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Why Writing About Photography Matters (or: The Importance of Re-inventing the Wheel)
This is the second of my series of short essays on photography. The title might sounds like a pre-emptive justification for clogging the Internet with yet another personal babbling about what photography is supposed to be, how photos should be taken, and so on. Actually, indeed, if one changes the names accordingly in T.S. Eliot’s quote (Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them. There is no third) it become clear that there is little left to say about photography (with the exception of technical reports on cameras and lenses’ arcane features or performance essentially part of the industry marketing spins.) So, where is the point in keeping on writing…
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After the Rain
In the early days of April a few days of heavy rain were all that lasted to make the river Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy, rise up to the limit of its banks. The raise was not significant, just enough to make the water quietly flow on the adjacent land. Still it caused problem and inconvenience for the boats that were small enough to be lift or submerged by the water. I am no expert in fluid or civil engineering nor do I hold extreme views on environmental preservation. Still, I can’t stop thinking about the possible correlation between a poor set of choices such as reducing the…
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Photography Does Not Exist (Until the Eye Makes It)
Foreword This post is the first of a series meant to organise in a logical and structured corpus the ideas collected in this blog throughout years of taking photos in various environments. Introduction A preliminary misunderstanding that should be addressed immediately is that a photography does not exist per se. The photograph begins only when the eye intervenes—when it selects, isolates, and organises a continuous visual field indifferent, in itself, to interpretation. This means that an image is not discovered but constructed, and this construction may even fail, as when a narrative is imposed that later proves to be incorrect. From the outset, therefore, photography must be understood as an…
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MARTian Stairs
The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto —MART, in short— is a place that definitely worth a visit, should you be traveling across the Trentino-Alto Adige region of Italy. Its main facility, an architectural masterpiece in itself, is located in Rovereto, a small town about half an hour (by car) from Trento. Unlike many small, old Italian towns, which often only have one main attraction, such as a monument, castle or nobleman’s palace, Rovereto is different. The town itself is an attraction, as it was the place that Fortunato Depero — one of the giants of ‘Second Futurism’ — made its centre of gravity, by opening…
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A Knitting Shop in Rovereto
During a casual walk in Rovereto, a lovely town in the Trento province, I stumbled upon a knitting shop. The display was full of bags and other items for sale, only, it was not a just a shop, but an actual factory where a the craftman was working on his weaving loom. In an age where mass production is the norm, luxury is often equated with displaying a logo rather than enjoying a product’s quality, it is almost hypnotic to witness the transformation of raw materials into useful and attractive items through human ingenuity. So, after spending a few minutes observing how the individual threads were being woven into a…
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The Sorcerer
This is a photo taken from the reportage of an actors’ collective’s ‘opera prima’. This time, the venue was a smaller theatre than those I usually work in. This meant there was less room for movement and only a few limited angles from which to take the shots. As a result, I mainly framed shots from below stage level, with very little freedom to move laterally. This forced me to rely almost entirely on timing rather than geometry. I therefore tried to draw the viewer into an uneasy proximity with the figure. This enabled me to focus on capturing expressions to reveal the character’s psychology.
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Breaking Through
This is one of the photos I took while courtside at a women’s handball match between the Italian and Bosnian national teams. I was there as part of the sports photography seminar I run at the university where I also teach sports law. This is why I had to produce teaching materials using a number of pieces of equipment and techniques, ranging from prefocusing with full manual lenses to fast target acquisition and single shot.
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Professional Courtesy
Chasing news lies at the core of any journalist’s work. The professionals who walk the streets instead of enjoying the comfortable seats on talk shows, discussing ‘life, the universe and everything’ (cit. Douglas Adams), are like sharks with a sense of blood. They can smell news from a distance or are part of an ‘intelligence’ network that tells them what and where. Indeed, photojournalists experience a particular challenge: reclaiming a vantage point from which to take the shot. This necessity often ends up in being ‘assertive’ when entering a scene or ‘elbowing’ those nearby to make room. Sometimes, though, there is also a show of professional courtesy, like in this photo…
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Misfocused Photo’s Quick Fix with ChatGPT and Nano Banana
When on an assigment I often take with me a second camera with a vintage lens. This is a way to test old glasses along modern ones, without risking failure. Every now and then, therefore, I switch from the work gear to the personal one to give it a try. Sometimes I get good results, some other times I don’t, like in this shot taken during the 2026 Italian Skating Championship. As it is apparent, I misfocused the skater trying to get up, so the photo turned out as an egregious miss. As they say, however, I exploited the mistake to turn a problem into an opportunity. So I decided to…
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A Composition’s Dilemma in Black and White
This photo, taken in the centre of Padua, shows a composition’s dilemma. The idea was to explore the usual technique of ‘framing’ a subject within an architectural structure to make it resemble a painting. Actually, though, the main subject, the biker and his vehicle, is more of a disturbance than something worth including in the picture. He runs from right to left, an unnatural direction. Indeed, since we are accustomed to look from left to right and not vice versa, the bikes seems to go outside the frame rather than into it. Furthermore, I should have waited for the subject to be right in the centre of the image. Had…
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Carl Zeiss Ultron 50/1,8 and Pentax K1 – An Empirical Field Test
Across this set, the Ultron performs as expected: good microcontrast and local separation, reasonably crisp edge definition where focus is placed, and a generally “clean” drawing that still keeps tonal roundness in mid-tones.
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Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar 85/4 and Nikon Z5 – An Empirical Field Test
This empirical field test of a fairly well-preserved CZJ Triotar 85/4 lens confirms its well-known performance, although a final judgement needs to wait the lens to be serviced by master Adriano Lolli in order to clean veiled glasses. At F4, central sharpness is moderate yet usable, with a lack of microcontrast. By contrast, the corners are softer. Flare resistance is suboptimal by modern standards, while colour rendition is accurate enough, although robust tweaks are needed in post-production. This photo of the Leica store display in Via dei Due Macelli, Rome, is a flare torture test. The bright, emissive Leica sign against a dark background, plus additional reflections and obstructions, creates…
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Behind the Quirinale: Order After Dark
I took this photo behind the Quirinale Palace, the official residence of the President of the Republic of Italy while one night I was taking a casual walk along Via XX Settembre, heading towards Piazza Navona, passing through Quirinale Hill, Montecitorio (the Parliament building) and then the Senate. Instead of using the main streets, I often like to venture off the beaten track. In this case, there is nothing actually ‘hidden’ or ‘mysterious’ about what can be seen. This is why nobody thinks of cutting through these streets and venturing into these small alleys. However, to the eyes of a photographer, the lack of crowds offers many opportunities. In this…
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Pentacon 50/1.8 and Nikon Z5 – An Empirical Field Test
This field-test is, as the others I have published here, absolutely subjective, empirical and lacking any scientific basis. Since I couldn’t find anything interesting to photograph I decided to take pictures more focused on showing the lens features rather than creative or interesting subjects.This is why each photo was taken wide open and at F8. Moreover, to make a comparison possible, I also shot some of the mannequins featured in the Zeiss Biogon and Minolta 35mm lenses posts. Finally, as far as post-production is concerned, I used the RGB curves to set the black and grey tones, and tweaked micro-contrast.
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Zeiss ZM Biogon 35/2 and Nikon Z5. An Empirical Field Test
This is an empirical field test of the Zeiss ZM T* 35/2 Biogon lens mounted on a Nikon Z5. As with all my technical tests, this one doesn’t deal with MTF, coma, fall-offs, etc., as I’d rather focus — pun intended — on the results.
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Minolta MC W Rokkor-HG 35/2.8 and Nikon Z5 – An Empirical Field-Test
This is another episode featuring a Nikon Z camera and a vintage lens. This time, I’m using the Minolta MC Rokkor-HG 35/2.8, which I recently took out of the cupboard where I keep my old manual lenses. The following shots have all been taken wide open, in no particular order and are intended to demonstrate how the lens performs in different conditions. The Z5 was instructed to use a flat picture profile and the photos were post-processed to the final results should not be considered as a true ‘rough’ example of the lens’ character.
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Leitz Summicron 50/2 and Nikon Z5 – An empirical field test
A casual stroll around the Trevi Fountain gave me the chance to experiment with an unusual combination: an old Summicron 50/2 and a relatively new Nikon Z5. The opportunity materialised in a photo of one of the crowd-control team members regulating the overwhelming flow of tourists and ensuring that none of them were engaging in vandalism or pranks. In short, I am very pleased with the results. I owned a Leica M9 (which I happily sold) for a few years , and I can’t actually say that I miss it. My only regret was that I could only use my lenses on APS-C mirrorless cameras, such as Fujis. I knew…
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Knowledge in the Atelier (or: The First Shot of 2026)
This is my first attempt at taking a photo in 2026. I took it late one afternoon in my hometown, where I’m staying for a few days. My aim was to continue experimenting with the Nikon Z5 and various manual lenses. This time, I used the Nikkor 35 AF-D F2 — an old lens that is still very capable. Technically, the AF-D has autofocus. However, since I am using a ‘dumb’ adapter, I can only use the lens manually.
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Labour Spilling Into Transit Time
The underground systems in Tokyo, where this photo was taken during rush hours, offer countless opportunities to take interesting photos. It’s no surprise that coaches and platforms are an irresistible temptation especially for foreign photographers. Like every other first-time visitor, years ago I indulged in taking a few pictures in this environment, which, as often happens with photos taken by non-locals, were pretty similar in concept and composition to countless others. This is why I slowed down and tried to make sense of a photo before taking it (not only in Japanese underground). Sometimes, indeed, impromptu shooting works, but you have to be in a state of grace to actually…
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Portraits From Nagoro, the Scarecrows’ Village
In the heart of Iya Valley, in Tokushima Prefeture, lies Nagoro, the Scarecrow Village. Half a ghost-town, half a still inhabited place, Nagoro’s main population is composed by about 300 scarecrows spread all around the village.
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Three-Card Monte in Rome
Every now and then, Three-Card Monte scammers appear in unexpected places such as the narrow cobblestone streets between the Parliament and the Pantheon, in the centre of Rome. This was a textbook execution. The game was fast-paced. Hooks pretended to be casual passers-by and traded 50-euro banknotes as if they were Monopoly money, hoping to lure victims into bidding. A muscle was monitoring the scene, ready to intervene at the first sign of trouble. I tried posing as a casual observer, but there was a high risk of being spotted and confronted by the unfriendly lad at my left, so I was unable to set up a properly composed shot…
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Bad Luck at Heian Jingu Shrine
As it is customary in Japanese Shinto shrines, also the Heian Jingu in Kyoto has an area where bad luck is left hanging in the open. 御御籤 —o-mikuji—are small strips of paper that people can choose at random to find out their fortune. As every tourist is told, the general rule is that you should keep the good omens and leave the bad ones hanging on a pine tree or a scaffold. The o-mikuji can be taken for free, however it is also customary to leave a 100-yen coin in return. In fact, this is one way in which shrines are able to sustain themselves, given that there is no…
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Ceci N’Est Pas Une Junior (or, Cognitive Dissonance – Part Two)
I took this photo last November while exploring a less touristy area of Tokyo: Ikebukuro. I went there hoping to see a limited edition Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, which was supposed to be on display at an official Alfa Romeo dealership. Unfortunately, the Quadrifoglio wasn’t there and the dealer was closed, too. So, the only option left to save the day was to take pictures of whatever could be seen through the windows. Peeping inside, though, I didn’t expect to find anything interesting in a car dealership, but I was wrong.
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Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 135/4 – A Demanding Use Case
For shooting Rossini’s The Barber of Seville at Teatro Marrucino, I took a Carl Zeiss Jena 135/4 lens as a backup for long shots. Master Adriano Lolli replaced the original Contax mount with a Fuji X mount, saving me from the inconvenience of using an adapter, thus extending the lens up to around 200mm because of the crop factor.
