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Photography and the dangers of ethics
Starting from my usual visit at Yanick Delacroix website, yanidel.net, and Eric Kim blog link after link, I’ve stumbled upon a post by Joerg Colberg discussing the always-hot topic of ethics vs law in (street-)photography. The usual way to handle this problem is by expressing it in terms of “freedom-of-expression-vs-personal-privacy” and by raising questions like “would you have shot this picture?”, “how do you feel photographing homelesses, bums and freaks?”, “Is this photo ethical?” and invariably concluding without giving a clear (though non necessary correct) answer. So, for what it worth, here are my two pence. To put it short, the Colberg (proposed) Doctrine says (verbatim quotation) it might be…
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Foto-Grafo admitted to the Persol Reflex Edition contest
This photo has been accepted for the Persol Reflex Edition contest. I usually don’t like to participate in this kind of initiatives, but the appeal of the possibility to win a Leica M-E was too compelling!
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Thirthy years behind…
I took these two shots unbeknownst of the work of Luigi Ghirri and Mimmo Jodice. These photo cannot be at all compared with those from the two masters, nevertheless what amazed me is the similarity of the compositions between what I did and those of Ghirri and Jodice. It seems that I’m into a path already explored since some thirty years or so. Now the challenge is how long will it takes to evolve into a contemporary (and, possibly, original) style.
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When the day is gone
… there are plenty of ways to still make a newspaper useful.
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Forgotten Bike In A Forgotten House
I found the bike in a room whose doors had not been opened in years. Paint flaked from the plaster. Light slipped through a broken pane and laid a clean rectangle across the floor. The bike stood where someone once left it mid-errand, an everyday object promoted by neglect into relic. I built the frame around planes and diagonals. The window sits high and left to keep the eye moving across the shaft of light to the handlebars, then down the front wheel to the scuffed tiles. Floorboards and wall seams act as guides, converging behind the saddle to hold the gaze. I kept a little headroom above the bars…
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Don’t Forget!
It’s the moment between words that makes this picture. You can almost hear the shop owner’s voice, half command, half reminder, as the young man in the doorway glances back. The raised hand, the turned head, the slight lean forward — everything about his body language says, “You’ve got this, but don’t mess it up.” The frame itself is tight, almost conspiratorial. We’re standing just behind another figure — smart jacket, cigarette in hand — as if we’ve stumbled into a private exchange. That foreground figure acts as an anchor and a barrier at the same time: we’re part of the scene, yet removed from it, observing through a filter…
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Dreaming of a Lancia Delta Martini…
… while driving a Nissan.
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The Power of Music
The story is all in the child’s eyes
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Supporter or Photographer?
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Foto-Grafo featured on Yanidel.net
The (temporarily now) Argentina-based street-photographer Yanick Delaforge kindly published a couple of shots from Foto-Grafo, Quis Custodies and The Last Waltz, in his “Sho(r)t Stories” series.
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Seeking Directions
is a complex task, not only on the streets.
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A Kiss In The Shade
I made this photograph late in the afternoon, when the sun was low enough to turn ordinary walls into canvases. Two people leaned in — unaware or unconcerned — and their shadows became the real subject. The kiss itself wasn’t visible, only its echo in light. That absence, the translation of intimacy into silhouette, was what drew me to press the shutter.
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The Bored Bassman
Jazz stages have a way of amplifying not just the music, but the moods of those who inhabit them. This frame, taken mid-performance, says less about the notes being played and more about the space between them. The singer is in her moment, eyes closed, wrapped in the phrasing of a lyric. The bassist, by contrast, rests his chin on his hand — a gesture that could be concentration, fatigue, or simply waiting for his cue. From a compositional point of view, it’s an image split in tone and focus. The spotlighting was harsh, and while it gave the singer’s red dress and skin a luminous presence, it also pushed…
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An inconvenient way to spend time.
Waking up at dawn, layering up like a World Cup slalom contender, waiting your turn at the ski-lift, gliding up to 1,800 metres… and then, instead of carving lines on powder, seeking out the perfect sunny corner to unfold a deckchair and read a magazine. De gustibus, indeed. I took this photograph partly amused, partly curious. The two figures, bundled in ski gear, are frozen in a still life of leisure that feels completely at odds with their surroundings. It’s an unspoken reminder that the mountains aren’t only for the adrenaline-seekers — they’re also for those who see them as a backdrop for a slower kind of pleasure. Technically, the…
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Overexposed?
The scene was candid — two figures, winter jackets zipped to the chin, one holding a small camera at arm’s length, the other patiently posing. The patchwork of snow and rocky ground under a hard midday sun gave me a chance to play with tonal contrast, though it came with its own technical hazards. Snow in bright light loves to trick meters, and the risk here was losing detail in both the highlights and the shadowed areas of the coats. I exposed with the snow in mind, letting the darker parts fall slightly under, trusting that I could lift them later without ruining texture. The clouds, stretched across the frame…
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Rest in peace
after half a day of ski.
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The perfect ski outfit
… which one is best?
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The sentinel…
… hawkeye!
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Bored
… why go to dinner together, just to enjoy a boring night?
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None of my business…
Two local police agents try to block an African guy because of the CD he was supposedly selling. But this is none of our business…
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Enough Is Enough…
The man in the blue windbreaker is not just leaning on a railing — he’s leaning on a lifetime. I caught him mid-pause, his posture tilted forward yet anchored, as if he had been running but something — or perhaps nothing — made him stop. Behind him, others drift along the walkway, anonymous shapes in dark jackets, contrasting with his bright, almost defiant blue. Compositionally, I wanted the railing to serve as a visual guide, leading the viewer’s eye from the man into the horizon, creating a kind of bridge not just in space but in thought. The diagonal sweep of the barrier, with its graffiti and padlocks, speaks of…
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The Scooter
Trying to run faster than its shadow.
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Who’s Carrying Who?
When I spotted the man hauling this enormous red buoy, I didn’t hesitate. The irony was irresistible—a question of balance, effort, absurdity, and metaphor all in one frame. The netted lines clinging to his shoulders mirrored the posture of a beast of burden, and yet the visual punchline lands clearly: who’s really pulling whom? I shot from above, not just for vantage but to strip away all unnecessary background clutter. By doing so, I let the geometry speak. The diagonal created by the rope lines contrasts with the rigid, blocky paving and soft curve of the buoy. It’s a clean visual split, but not sterile. There’s dirt, grit, marks of…
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A videographer…
… or a human sundial?
