What pieces or projects have you been working on lately?
About a year ago, I discovered that every Sunday in downtown Milan there’s a vintage car gathering. I started photographing there just to make aesthetically pleasing images, but it’s actually turning into a detailed story full of passion and sacrifice. At the same time, I’m still shooting editorials and portrait projects. I really enjoy photographing people; I find it almost therapeutic.
What did you learn (or unlearn) while working on them?
Shooting among people makes you realize that things rarely go exactly as you imagined, that the photo you had in mind isn’t always easy to capture, and that you have to push to make it happen. I’ve unlearned wanting everything instantly — everything has its own timing.
What words, ideas or emotions were going through your head?
Strangely, while I’m shooting my mind is completely blank. I don’t think about anything. When I put my eye to the camera, even the chaos around me disappears.
Were there any conversations, movies, music, or books that made their way into that work?
Without a doubt, everything I shoot comes from a very specific imaginary: ’70s - ’80s, loud music. Rock dominates, especially Bruce Springsteen. The Boss tells stories of illegal highway races, old cars turned into machines for racing, of struggle and defiance.
What's been the most difficult thing you've faced recently in your creative process?
We live in a society where everything has to become “content”; photos aren’t enough anymore, photography alone isn’t enough. Everything has to generate likes, shares, interactions. The hardest part is trying to make “art” while still thinking about online visibility.
What is your favorite restaurant and what do you recommend we order?
I love Asian cuisine. Near my home there’s a Japanese place, Sushi Yiuan, where they make an incredible Goma Wakame.
If your life were a movie this month, what would it be called and who would write the soundtrack?
I imagine something like The Wild One or Harley Davidson & Marlboro Man, with a soundtrack mixing Fleetwood Mac and Springsteen. If it wasn’t clear already, I love motorcycles — preferably old, rusty ones.
Recommend one or more artists you follow who inspire you, and tell us what you like most about their work or their way of working.
I really admire Brian Schutmaat. His photographs have an incredible depth — the poetic black and white, the wrinkles on his subjects faces, the cracks in the earth of his landscapes. His work feels magical.
As a child, I would study faces, yet their details would slip from my memory. That’s why I started photographing them — to preserve the fleeting essence of a glance, a moment, a soul.