Text: Ugo Baldassarre – Translation: Giorgio Aprile
Micro 4/3 Italia is a community of passionate and even professional photographers. In these pages we will find out, from time to time, who the most interesting authors of the group are, offering them the opportunity to present themselves and share some of their history and their best images.
Today let’s get to know Alessio Brinati, who has recently exhibited his portraits at our stand in Colorno 2019 photo festival.
[in the article there are female nude images]
Hi, thanks first for dedicating some of your time to us. Tell us a little bit about yourself, in general, who you are, what you do, what you like.
My name is Alessio, 41 years old, I am from Castelli Romani (lit. “Roman Castles”) area; from my memory I always liked to photograph… I was the only one in elementary school to go with my compact “point and shoot” camera, and I talk about the times of film photography! However, there has always been a passion in the family, it is probably genetic!
Then for the first communion she arrived, a Yashica Fx-3 Super 2000 and there was unconditional love.
Today I am an IT consultant, which feeds my passion for technology that often leads me to buy items that I don’t actually need. I am a lover of mountains and the desire to capture those landscapes I love was probably the trigger for my photographic passion. Currently for me photography is a passion but also a relief valve, a ploy through which every now and then I curve out a couple of hours for me far from the thoughts of family, of work, of everyday life.
If you are here, you are obviously a user of the Micro 4/3 system. What is the feature you like best in the system and what initially convinced you to use this technology?
I am a technology enthusiast, so the initial input is always curiosity. I wanted something essential and compact, so I initially oriented myself on an EM10 mk2 with a trio of fixed lenses 14-25-45.
When did you understand that photography was important to you?
It has always been, since childhood; with my Yashica I photographed all the most beautiful and pleasant moments of my childhood up to 30 years old when I went digital; family birthdays, holidays, special anniversaries: I have always associated photography with pleasant memories.
What would you never give up in your outfit?
It is difficult to say, my outfit is never “definitive”, let’s say that an ultrawide and a “standard” must never be missing, otherwise I experience a lot (even too much).
Tell us the most beautiful photo you took and the most important one.
It’s always a difficult question, there are two photos that I like very much but I think it’s more for the fact that I am more attached to these places than to Rome. And here they are:
The first, although it does not seem, was made in the springtime, it had been raining for two days, I was staying nearby; as soon as it stopped raining I took the G80 with the 30 sigma, both bought very recently, and together with my dog I ventured into the woods and came out nearby. It was cold and windy, but I was there, happy, in absolute silence, taking my photos.
The second represents for me a particular place to which I am very attached. I have always tried to photograph it in a certain way, but I had never been able to: bad weather, or some disturbing element, or light that didn’t work or whatever. This time I was staying in a house opposite of it, I saw it from the terrace, but there were the antennas of another house which disturbed… then I noticed a skylight in our apartment and I didn’t think twice, I climbed on the roof and I did the photo from there, with my wife and my daughters begging me to get off.
It is difficult for me as a photo amateur to determine which is the most important photo, I do not have a photo that gave a turn to my “photographic career” but if I really had to, I could indicate this:
That was one of the very first photos taken with the m4/3 system, which was also taken and published as a background for the poster of the burlesque award held in Rome two years ago and for the performance of the performer at the Bagaglino theatre in Rome.
And the most difficult photo …?
Mmmm, probably this:
It was the first time that I had approached the nude and I wasn’t sure how to manage the model; the fear of using terms or movements that could be misunderstood was so great, in fact I think I have never been closer than two meters from her.
And what you haven’t managed to do yet?
…I have many ideas; the problem is having the time and above all the opportunity! I almost always end up organizing myself at the last moment, which often leads me to do nothing or change plans compared to the schedule, because there is not enough time left. Today it is difficult to do something that is not trivial or already seen.
Your photography ranges from landscape to female portrait. Is there a common approach to the two genres or are they in complete antithesis?
I was born and I still define myself as a landscape photographer even though I shoot much less. In the landscape I am more methodical, I plan the exit in advance, I decide where to go and where to position myself, I even study the position of the sun with Google Earth precisely because I don’t like improvising when I have a few minutes of good light.
In the portraits, however, I improvise almost everything, I adapt to the light of the moment and try to “understand” the model; making her feel comfortable and not forcing her into poses that she does not “feel” is the basis for a good portrait. But it takes time and above all you cannot organize it in advance, not surprisingly the best photos are usually the ones taken in the second part of the shooting.
How did I switch from landscapes to portraits? It’s complex… at the base there was my desire to improve family shots, photos to my daughters, something that went beyond the classic rule of thirds, the dominant eye and so on, something that would help me manage the subject and to dominate artificial light (flash), which I have always hated.
Your portraits, which we also recently exhibited at ColornoPhotoLife 2019, are always clearly distinguishable. How is a portrait of Alessio born?
Generally it is me to choose the subject and I do not choose anyone who comes within range; much depends on the expressiveness of the subject; my portraits are almost always narrow shots, at most half-length, having blue eyes or a nice little face is not enough; the subject must hit me. Sometimes the impression in the photo is confirmed and the shooting slips away which is a pleasure, other times I struggle because, although the model is “famous”, expert and whatever else that relationship is not established, the “chemistry” that leads me to make a good portrait can’t be created. Because at the end of that it’s about chemistry; it happens that I am not comfortable with “known” models and I instead take out “astonishing” shots with unknown girls.
I tend not to shoot with “local” models, I prefer to wait for “foreign” models to come around.
I also continue to attend some events when they are organized by photographers that I know and whom I know how their organization is and offer models that I consider interesting; events where however I know that I can set the lights at will and I have my time reserved with the model, certainly not the “crowd in the basement” that are the most popular now [haha, nice definition(author’s note)]
How is your relationship with digital post-production?
It will sound strange, but I am dead awful. I created my basic actions on Photo Shop following guides/ books/ video tutorials and adjust their effects by adjusting opacity; I have my actions downloaded over the years and I use some tools (e.g. Luminar or the Nik Collection) that facilitate some steps; maximum time spent on a photo is 10 minutes, if I go over then I trash it because it means that I was wrong from the shot. If we talk about Black and White even better, I adjust the various channels, adjust the contrast, adjust the black point and white point and stop, finished; I can do clone away some disturbing element, create non-existent parts, create photographs out of nothing or almost not, I am not able to do it. In short, I’m not the guy for a 300MB PSD file, also for the colour correction use of the downloaded and / or bought action; I like photography on the field, I use the time in front of the PC for something else (I’m an inveterate MMORPG player online).
To conclude, Alessio …
At home we all have at least two cameras, one digital and one instant, even my daughters.
Photographing helps them to focus on details, about “beautiful things”, instant photography helps them to discern what is worth photographing and what is not and end up capturing the sleepover with friends, the trip out of town, the aunt or the grandmother who haven’t seen in a long time: photography = good times.
Photographing helps them to create a “culture of beauty”; the beauty we know is subjective but precisely for this reason when we see something we like, we want to immortalize it, share it, preserve it. And if it is true that beauty will save the world then photography will be the main weapon in this “war”, and I am convinced that educating children in this sense will create more attentive people in the future.
And I agree very much with you, Alessio.
To follow Alessio and his works:
Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/alessiobrinati/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Facciamo2Scatti/
Instagram http://instagram.com/alebri78
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