Interview

[domenico Foschi]

Martin Cooper, a London based photographer, whose talent doesn't stop just in photography,sometime ago requested an interview about my work to post in his blog.
SInce I knew and deeply respected his work already, It was a real honor to receive his request.
It took us a while to finish this little project and I am very pleased with the outcome.
I recommend you look at Martin Cooper's work at http://www.martincooperphoto.com/ where you can see videos and his beautiful body of work.

You can look at the interview at http://martincooperphoto.blogspot.com/

[Greg Lockrey]

Thanks for the heads up. :)

[David Spivak-Focus Magazine]

Martin Cooper, a London based photographer, whose talent doesn't stop just in photography,sometime ago requested an interview about my work to post in his blog.
SInce I knew and deeply respected his work already, It was a real honor to receive his request.
It took us a while to finish this little project and I am very pleased with the outcome.
I recommend you look at Martin Cooper's work at http://www.martincooperphoto.com/ where you can see videos and his beautiful body of work.

You can look at the interview at http://martincooperphoto.blogspot.com/

His work is gorgeous - as is yours. Congratulations.

[Tri Tran]

Hi Domenico,
I enjoyed the article very much . Congratulations and thanks for the update. Great works as always.

[Ron McElroy]

Thanks for the link!
I just finished reading the interview and appreciate the insight into your work.

[Francesco Gallarotti]

Thank you for the good read Domenico. It's nice to learn about your perspective on photography (no pun intended).



I finally realized that my work wasn't supposed to look like anyone else's work. I realized that I had a personal way to view things with my camera and I found the courage to express them as I saw them.

I wonder how much time will take me to get to this point... so far I don't feel I am a photographer... just an amateur playing around with cameras and thinking that only with a better ______ (insert lens, camera, film) I will be able to get better images.
In reality what I really need is to understand WHAT I want to take pictures of...



By seeing hundreds of swirly images I have been growing tired of them and I feel I want to go back and re-explore sharpness, or something like that.

By reading a lot about photography and watching a lot of images online made by talented amateurs and pro photographers, I first get inspirations but then I realize that a lot of images are all the same... and the inspiration ends there leaving emptiness...
I am going through phases. Now for instance I think that, in order to improve my creativity, first all I need to do is to perfect my knowledge of basic photo technique and I think LF is the best way to get there (might be a slow process but I am hoping it will make me a better photographer)

thank you again for sharing this interview.

[domenico Foschi]

Thank you for the good read Domenico. It's nice to learn about your perspective on photography (no pun intended).




I wonder how much time will take me to get to this point... so far I don't feel I am a photographer... just an amateur playing around with cameras and thinking that only with a better ______ (insert lens, camera, film) I will be able to get better images.
In reality what I really need is to understand WHAT I want to take pictures of...



B.

This is one of the reason why I posted this interview on this forum other than sheer ego busting and print sales hopes. :)

In my photographic growth I have had to smash my face against a lot of obstacles because of lack of training and mentoring.
I know that its difficult to find your own way and I do believe that artists in general need to know that it's OK to follow their own vision by putting in the right place what has been done before and using it to explore their uniqueness.
If i can contribute even modestly to help some artists to find themselves, I am a more accomplished artist myself.

Especially if he is Italian!!!

[Frank Petronio]

Great to learn more about you and Mr. Cooper too. Congrats.

[Francesco Gallarotti]

I know that its difficult to find your own way and I do believe that artists in general need to know that it's OK to follow their own vision by putting in the right place what has been done before and using it to explore their uniqueness.
If i can contribute even modestly to help some artists to find themselves, I am a more accomplished artist myself.

Especially if he is Italian!!!

:)

Well I am going to ask you again one question from the interview...
When did you realize that you were not just an amateur... that you had talent... how did you understand that you could create art and not just snapshots?

See... this is what bugs me... many people say I take good pictures... fine... thanks... I like to hear that... but I don't see them as good at all... in fact the more I read about real photographers and artists the more I wish I could find a way to raise my level...

You know what I mean?

I am thinking to assign myself projects, but then again I feel like I am just imitating something I have seen already and I am not able to find my own style... Maybe I will never find a style... maybe I am simply not talented enough to create art out of a camera and people are just being nice to me... but still I want to improve....

So for now it's going to be LF and film... this will let me understand better what I am doing, I hope... but if you have any suggestions, I am open to hear them... especially when they come from a guy like me who went to a Liceo Scientifico, like I did, and who has followed a somewhat similar life-path...

I didn't mean to hijack your own thread, sorry. If you think this is not the place for this conversation, feel free to ignore my comment :-)

[cjbroadbent]

Domenico, That was a great interview and you gave some fascinating insights. Thanks.

[domenico Foschi]

Thank you Christopher, or should I say "mille grazie".

[Francesco Gallarotti]

I love the slow approach of large format; it has helped me to develop an aesthetic I couldn’t have developed otherwise. After 20 years of large format you develop a certain confidence in the tools that can make you gain speed in the shooting stage

This pretty much is my hope and the answer to my rambling in my previous post. This is what I hope will teach me a lot more about photography, driving me slowly into the place you are at right now:


[...] For all this time I have been using mainly large format cameras to medium format. I had become a snob toward the small format. I needed a more contemplative approach and that has served me well. With time I realized that I was missing life; I was missing the interaction with the fugitive spark that makes people alive, human.

I spent some time re-reading the interview and browsing through your portfolio...
I absolutely love your delicate approach to photography... everything feels to me almost as if it was a pencil drawing on a rough paper sketch book... There is one image (http://www.dfoschisite.com/portfolios/images/venice/lg/Fish_Market_Venice.jpg) that summarizes this feeling in my heart. The way the texture works its way in the image is absolutely breathtaking... I have been in Venice and I have found myself walking one early morning (around 6am) in a part of Venice that is very much authentic and not touristic... and this image reminds me so much of the dreamy feeling of that morning... you captured the essence of Venice in your portfolio (http://www.dfoschisite.com/html/~venice.htm)... every single one of those few images is just perfect.

[Eric James]

... every single one of those few images is just perfect.

Francesco, your comments are applicable to the images of the interview too - pure bliss. Composition transcended by authenticity, transcended by beauty.

[Francesco Gallarotti]

Francesco, your comments are applicable to the images of the interview too - pure bliss. Composition transcended by authenticity, transcended by beauty.

I wrote my previous comment three times before actually posting it... The reason being that in most of the other online communities I participate into, excessive praising is very common. Go to Flickr, and every decent image is praised as if it was a new photographic masterpiece. Since reading (and sometimes writing) so many of those useless praises I became more conscious about the process of writing a positive comment to someone else image. And I tend to do it only when I see true outstanding qualities that are unusual in some or many ways.

Domenico's work stroke me just as that. Maybe because being both Italians we see things in a similar way. Anyways, yes, his entire portfolio is outstanding. And the images in the article are mostly from his portfolio.

There are though images that I think I still cannot completely comprehend... and for now I won't even try commenting about them or ask questions. I look forward to the day in which I will be - in my path to photography enlightenment - in a place that will make me able to understand better :)

[Nathan Potter]

Francesco, IMHO becoming an artist has little to do with photography. It has to do with yourself and what you see and feel about the world around you. You might put the camera away for a while and go out and look at the world through your own sensibilities. What enchants you and what do you see that is unique? Later, think off and on about how you would convey your thoughts onto film. The process takes a lot of introspection on your part. The photograph is only the mechanical part, assuming you have mastered the equipment and the processing.

It's alarming, but sometimes after a unique vision of an image in the field I don't care if I ever see a print from that scene. The joy came from the seeing and the finding and from tasting that snapshot of life.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Allen in Montreal]

Ahhh...Ravenna!
What a wonderful town!

Thank you for sharing this with us, it was a very interesting read.
i love the electric wire pix!