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A Waiter in via Sardegna
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@ Mediterranean Beach Games 2015 – Italy Beach Soccer Team’s Goalkeeper (and a primer on sport photography, part 2)
2 – Have the media pass working for you Part 1 of this primer dealt with the topic “Getting Your Media Pass”. Now is the time to use it properly. a – Meet the media-manager and participate to the technical briefing (or anyway get the relevant information about the competition) If the competition is big enough, chances are that the organizing committee has appointed a media-manager in charge of handling all the issues related to broadcasting services and photographers. You definitely need to talk to him as early as you can, to get: your numbered “photographer jacket” (often needed to access the competition fields), a leaflet with all the relevant…
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@ Mediterranean Beach Games 2015 – Italian Anthem (and a primer on sport photography, part 1)
Intro Working on assignment is different than loitering around “waiting for the moment”. This is true, in particular, for sport photography where you have to handle multiple issues at a time, most of them not related to the actual shooting activity. While there are a lot of sources to drink from that hint about how to assemble and check the gear, which lens is better suited for the job and so on, a less fancy but nevertheless critical issue to be aware of is how to handle the logistic and administrative stuff. Before the event 1 – Getting your media pass a – Accelerate the shipping of the accreditation form…
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Off Duty
From the back, their posture says almost as much as their uniforms. Four policemen walk away from the viewer, the word Polizia split and partially hidden by their movement. There’s no confrontation here, no heightened drama — instead, the image captures that moment of decompression, when the weight of vigilance begins to lift. The decision to shoot from behind removes the personal identifiers that a front-facing portrait would reveal. We are left with silhouettes of authority in retreat, the curve of a shoulder, the relaxed drop of an arm, the natural slouch of someone whose shift may be ending. In the background, the urban night hums along: signage, faint light,…
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A Smoker
Some portraits are not posed; they happen between moments, in that thin sliver of time when the subject is simply being. This was one of those. The woman — cigarette in hand, wrist adorned with metallic bangles catching stray light — had the stillness of someone lost in thought. The background was unremarkable, and that suited me: no distractions, no narrative clutter, just her profile against a soft blur. The shot was taken in available light, which was far from ideal. The conditions pushed me to raise the ISO more than I’d have liked, and as a result, the image carries a touch more grain than a studio portraitist would…
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Who The Hell Killed the Light Off?
There’s a certain magic to photographing night-time events — the glow of street lamps, the hum of a crowd, the way artificial light sculpts a scene. But it also comes with its share of battles, and this image is a perfect example of working on the edge of what’s technically possible. The scene is rich in story: a vintage race car, its scarlet paint dulled slightly under the sodium and LED mix of city lights; two men in matching white overalls, one bending towards the vehicle’s front as if inspecting or coaxing it to life; a small crowd leaning over barriers, caught in their own observations. The moment feels candid…
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Lotus Tweak
At first glance, it’s a straightforward scene — two men leaning over the open engine bay of a bare-bodied Lotus, spanners in hand, eyes locked on some mechanical nuance that only they understand. But to me, it’s also a portrait of intimacy — not between people, but between man and machine. The bond here is tactile: the smell of fuel, the heat radiating off aluminium, the gentle precision of a carburettor adjustment. The Leica M9 lends itself well to this kind of work. The CCD sensor has that distinctive tonal rendering that keeps the colours honest but rich — the brushed metal gleam of the car body, the deep reds…
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Table Dressing
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Lost
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Nice Drink
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Are you Sure?
There is a delightful dissonance at work in this photograph, taken on Venice’s docks. We expect wedding portraits to be carefully curated affairs — romantic, timeless, perhaps even a little clichéd. Yet here, the scene unfolds against a backdrop of a bright yellow, graffiti-stained container, with stacks of bottled water and the raw brick of a church wall behind it. From a compositional perspective, the frame is well balanced. The groom, positioned to the left, strides toward the bride, who stands slightly off-centre to the right. The eye is drawn naturally from him to her, and then to the small entourage of photographers and onlookers who appear more amused than…
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The Stroller
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Indifference
They might be travelling together, but their body language tells a different story. I spotted them in Venice, sitting mere inches apart, yet continents away in attitude. She looks ahead, arms crossed, eyes shaded, posture closed. He’s buried in his phone call, face half-covered, shoulders turned. The irony of their proximity to water — a place where people typically pause, connect, reflect — only heightens the emotional disconnect. Compositionally, I was drawn to the layered diagonals: the canal’s edge slicing across, the dock projecting out, the visual wall created by their backs. Their separation isn’t just emotional — it’s architectural. Framing them just off-centre, I allowed the background vaporetto and…
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The Porter
There is a peculiar rhythm to Venice in summer — a constant shuffle of feet, a hum of voices in a dozen languages, the clack and roll of suitcase wheels over stone. This image came from within that chaos, taken almost in the middle of the stream. The porter is pushing against the tide, a functional counterpoint to the leisure of the surrounding crowd. His trolley, loaded with a fortress of luggage, dominates the frame, almost spilling out toward the viewer. The sign with his name and “authorized” status lends a touch of officialdom to what is otherwise a raw, physical job. I positioned myself low and close, so the…
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The Violinist
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Mediterranean Games 2009
The cover image distills the Mediterranean Games 2009 into a single, decisive moment. Two judokas are locked in the opening clinch, bodies pressed forward, balance and leverage in a delicate contest. The Italian athlete’s gi dominates the frame—white fabric, bold blue “ITA” lettering, the name Frezza stitched above. Behind, the blurred figure of the opponent fades into a wash of deep blue, the background dissolved into the anonymity of the crowd and banners. It’s an image that works not by showing the entirety of the sport, but by narrowing the lens to the moment of contact. You can almost feel the strain in the forearms, the push of shoulders, the…
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Hi-Tech Temptation
The contrast was immediate and irresistible — two Buddhist monks, their robes a saturated blaze of orange, standing in front of a shop window brimming with the shiny clutter of modern consumerism. The scene unfolded in Venice, a city that thrives on paradoxes, and the colour clash alone could have carried the frame. But the real intrigue came from the posture of the two figures: one more open, almost leaning toward the display, the other turned slightly away, as if holding a polite distance from the pull of it all. Technically, the shot benefits from the light that bounces generously along Venetian streets. It’s a soft daylight, diffused just enough…
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Hey Mister!
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Different Loads
I’ve always been fascinated by how the street can arrange itself into small, unplanned narratives. Here, the frame catches two distinct burdens: a man in the foreground carrying a large, wrapped package clasped tightly in his arms, and another, further back, wheeling a suitcase with the ease of modern travel. Between them, a handful of passers-by slip through the scene, each in their own rhythm. The composition benefits from a strong foreground element — the man’s folded hands over the package create both texture and a sense of intimacy. They also form a visual block that forces the eye to travel diagonally into the depth of the frame. The background…
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At the theater, between two scenes
I took this on instinct. The curtain was down inside, but the real theatre was unfolding on the steps. Not dramatic, not rehearsed — just a handful of people suspended in that odd in-between: not quite arriving, not quite leaving. They scattered themselves across the stairs as if cast by some unseen director. The architecture held them. A brutalist façade, cyan-oxidised and flaking like tired makeup. The symmetry of the stairs did most of the compositional work — I just centred the frame and waited. The banister slices the image vertically, anchoring the eye. One figure leans left, one right, each adjusting the balance. Technically, it’s a colour study wrapped…
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Pensive
This black-and-white image, taken along the riverside steps in Paris, captures the quiet weight of stillness against a backdrop of movement. At the centre of the frame sits a lone figure, their silhouette defined against the lighter tones of the water. They face away from the crowd, turned toward the river’s shifting surface, embodying a pause in a city otherwise in motion. CompositionThe most compelling element of this photograph is its use of leading lines. The sweeping curve of the steps pulls the eye from the lower right of the frame directly toward the seated figure, and then out toward the distant pedestrians. This arc not only structures the scene…
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Skating at Palais de Tokyo
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Underground Security RA(T)P
I took this shot as these three officers from the RATP Sûreté unit passed me in a corridor of the Paris Metro. The framing was pure reflex: centre-weighted, low-angle, fast shutter. I didn’t have time to fine-tune the exposure—the lighting was flat and mixed, with harsh fluorescence above and murky shadows dragging behind. But I didn’t correct much in post either. This is a moment that benefits from its rawness. Their backs tell the whole story. The staggered stride, the swing of a baton, the compressed geometry of the underground corridor—they speak of tension, routine, and latent power. It’s not a confrontational image. The officers aren’t responding to a threat.…
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Home on the Range
There’s a moment—right before the shot breaks—when everything else falls away. This frame captures that exact moment. The quiet before the concussion. The balance between intent and mechanics. Taken in a professional range under full control, it documents not violence, but discipline. Focus. Precision. The brass tells its own story: just-fired casings scattered like punctuation marks on the shooter’s rhythm. The rifle rests steady on a bipod—cold, functional, ready. The shooter’s hand is not tense, but deliberate. His chain bracelet glints faintly in the sterile light, an unexpected human contrast to the black polymer and steel. This isn’t combat. It’s not theatre. It’s a place where performance meets protocol. Where…
