FotoComputer

Interview for FotoComputer, Italian magazine about digital photography, summer 2004.

How did you begin to approach photography?
I've realized I need to express the ideas I have in my mind. And I wanted to leave them after me for next generations.

What is photography for you? What does it mean?
The photography for me is a way to let people feel body shape emotions and beauty. Everyone perceives it his own way. One photo may look different because tastes differ and constantly change.

Which kind of research or themes are in you pics?
Since I've been in photography my favorite styles are landscape and nudes. They both attract me equally. Their mix reflected in photos you can see on my website.

Which kind of cameras and gears you had in your story and now?
I've started with Nikon - F60 but after some time it satisfied me no more. I faced the choice: either to get better 35mm camera or to move on a medium format. I've decided on a medium format. I've always been attracted by its top range texture photography features.Among all the cameras I've picked Hasselblad. The reasons were its poetic vision, excellent optic and reliability. Now I'm so in love with square aspect ratio that I hardly can think rectangular one.I still like twin-lens reflex Rolleiflex very much for its compact size and fine optics. And complication of lenses change affects positively because keeps photographer concentrated on an object, not optic.

What is your relationship with digital? How did you discover it, how and when do you use it?
An important condition for me was the opportunity to use digital back in future. Hasselblad block design has great advantage of excellent Pentax cameras. Now I scan photos with Nikon 8000 ED. The best way to get high-quality photos for me is film scanning and making prints.Though in the future I'd like to return to the traditional way of the image creation and to try different original methods such as cyanotype etc.

What is for you pros and cons of digital compared with traditional?
The greatest advantage of digital is speed and opportunity to make correction while shooting. But for my photography style speed is not so important. The process is too creative. While session lasts new unexpected decision come. I like to have enough time to find something new.Needless to say big digital formats are not available yet. Or it so is expensive that you can buy thousand films.Besides many digital photographers use processing methods to make a digital photo look like analog. For example add a grain.

How and when do you use Photoshop?
I use Photoshop for prepress, to remove film defects, dust and scratches. Very rarely I use filters and play with layers.