Alessandro Greganti: “Beauty Is Hidden Behind the Small and Boring Things”
When I was a kid, my dad used his Canon FTb and I was fascinated by that object capable of capturing images. I remember the shutter sound and even the smell of the camera bag. Looking through the viewfinder and checking the focus was a unique experience, a fascinating game. This attraction remained dormant until 2006 when I bought my first and only digital SLR, a Nikon D50.
At the end of 2010, I bought an iPhone and I stumbled upon some very interesting photographers who were using a mobile phone to take pictures. That discovery lead me to use this new tool and it gave me great freedom to shoot. At that time there was a great community of “mobile” photographers. I learnt a lot from them and I fell in love with street photography.
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I don’t travel very much, to be honest I’ve never took an airplane, so I try to get the most I can from the place I live in. Often I get bored but I have learned that beauty is hidden behind the small and boring things and if you’re receptive you can see and capture it, wherever you are.
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I think that categories are too restrictive, especially in photography. We use to categorize everything in life. If you want you can call me a street photographer, but I often take pictures that are very personal. I started with the will to be a street photographer, but now I’m searching for something that’s not arrived yet.
I love it when I can find lot of people, especially when they are demonstrating for whatever reason. I love to go inside, between them and take pictures. I have found that it creates so many photographic opportunities to fill the frame and to return home with some good pictures. I love the interaction between people and I try to capture it. It’s my attempt to combine photojournalism with street photography.
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Every time I have taken pictures for someone else I had the feeling that I was not really free. I felt the pressure to take pictures that should fit the client’s needs. I felt uncomfortable and I saw that feeling in many of the pictures I have taken.
I hardly ever ask for permission. When I’m very close I always try to avoid eye contact, and this helps a lot, because they don’t really know if I’m taking their picture or something behind them. Many times I use an iPhone so it’s even simpler to go unnoticed. I rarely had problems with people while shooting in the street. When it happens I smile trying to explain why I took the picture, and if I see a bad situation I delete the picture.
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I think we have to learn the rules to break them. When I want to take a visually pleasing picture, I find a place with good light, possibly with a hard contrast between light and shadow. I find a good composition and I wait for someone to be in the right place. This is what I call an academic exercise: everyone with a moderate understanding of the photographic rules can take these kind of pictures. Many of my pictures are like that. But when you listen to your heart, when you push the shutter button because you feel it, you could capture an emotion and a picture becomes something different. Many times it will be an image that speaks only to me but that’s enough to feed my photographic passion.
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The greatest difficulty is to deal with my inner dissatisfaction, I’ve taken thousands of pictures but only a few are those I would save if I were obliged. This awareness reminds me how intimate photography is, and why I decided to take whatever picture I want without the need to please someone or to follow rules and categories.
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