The personal portrait of the city where I live
The essence of the work of a street photographer is given by the city in which he lives. If one is lucky enough to travel a lot OK, but in any case the street photographer can be seen from the work he does in his daily life and therefore in the city in which he resides.
When I am on the street working all my attention is focused on what is happening. The sense of hearing and sight are certainly the most activated. The concentration is maximum even if I don't forget to have fun while doing it.
What I am doing today as a photographer focuses on the essence and the atmosphere, in particular of that perception that derives from my observation. The reaction to the visual stimulus produces, in my case, the click. This is a photographic approach that can seem to be done without thinking. In reality I understood how becoming a photographer who listens to his instincts made me a photographer very fast in processing a given situation and therefore recording it with the camera.
The resulting work is deeply linked to the mood and the choice of what in a few moments I recognize as a photographic moment. For the work I do, as a photo coach, I often see how many photographers waste too much time to take a shot. Too much, too long. That's the way to miss the moment. And even if you manage to take a picture it will be something completely different. If that's what you want to achieve and you prefer technical perfection, that's fine. But if you want to capture the energy of the public space, absolutely not.
Snapshot aesthetics cannot ignore instinct.
If a shot is too thoughtful, we can't really talk about snapshot aesthetics. Precise photography belongs to landscape photographers, to those of architecture. We are street photographers, which is why we are different.
This photograph, for example, is not the best in sharpness. As I passed I took a snap.
I thought it right to shoot because the girl's posture is interesting but if I had placed myself in front of her to shoot I would have probably had a reaction that in this case I wanted to avoid.
What I mean is: let's open up to error. Be willing to show it too. If photography is part of our daily life. Nan Goldin is a master in this sense. There is no counting how many photos she has of her in which she has completely failed to focus.
The personal portrait of my city feeds on this incessant research inside and outside myself. This means being a street photographer. Constantly get involved. And only in this way can we use photography to question ourselves and thus give back a personal voice to the photographic work we propose.
