Interview with photographer Valeria Ranalli

From where are you?

I am from L’Aquila, Italy, but I am currently living in the UK…and about to move to France!

 What is it that attracts you the most of what you have around you?  

It depends on my mood, some days I am inspired by the streets, others by flowers and trees, sometimes by patterns and colors, some days it is myself. Other days…nothing attracts me.

            Describe some of your projects
I have different projects on street photography and fine art and but I guess my best ones are the self-portraits. It seems that is the best way I have found so far to express completely and genuinely myself and my art.

            Your main concept

Saul Leiter once said, “ I go out to take a walk, I see something, I take a picture. I take photographs. I have avoided profound explanations of what I do” and I find this sentence perfect to describe my approach to photography. It is true even when related to self-portraits; I feel something, I have an inspiration, and no one is around to pose for me, so, I just take pictures of myself.

              what do you want to say by your art, why?
I would say that is definitively personal, instinctive and raw.

               Tell us about your experience as photographer what did it give you?
Fall in love with photography was one of the best thing could ever happen to me.  It all started during the blackest period of my life and it helped me to get out of it, because it is all about emotions and beauty. It is my shield; it protects me from this world that pushes me to be only “clinical, intellectual, cynical.”

Three adjectives to describe yourself.
Confused (but in the end not too much), funny (when I am in a good mood), calm (never).

               

A film, a book and a song

Spike Lee – “Do the right thing”

Jean-Paul Sartre – “Nausea”

Janis Joplin - "Me And Bobby McGee”


 What camera do you use?  lense?
I use digital and analogue cameras. I must admit that I am not a fan of the latest and expensive gear. What I do like is making pictures, even if only with a pinhole camera made with a can.

             Tell about exhibition if you ‘ve had any.

(Con)fusioni - Inusualemostradell'incompiuto  (Lanciano, Italy – 2015) has been my latest group one.

Never had a solo one and I am looking forward to it.


            Do you sell prints? How do you make it and where can someone buy?
If you are interested, please contact me.


            What was your most big success? 
Meet Riccardo, my boyfriend.


           Favourite photographer.
William Eggleston: genial, radical, genuine and grumpy. I love that man.

          What is your occupation, job, interest besides photography. describe it.
I hold a degree in Engineering and a master in Enterprise Systems Management and I am currently working in the Information System field as an analyst... I love to rack my brain on stuff.

         

Your plans.

Promote my art in new ways, upgrade my skills, lose my mind again.

 

Interview with photographer Gennadiy Chernega

 From where are you?

I’m from Ukraine. I live in Kiev.

What is it that attracts you the most of what you have around you?

Everything depends on my internal state. Sometimes there are days when I notice nothing, but sometimes it happens I have a clear feeling, thought and emotion, and in that moment everything is united in one shot.

Describe some of your projects Your main concept what do you want to say by your art, why?

All of my projects are a part of myself, a part of my life. I narrate about what I see and feel. ‘Deep Sleep’ is about slumber, ‘Walls of glass’ about fragility of our walls. ‘Stray dog’ is an exhibition with what I go to audience.

Tell us about your experience as photographer what did it give you?

I am not a photographer in the direct meaning of this word. I don’t know all of the basic rules, don’t know all the techniques, I can’t work in the studio.

I am an ordinary man. I use camera as a Dictaphone to record my thoughts and feelings.

 A film, a book and a song .

Contacts

Erich Maria Remarque - All Quiet On The Western Front

Daughter – Youth

What camera do you use?  lenses?

Mostly, Olympus mju 2.

 Tell about exhibition if you ‘ve had any.

I had an ordinary exhibition as well. People were drinking wine, works were on the wall. But I want to tell you about the ‘Stray Dog’ project. It’s an exhibition that can take place anywhere. I was showing my works at 12 o’clock in the deserted street, at the metro station, on the table in café, and in the park on the bench, and at the kitchen of my friends, and at the tram station…

‘Stray Dog’ is a carton box, pack of photographs, dog-lead and personal story. With all these things I go to a person who wants to see it.

Do you sell prints?

I haven’t think yet about the prints but I already have a couple of zines.

How do you make it and where can someone buy?

Write me //www.facebook.com/deeepsleeep

What was your most big success?

My life is quite calm, I didn’t have a glorious triumph.

Favourite photographer.

There are a lot of them. I was lost in the photography and saved nearly 15 000 of shots which I saw and feared to lose.

Larry Towell, Antoine D’Agata, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Edward Weston, Brassai, Francesca Woodman, Sally Mann, Sarah Moon, Jindřich Streit, Daido Moriyama, Igor Posner, Valery Schekoldin, Lyalya Kuznetsova, Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Duane Michaels, Jacob Aue Sobol, Trent Parke, Roger Ballen, Alexander Gronsky

What is your occupation, job, interest besides photography.

describe it.

Previously, I was working in advertisement but then I decided to do something for myself. Except photography, I like good cinema, literature, theatre, bowling and pool.

Which advice would you give someone who wants to become a (professional) photographer?

It’s necessary to give yourself completely up to what you love and don’t stop.

Your plans.

I want to see the world and live by the sea.

Interview with photographer Clara Araujo

             

                  From where are you?

Italy….South Italy exactly

              What is it that attracts you the most of what you have around you?

Voices, faces, noises…..Fashion,underground comics…dark faces, objects,

abandoned  places…looks, tears and laughter, brawls and extreme and

twisted  passions…hands,legs, noses, eyes, mouths, shoulders, breasts,

bellies…

                Describe some of your projects

I start different and various projects all together generally…but i’ve not a

specific rule,I do not like to program anything….lastly I go around to find

abandoned places full of waste…I adore to photograph mountains of waste…

and to put on them also my weird collages...my freakish models….

I love to find the contrasts in all…even where there is no contrast in appearance.



            Your main concept

To follow  always  my changing moods ...to experiment,to experiment,

to experiment .... to reconcile the irreconcilable

what do you want to say by your art, why?

I want to express all my love for the freedom,my love for this wonderful and

terrible life.

           Tell us about your experience as  photographer what did it give you?

I'm a visual artist …for yearsI made collages, paintings, illustrations ....

switching to photography is needed ... inevitable .... I started photographing                     my collages on mountains of garbage .... photographing my strange paper       models     in dirty abandoned places,   ...... I love to photograph the water dirty my photos .... I love to stain my photos with the mud of my shoes .... I like to get in a thousand ways in the thing with my lens and to try and to invent new meanings to the things.

           Three adjectives to describe yourself.

Chaotic, immediate, anarchic, immediate, instinctive, twisted, knotty.           A film, a book and a song.

’’Salò e le 100 giornate di Sodoma’’(P.P.Pasolini),’’The Man of Jasmine and

Other Texts’’ Unica Zürn, Shirley Horn’’All My Tomorrows’’.

              What camera do you use?  lense?

My beloved NikonD40

             Tell about exhibition if you ‘ve had any.

Photography,paintings,illustrations,collages….visual poetry…mail art…..or

what?I make this wonderful’’work’’….(??..)since the far 1995….I’ve had many

shows in Italy and in other countries….made covers for cds,magazines,zines,

t-shirts…..a lot a lot of things really.



            Do you sell prints? How do you make it and where can someone buy?

Sure I sell prints yes…I print my photos in various professional shops.Everyone

can contact me to my e-mail:claudioparentela@gmail.com to order them.



            What was your most big success?

Oh always I love the last thing done….in  these days has been published my last

tarot deck :’’I TAROCCHI DELLA RUOTA INCROCIATA’’by ‘’Hermatena Edizioni’’

(BO-Italy)



            Favourite photographer.

oJoel-Peter Witkin.



            What is your occupation, job,  describe it.

I’m and i’ll be for the rest of my life a visual artist…sure, this is the wonderful

‘’work’’I do….

Other interests….photography….photography&photography.

          Which advice would you give someone who wants to become an artist or photographer?

To be free …always to be free.

Your plans.

keep doing what I like….