Interview with:
Giacomo Leoncini
Where are you born and when?
I was born on January 22, 1997 in San Miniato
Where do you live?
I live in Santa Croce sull’Arno, a small town in the province of Pisa
When and how do you start your path in photography?
My photographic journey began about three years ago.
In general I have always photographed, first using the phone.
Within my daily life I tried to catch small details that struck me.
Three years ago I took my father’s camera and started shooting mainly in Tuscany and some cities in Italy.
Within this first phase, I mainly made landscapes.
Later I started making my first shootings with friends.
At that moment I was completely involved in wanting to photograph people.
During that period I mainly made portraits.
For me it was almost an intimate phase.
Within the various portraits I always tried to express something personal.
Going through this phase there was always something that didn’t make me feel complete, as if something was missing.
My photography goes hand in hand with my real self.
I am a very introverted and reserved person but I have always cultivated many passions and influences coming from different sectors.
At a certain point I realized that in order to fully express myself in photography I had to make the moment of the shot completely mine.
At that point, I completely got rid of any form of pattern, judgment or anything else.
I cleared my mind and began to work completely free.
Who were the three photographers that inspired you at the beginning and who are the three ones that inspire you now?
Please add links to the pages where the images are shown.
In fact, I have always had a strong interest in knowing and understanding other people’s photography.
There are several photographers who have left a mark on me and my photography over time.
For example, during my early period I often looked at Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs.
I was and still am completely fascinated by his imaginative and avant-garde style.
The same goes for another great photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki.
The third photographer who has certainly influenced my way of photographing is Daido Moriyama with his contrasts, his biting and dynamic black and white.
To this day I continue to study and look at the photographs of other photographers.
For the moment these three certainly represent pillars for my current project.
Did you go to a school or are you a self-taught?
I am self-taught.
Everything I learned I tried to study on my own through books, videos, buying books from historical photographers.
Do you make photography as a living?
No, I don’t live with photography right now.
But photography manages to make me live in a much happier way.
What do you like in photography, what is your motivation?
The main element that attracted me to photography is definitely the communicative factor.
Being able to communicate a thought, a suggestion, a world through a shot I think is one of the most difficult and exciting reasons that can push a person to take pictures.
In my photography I often try to play on contrasts to communicate through images (strong but elegant, delicate but sharp).
When I have to make a set, I always try to study and clarify in myself what I want to communicate.
That said, in my opinion it also takes the right amount of instinct.
Have a precise idea of what to create and communicate but at the same time allow the instinct to create during the set.
What do you want to express or arouse in those who watch your images?
There are several aspects that I have chosen to deal with within my photography.
In the first place I wanted to give voice and expression to desires, dreams, nightmares and passions related to the mind.
I did not want to concentrate on what can conventionally be considered common or in line with certain canons but I tried to dissect the most remote, hidden and unusual corners of the mind. intimate and personal for each individual, it is the guardian of our secrets, our desires, our dreams and our fears.
In this sense, within many of my works, I have chosen to shoot right inside my home.
I think I have practically desecrated this place, going more and more in search of a boundless disharmony that at the same time led to a subsequent harmony.
A sort of photographic dodecaphony.
In my sets, desires have the upper hand and not the common facade that we have to carry out outside the four walls of the house to be inclined to the system and the society that surrounds us.
In various works that I have done I have repeatedly evoked the Matrix in the form of an erotic theme.
Having the possibility of being able to express oneself according to one’s nature and one’s being, without censorship, without limits and above all without having to conform to something that does not represent us by imposing canons and rules that do nothing but overshadow and oppress the true I of the individual.
This relationship between the mind, the desires linked to it and the continuous judgment \ conformism deriving from the objective world that surrounds us has led me to choose, based on my experience and my influences, certain figures to contextualize and re-elaborate within the my sets.
An example related to this other part of my works was certainly the figure of Rorschach, the executioner with the mask referring to the famous Rorschach Test.
What are your preferred moment(s) in the creation process?
In general, there are three favorite moments in my creative process.
The first moment that I prefer most is certainly when the idea is born that will later take shape within one of my sets.
All my works were born almost from a spark that ignited in any unexpected moment.
It is indescribable.
Then I proceed to elaborate the project.
The second moment is when I have to take the photos.
Within this phase I enter a world of my own.
It’s my moment, there is only me and the person I have to photograph.
The third moment I prefer is when the work is completed or immediately after postproduction.
At that moment the initial spark came to life and turned into a concrete and realized idea.
These are my favorite three stages of my creative process.
What are your three most representative images, and why?
Please add links to the pages where the images are shown.
The first image I would like to point out is of a chubby girl in the middle of a contortion in a bathroom.
This image fully represents my conception of the house.
The total liberation from everything that can surround our time.
It is absolutely a hymn of pure expression of freedom and self-manifestation.
The second image to which I am very attached paradoxically represents the contradiction of the first.
The dying face of a girl collected inside a plastic envelope.
This photo represents exactly the death and decay of identity, of the self.
This photo is part of a much larger set titled `` WHOLE ’’ since in this house, within it lies death and not life.
The last photo I would like to mention shows a girl in the bathroom completely free from any judgment, scheme or canon.
I particularly care about this photo because it is part of the first set I made within this photographic project of mine.
All photos are visible in my portfolio, present on my Instagram profile
_phgiacomoleoncini_.
What equipment and/or techniques do you use?
It is not a matter of brands/lenses, it is mostly about analog/digital, preferred light (natural/flash), how much post-production, etc.
My work is totally conceived through digital means and is based on black and white.
From the beginning I have always post-produced in black and white.
In my photography I often use a game of contrasts and black and white increases my thinking.
During the post-production work I always try to develop the details in my photographs as much as possible.
The small details always manage to give something extra within a shot.
Paradoxically, my attention has increasingly focused on the analogue way of shooting.
And so on a technical level I try to bring the analog model into a predominantly digital conception.
How and why your work as changed since you started?
My photographic journey in general has not had too many changes but certainly there have been phases that have occurred in a very natural way.
I started photographing landscapes and this was certainly a very important first phase that made me feel a great passion for photography.
Later, as soon as I started taking the first photos with people, I realized that photographically I felt something much more intimate and strong.
For a long time I have concentrated mainly on the creation of portraits trying to develop my post-production.
The most important phase that still accompanies me today was that of starting to put myself into play in all respects and developing a photography model that reflected as freely as possible what I wanted and want to communicate.
It was a very natural process, at least this is how I perceived it over time.
I believe that every step of my journey has led me to make the current sets.
And today I am always looking for a continuous evolution.
What do you think about the fact that nowadays photography is mostly enjoyed on the Internet?
I think it is a natural consequence of our time.
The Internet today is the showcase of the world where you can find, discover, know and discuss anything.
Regarding photography, I think it’s a positive thing.
In the past, photography was mainly conveyed through magazines in the sector or not, or through specific exhibitions.
I believe that the Internet allows everyone to have visibility and to have their own space where they can make themselves and their work known.
Honestly, I don’t know if I would have met many photographers that I still follow and respect without the internet.
Perhaps in some respects through the internet or more specifically through certain social networks, photography and the study inherent to it has been confused and downplayed.
For example, it is easier to find multiple profiles related to photos taken with phones, and the same people who make these photos proclaim themselves as photographers.
I think very differently.
It takes a lot of study, a lot of passion and a great desire to sacrifice oneself to learn how to make a photograph.
Technology has obviously developed a lot compared to the past but it should help and accompany the study and growth of a photographer.
I think that photographer became through a lot of time and a lot of experience.
This is probably the most negative aspect linked to the internet and the world of photography.
I believe it is absolutely positive that there are means, programs, etc ... that allow you to work in a certain way, but behind it there must absolutely be the desire to learn and sacrifice yourself and not minimize an art.
Why did you decide to join the nudeartzine project?
Right from the start I considered the project very interesting and perfectly inclined to what I am looking for in photography.
I was especially interested in being able to give a complete and detailed view of my work.
Often, even on the part of the viewer, everything stops on the shot, on the individual works.
And I believe that this is also partly right, the viewer must be able to analyze and elaborate his own thoughts about what he sees.
However, I was immediately enthusiastic about being able to be part of a project that would allow me to globally explain my vision and my thoughts on what I do every day and that really interests me.
Would you have an insight or advice to give to whomever is watching your work and wants to learn photography?
Regarding my work, I would like to advise you to observe and judge it with a completely open mind and free from any prejudice or pre-established pattern.
In general, about photography, I recommend to all those who want to start a photographic journey to study, experiment and be totally free.
Acquiring theoretical-technical notions is very important, but in the end the most important thing for me is to get involved through yourself, your ideas and without any kind of scheme that can limit or condition you.
What are your plans in the future?
For the future I absolutely want to carry on my photographic project.
Parallel to this I have several collaborations in progress with projects similar to what I do in my daily life, so they will be further new stimuli in the photographic field.
On what page our readers can find more of your work?
My complete works can be found through my Instagram page:
_phgiacomoleoncini_
Would you like to add something else?
I would like to thank Ugo Grandolini for giving me the opportunity to be part of this huge project.I would like to thank the models, with whom I have collaborated, who have given their availability to publish their photos.
I warmly invite you to follow them on their Instagram profiles \ Websites.
Instagram:
@ zuma.rw
@ombra_cristian
@stickieplumb
@roccoyndako
Web sites
zoemersi700.wixsite.com \ zumarow
www.yndako.com \
Books by Giacomo Leoncini
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