After traveling for thousands of miles to hunt for the pictures I am looking for, and after downlaoding, editing and working on countless images on my computer, one of the most exciting part of my job is to see the images emerging from the hard drive and become real printed photographs. There is something magical in to the feel of the thick paper, in to the sound of my printer firing thousands of microscopinc ink-drops. When I see one of my images becoming alive, I have a deep, sincere satisfaction and serendipity.
On top of that, I love to choose the place that the image will hold in one of my house walls, or even better, carefully and tenderly wrap it so it can live on somebody else’s wall. In this avalanche of images running over us on a daily basis, mostly consumed online, printing is my little private moment in which time stops (or at least I like to belive so…) and the most pure, genuine and unique part of photography comes alive. Somebody said “you can’t call it a photograph if you can’t hold it in your hands”: couldn’t agree more!
I let you imagine the surprise when I saw for the first time my picture of Florence printed 20 meters long in the streets of Milan. Quite astonishing! almost an entire building covered with it. And right after that, Verena, a friend from Sydney, tells me the picture is there as well, and than another friend from San Diego, and than another from Paris, and another from London, and one from Miami, and…
This image is a celebration of the alchemy that ties together me and Florence, swiss dancer and coreographer. I’ve been documenting her projects for almost 10 years: she’s very used to be under the lights or on a stage, but this is probably the first time the size of the image is on pair with her talent… I definitely can’t hold it in my hand, but I guess I can call it a picture…
At this link, a french reportage from the local TV (so you can even make fun of my italian accent….)
