Portrait Awards 2019

For me photography was always a familiar place. My father owned a photo shop, and at age thirteen I put together my own dark room in the back of the store. Early on, I understood the advantage of carefully controlling the tonal quality with the use of the “zone system”. I continued bearing it in mind, even when using digital mediums. As both a professional photographer and a passionate amateur, my approach to photography has always been to compose the images in the viewfinder rather than in the post-production phase. I can clearly visualize the image before taking the photo, sensibly addressing the composition, lighting and exposure. I feel a close connection with the street photographers of all time, as I also feel attracted by the unexpected soul of mundane everyday moments, and to the power to preserve them in time. Nonetheless, I also enjoy composing images with such graphic organization that everyday objects transform into new visual languages. I consider it a creative choice to pick black and white over color. For me the gray scale frees the image from unnecessary distractions, lets me focus on key elements such as composition and frame, and provides a timeless aura to my pictures. Ultimately, I feel it enhances the aesthetics of the images with its high contrast and rich tonalities. My curiosity and eagerness to capture the world has taken me to many corners of the world, thus my photographic archives are as vast and diverse as the many lands I have visited. As an artist my portfolio depicts my vision, my connection to the world, and the essence of who I truly am.