QVEST MAGAZINE #64

PH. Andrea Massari Makeup Claudia Andreatta styling Natalie Daemi

model Anastasia Ivanova

Fendi fur catalogue 2014

Fendi fur collection 2014

JP and Laura Gavrilenko by me

FENDI photographer Andrea Massari Stylist Flavia Liberatori Model Waleska Gorczevski @ IMG

... Or Liquor? NYC 2014

Happening now in Milan, Greenpeace action in Galleria! #thekingisnaked

Happening now in Milan, Greenpeace action in Galleria! #thekingisnaked

A Little Story about a Fashionable Lie Greenpeace "The King is Naked" Campaign Ph. Andrea Massari  Creative Director, Sergio Faccin Model, Eugenia Volodina Stylist Linda Calugi  Makeup Cristina Crosara  Production: Dv Milano Greenpeace crew: Tommy Crawford , Massimo Guidi , Chiara Campione (good work guys!)

House of Peroni integral Interview

What inspires you? What do you hope to inspire in others with your work?

I feel that, as in painting, it all starts from the desire to give birth to a thought, an idea.

I love simple emotions, basic and natural ones. In photography it’s the same: the enthusiasm of a trip, leafing through a magazine, the expression of a woman and a ray of light that sculpts her features are things that inspire me deeply.

I'd like the others to feel this kind of emotions in my images.

  How would you describe your aesthetic/artistic vision? What do you try to achieve in your work? What excites you about working in the medium of photography? 

I love simple and natural emotions, as I told you before. What I like in photography is that it allows me to capture those moments in life that we cannot even perceive unless recorded, frozen by the camera. Imagine the invisible yet so alive flutter of wings, its energy is there, but the human eye cannot frame it. Well, my photography is an attempt to capture those non-frameable moments.

  Can you remember what first made you want to pick up a camera? What first attracted you to fashion photography? Could you imagine doing anything other than being a photographer?

I started at 18 as an illustrator, but my camera was always with me, also when after years of lensing advertising I came to fashion: when I approached fashion photography (I was then struck by the delightful strength of Avedon's human figures), I understood that fashion semantics would have given me the chance to widen my aesthetic language and tell my love for female figure better than any other creative tool.

For many years I have called myself an illustrator “borrowed” by photography, but now I can say that photography is my exclusive, privileged form of artistic expression. 

  What is your definition of beauty? Is beauty something you try to seek/communicate in your practice as a photographer?

Beauty to me is Fragile, and Fragile is Beautiful.

In my photography I try to portray this subtle, imperceptible moments of fragility, of ephemeral life. 

  In what sense – if at all – does an Italian background or aesthetic inform your work? Who in your opinion is the greatest Italian photographer? In what ways do you think the Italian culture and approach to fashion is unique?

In Italy wherever you go (or almost), you are surrounded by history, art, architecture, design and why not …great food and nature!

It’s like to be constantly immersed in Beauty and Good Taste, and if you do an artistic job like mine having the right sensibility to catch all these elements, they’ll penetrate into your sensibility and help you to shape your own way of seeing things, and consequently your own way to “façon” your own truth, to craft your own visual aesthetics.

But this is an international job and traveling a lot and cooperating with talents from various countries, my Italian origins are meant to blend in with what’s new around the planet; my Italian roots are an amazing reservoir of proportions, textures, colors, deep know-how coming from the Italian Artistic millennial Tradition.

As for the Italian greatest fashion photographer, I like very much the work of Paolo Roversi; I think his style and vision embody perfectly deep artistic sensibility and wise craftsmanship.

    What is the greatest shoot you have ever been on and why? Do you prefer to shoot celebrities/models or real people? Why?

This is the toughest question because every shooting is differently exciting: concerning my commercial photography experience, Illy Caffé advertising campaign is a great cornerstone: Illy is an Italian top brand of excellence that has been influenced by art and supported various artists worldwide, therefore being the official photographer for their international campaign was a great professional satisfaction. When it comes to fashion&lifestyle photography I enjoy greatly shooting either celebrities and models, because I lens them also within their "REAL" human side, because, after all, they are just real people, but professionals in the form.

  Are you inspired by art, and if so then which artists in particular inspire you and why?

I’ve always been inspired by artists, especially by painters: Caravaggio and his light treatments, Andrea Pozzo and his stunning perspectives, Miró and his surreal colours, able to drag you into visionary worlds; but the list is so long: Picasso, Roy Lichteinstein to name just a few.

    how would you describe contemporary Italian style? What is the most exciting thing happening in Italy right now?

 Italian Style in Fashion keeps on busting international Hype tendencies: Versace's historical Rock&Roll&Punk Design is influencing nowadays fast fashion more than anybody else in the business; italian designers such as Riccardo Tisci, for Givenchy, Fausto Puglisi for Ungaro and fashion editors such as Anna Dello Russo for Vogue are great interpreters of this New Ba-Rock Punk Style, which has become already a classic in itself.

But I like also to encourage new italian designers & their brand new points of view: for instance, Stella Jean, a haitian-born but deeply "italianized" Couturier, who embodies theethnical spirit of prints&colors in more contemporary western silhouettes.

    What for you is the difference between artistic photography, commercial photography and fashion photography, which medium do you most enjoy working in?

Fashion photography, my privileged medium, is the sum of the other kinds of photographical tools: the languages of each single kind of photography can be linked, and cross-used as art and fashion photography can share the same aesthetics,  but in this, fashion photography is closer to commercial one (most of times) because its primordial need is to illustrate clothing, lifestyles, accessories, products and so on. Therefore the differences are very subtle, today more than ever, yet fashion and commercial photography share a common need of lensing iconic subjects, products and ideas, where artistic photography, by definition, is free from needs.

  How has photography changed since you started out in photography? What do you think about the digital revolution in photography?

In the beginning I was so into traditional photography: films, darkroom, hand prints etc. then in a few months it all changed, it felt like almost overnight: even the most stubborn, long-experienced professionals surrendered to digital in the end. 

I think that this technical revolution has eased and accelerated the way of taking pictures: at first I even thought it could also help improve the final quality (and that also happens, see retouching and editing) but the market has started demanding more and more quantity of shots, sometimes at the expenses of quality.

  Do you prefer to shoot the male or female form? Please tell us why and what excited you about shooting the human form?

Female form, no doubts; women are so much more appealing to me, not only sensually but also aesthetically: they have so many layered formal personalities, so much to tell in terms of archetypes, from idols of perversion to purest natural candor. 

Nothing better than  a human body in general can express strength and fragility, darkness and enlightenment in the same frame.

Do you prefer to work with natural light or in an artificial studio environment?

 Natural light is simply IT, but studio light experiments can be pretty challenging, creative and exciting. 

  What do you find exciting about being involved in The House of Peroni?

A brand new creative level of expression, of gathering talents, of combining artistic professional experiences: that's exciting!

What in life do you still want to achieve? What do you feel satisfied you have achieved already?

One of my next goals in my work will be to combine both photographical and painting techniques in a single shooting in order to create a unique visual creative language.

I am pretty happy about myself for having reached some kind of balance and confidence in my profession so that, even in difficult situations, I can just be focused and go for it, and create my own thing.

Please tell us about five things from Italian culture you are currently inspired by? 

Chiaroscuro by Caravaggio, Baroque part of Rome and fountains, Cappella Sistina, Island of Capri and Teatro la Scala in MIlan

What do you love in life? What do you hate in life?

I love traveling and connecting within an international human network, not just professional.

Opportunism is something that I deeply hate, as much as intolerance for diversity and ignorance.

STELLA JEAN SS 2104

Photographer Andrea Massari Styling Viviana Volpicella model Mariana Braga @ The Lab Milan

OVS DENIM 72D

PHOTOGRAPHER: ANDREA MASSARI

CREATIVE DIRECTORS: SERGIO FACCIN, GIANLUCA GABRIELLI