and gossip goes on..
Oh yes, with different looks it's the same as it is in large part of this world. This is the "regular" life... But, why I do have this amazing sensation of malaise? Why I do strongly feel uncomfortable? Why I thank "God" for my so unconventional, irregular, so much different from this, life?
Maybe it's because the feeling of emptiness is everywhere. Maybe it's because I start understanding the why of all the sex-shops hided in the suburbs and the many East-European prostitutes walking on the ring road and coming to the hotel even at 10 in the morning.. Maybe..
Where is all the good sense left us by philosophers, history, culture, tradition (or even simple proverbs) on how to give life some sense of real fulfillment? Grasping to this fake sense of wealth and tranquility is all what life is about? Protect you little garden (maybe voting for a xenophobic party) and age quickly is all they wish for?

RUSSIAN ELDERS

2009-09-24T18:31:00.002+02:00

Elder people are the real victims in modern Russia. It breaks my heart to see so many of them walking like strangers, but I should say ghosts, in the streets of the city. They were educated and grown in the socialist culture: everything was planned for them. All they had to do was working and follow the rules. What was important was the social equilibrium. They liked culture, reading a lot, art, social venues. Then suddenly found themselves in a strange, out of a new world new era. Some clever guys stole the economy from them (the modern “oligarchs” in fact sustained by the political elite), and the young generations jumped into the new life system. Money and personal success, a complete new concept, are central to it.
And here they are: hopelessly trying to cope with the new world, trying to survive it for the few remaining years of their life. And this is exactly what the government is hoping for: for the old generation to disappear leaving room to the new capitalistic oriented new one.
It’s a change, ok, but a too sharp for most of them. I see them climbing on the crowded tube, shying into a seat, discomforted with their cheap clothes, their eyes lowered to the floor all the time. This was their land, their country. They fought and worked for it. And now all they asked for is to die as soon as possible. All is given them is indifference, a big nothing.

MOSCOW: ANGELS AND DEVILS

2009-09-22T21:07:00.006+02:00

Moscow 17 years after... after my first, and only time here... Changes? Many, changes... But not so many, after all... The atmosphere is still the same. I feel like Socialism has gone from a short time and people are living still in a transitional era... Many poor are begging on the sidewalks while BMW and Hammers are jammed in the traffic a few steps away.
This is not just an impression: everybody is confirming that life is difficult for most of the Moscovite. For a few is just basking in gold. I wonder how is life far from the capital: some says is desperate.. And this is a super-power? A resources-rich country? So much to say, so much to criticize, still all is a deja-vu, the useless cry of an unjust world...
Angels and devils are populating days and nights in Moscow. But I think angels are turning into devils when time comes: nobody is innocent here. I would divide the city among clever guys and naive survivors...
You walk in the street, you rise a finger and a car stops to carry you anywhere you want. It’s not a taxi but all you need to do is discuss a price. Just like 17 years ago. Just like any undeveloped country.

SHOW AT FOIANO FOTOGRAFIA

2009-09-10T14:46:00.003+02:00

On October 17, in Foiano (Arezzo, Italy), will be inaugurated the Foianofotografia photography festival, dedicated this year to documentary images of the world (Casa-Mondo is the title).
I'll be present with a 15 images shows dedicated to my new project on "Chinese Shadows over Asia". This is in fact, and I titled it accordingly, the starting point of the project. The images are more like "notes" of what I'll be looking for, rather then a presentation of what the work will look like in the end. I like to throw stones in the water and see the reactions, understand the feelings and interests, focusing on the path that can be too wide and misleading..

FESTIVAL DEL VIAGGIO - WORKSHOP IN PISA

2009-09-10T14:34:00.003+02:00

On October 15-17 I'll be teaching at the Festival del Viaggio in Pisa at the workshop "Writing and Photography in Travel", an intense 3 days full immersion with a lot of brain-storming. For further details see the Festival del Viaggio website.

Nei giorni 15-17 ottobre sarò tra gli insegnati del workshop "scrittura e fotografia di viaggio" tenuto da Festival del Viaggio a Pisa. Tre giorni con molti interventi, gran brain-storming, e una full immersion nella materia. Per ulteriori dettagli consultate il sito relativo.

FRENCH MIRRORS (& LIGHTS...)

2009-09-06T15:14:00.003+02:00

Paris is the Ville Lumiere, we know... photographers paradise since the beginning of photography. But we have to recognize the French an incredible sensibility for underlining the value of their beauties: fashion and make up for women, labels for bottles of wine.. and of course light for photographers. Nowhere like here (well, maybe in some Chinese metropolis, but they copied) the lighting of streets, monuments, shops and homes is done with so much taste and skills that seems organized by photographers themselves. (Hei, we have a new job!)..
And now I found also mirrors! In the Convent de Jacobins in Toulouse, where the gothic roof is the main feature, they placed a large polarizing mirror on the floor so that you don't need to look up and imagine... The flower-like arches are sharp below you, and you can admire (and photograph) with ease... It's not a big thing, but shows a sensibility for vision that is rare in this image-rich imagination-poor world...

PERPIGNAN & FRIENDS...

2009-09-04T21:46:00.001+02:00

Still, the real reason why to be in Perpignan is still worth, of course, are friends...

CAFE' TITANIC.. PERPIGNAN

2009-09-04T10:07:00.006+02:00

I repeat myself, again, and again, and again... But I'm like the watcher on the Titanic that is screaming not "Iceberg! Iceberg!" (that was a while ago) but instead "water, lot of water in the ship! we are going to sink soon!!"...
And the reaction at the Grand Cafe de la Poste (the "salotto" in Perpignan's VISA) is still the same: more wine, and beer, and hidden-under-the-table-bottles-of-whiskey.. No, not to forget. On the contrary.. Still talking more of the future in photojournalism, the coming projects, the ever-under-the-arm portfolios to show at any given occasion...
But very few professionals (photographers, agents, photo editors) are in Perpignan this year, or, at least, much less then usual. Who works and lives producing images (we hope good, valuable, useful images) feels like VISA is not helping in these troubled times. What we should be talking about in here is how the future should shape itself rather then keep doing less and less of the old same..
Where would be a better place and occasion then at this world forum where all the actors are congregating for a week? And I find ridiculous that on the VISA website the very opening is declearing that "photojournalism is dead" and then is proposing no discussion and confrontation on the matter: what is this, a requiem?
I see good, strong photos in the exhibitions, and is sad to know that very few of them will find some pages where to be published (therefore being seen, fulfilling their journalistic mission..)
Where are the discussions on the new media, the new ethical parameters, the problems of accessing the real news for the ever more controlled reporters? Where?
Somebody is still asserting that the real important thing is to stick to the technical limits inherited from the chemical darkroom!!! What? Whaaaat?
The world is changing, changing fast... and the Titanic is sinking, even faster... Let's save all what is worth saving of our precious, essential part of culture and information..

iPhone-Summer

2009-08-28T18:03:00.002+02:00

Confession: I love Apple! My first Apple (still not called Mac) was dated 1985. And I'm a faithful person, at least when it comes to technology..
And of course I love the iPhone, the applications and implications, with music and photography above all.
Normally I don't bring a camera with me, if I'm not working.. But the iPhone, or better, it's photo applications, changed this for me...
Now I take little "real-photos" of my simple "daily-life"... And here is a short diary of my summer.. with home, motorcycle, TPW, family and friends...

THE WEB SITE IS NOW ON-NEW STORIES

2009-08-21T15:27:00.004+02:00

The web site is now definitive and on-line, with all the stories, more then 60, visible in Flash. The portfolios were updated too. If you visit it and find that corrections are needed please let me know..

ONLY ONE WEB SITE (FOR NOW)

2009-08-14T17:17:00.002+02:00

Just to clarify the new web situation... Now that the new web site at pistolesiphoto.com is live, I have redirected the other two directories (pistolesi.com and andreapistolesi.com) on this site as well. I think the new design is in fact filling the need that was temporarily given to these: a lighter showcase of my work.
I plan to design an on-line gallery that will end on a new site.. But this is not for the immediate future.. Thanks for your patience!

NEW WEBSITE TO TEST

2009-08-13T18:09:00.002+02:00

Hello guys, the newly remade web site pistolesiphoto.com is now live.
I would appreciate opinions, suggestions, corrections.
The philosophy and intentions of the remake are clear: less, more updated material, in a more interactive presentation (lot of Flash galleries now).
I feel like the web site is more a presentation of my work then a light box for photo editors. Therefore the portfolios have been updated with what I like to do today.
Also, I keep in mind the existence of this blog, as well as of Facebook, for news and contacts.
Your feedback will be very much appreciated!

AND, ABOUT MY PRESENTATION...

2009-08-02T16:37:00.003+02:00

This was my slideshow at TPW... A selection of my work in Asia this year. What I wanted to show is really how schizophrenic my work has been: from dieing refugees in Bangladesh to the five stars night life in Kuala Lumpur in a few days.. And so on.. But if you follow this blog you know already..

TPW WORKSHOP FINAL SLIDESHOW

2009-08-02T15:28:00.005+02:00

The TPW workshop was in fact concluded on Friday night with the students slideshow. You can see it here so you can appreciate the good work the guys did.
This year I radically changed the scope of the week. Instead of working on the making of a story potentially destined for publication, I asked the students to work on a single project of their choice. The focus was to make a gallery of images that should work as a photographic story: the results are here, and I was positively impressed. Especially because none of the guys wished to become a professional photographer (which, I think, is a great starting point: freedom of expression comes first, whenever possible!).
In other words, given the hard times, I think we should concentrate on producing good images and good stories. The publication, of any sort, will come sooner or later, if what we do is interesting (and good)!!