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Thinking

In this section we publish articles about “Thinking and Photography”. Visual Culture, philosophy and photography, other photographers. Out content is in English and in Italian so don’t forget, if you’re familiar with, to check out our italian articles.

mFT: worth a (serious) look – The Olympus EM1 mk II experience

November 28, 2017

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I’ve a subtle attraction for small cameras with great image quality: for me the best camera is the one I have with me most of the time. Having used a great deal of gear over the years, starting from Canon SLR, up to my beloved medium format rig, today, for most of my photographs all I needed was this magic trio (in equivalent focal length): 28mm: Ricoh GR (one of the best camera ever made, great usability, good IQ, APSC) 35mm: Sony RX1R II (compact, fantastic IQ, good AF and a […]

Ocoloy: the show

November 11, 2015

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OCOLOY: the genesis and the results… So here is what we did: I brought into Sikanie the idea of a One Camera, One Lens, One Year project back in January this year. Not too much original, indeed, it’s a typical personal project to get your mind active and committed towards photography. My direct inspiration was Mike Johnston proposal. Our declination was: use one single camera, one single lens, shoot 2 rolls of “film” or digital exposures per week (circa 300 shots in a month) and print just 8. BUT then, and […]

Is this art? Or is this self-indulgence?

February 13, 2015

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Strictly linked to my previous article, and to complete my response to Colberg “On Trends”, I’d like to add some further considerations. First, the philosophical notion of being an “artist” in our post-modern world. This notion is laden with heavy romantic over-tones about struggle, being true to oneself, overcoming the psychological and economic difficulties of surviving in a world which seems to ignore the beauty of truth and those who search for it. Frankly speaking, and I don’t want to offend anyone, but there’s a lot of bullshit in those […]

On Trends

February 12, 2015

On Trends

In his article On Trends, Jörg Colberg addresses, I believe, a common misunderstanding of what a trend is, that is, why trends exist and how we should use them. In his critique of “following trends”, which he rightly criticizes on a general premise that “following” a trend may bring instant recognition but, not necessarily, deeper meaning, he overlooks a more profound meaning for the phenomena that we call “trends”. What, just exactly, is a trend? It seems that in Colberg’s understanding, it is a sort of flash-in-the-pan, a quick idea […]

The Alternative Workflow: from Lightroom to Photo Mechanic and Iridient Developer

October 11, 2013

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Adobe Lightroom is great. Gives you a lot of possibilities, manages your library, develops your RAWs. It’s a great piece of software. Now, up to December 31st, you can have it with Photoshop for 10 USD a month if you, like me, have a licensed version of a Photoshop >CS3. So it’s a no brainer kind of buy. BUT. But if you’re looking for the best image quality out of your RAW then, well, there is something more. Previous tests on Iridient Developer (version 2.3 just released) actually confirm that, especially […]

Camera Image Quality: why DPReview may be sometimes wrong

July 1, 2013

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Just between us: all photographers are crazy for cameras and lenses performances. Every time a new camera hit the market flocks of people flow on the Internet looking for files, pixel-peeping at 200% etc, producing tons of bytes on specialized forums. Even those who normally say they don’t care about gear at the end use some piece of equipment and had, maybe even only once in their lives, an interest for image producing tools and for the maximum quality they can reach using them. DPReview paved the way for “scientific” […]

Edward Rozzo interview with PuntoDiSvista

May 13, 2013

Edward Rozzo for Punto di Svista

In an interview with www.puntodisvista.net Edward Rozzo speaks frankly about the self-centered and individualistic nature of Italian culture. A snippet from the interview: I find that Italian students instinctively have a rigid habit. The system in which they are trapped since birth has too many filters. They are very good to discuss classical themes, but when you move on today and you ask them what they think, they remain mute. On the other hand I wonder: how do you train people if in the newspapers we see a uniform and […]

1 Second or 1/125 of Life?

February 11, 2013

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In this interesting video, recordered @ TED, a 31 years old guy, named Cesar Kuriyama, speaks about is project “One second every day”. He decided to record, form a personal perspective (read: what he actually sees), 1 second of his life every day, including not just fancy and nice things he did but also bad moments. The result, that is embedded in the TED speach, is somehow confusing but also interesting. A timeline of somebody else, put together in a sequence, including audio, is something “useful” for the author himself […]

Gente di Fotografia

January 25, 2013

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Today I got on my physical mailbox two nice gifs. The annual collection of the magazine “Gente di Fotografia” and the book Medic, by Jennifer B Hudson, edited by Photolucida. Now you may probably ask yourself the relationship, beside the fact that they arrived together, between some magazines and a book. There is, infact, a relationship. Not only because they’re both publications (phyisical paperworks) on photography. But simply because Gente di Fotografia is NOT a magazine: it’s a photography book published every three months. The selection of authors and content […]

Visual Foundation Workshop in Sicily: 22-25Aug 2013

December 19, 2012

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Other date for this workshop: June 2013 With the simplification of photographic equipment, becoming a photographer has become more complex. Finding artistic or professional expression through photography has become a confusing adventure. Cameras and processes have become homogenized. Everyone is taking the same photograph. In focus, well exposed and well framed images are within the reach of anyone with a camera. It is more and more difficult to emerge, to have a vision, to have an identity. With over twenty years of teaching experience, we have created a new foundation […]

Visual Foundation Workshop in Sicily: 27- 30 June 2013

December 19, 2012

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Other date for this workshop: August 2013 With the simplification of photographic equipment, becoming a photographer has become more complex. Finding artistic or professional expression through photography has become a confusing adventure. Cameras and processes have become homogenized. Everyone is taking the same photograph. In focus, well exposed and well framed images are within the reach of anyone with a camera. It is more and more difficult to emerge, to have a vision, to have an identity. With over twenty years of teaching experience, we have created a new foundation […]

Photo travel in Marrakech – 1-5 April 2013

October 10, 2012

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This five-day workshop will be conducted in Marrakesh, Morocco. Known in the world also thanks to the homonym movie, the city is shaped by its colonial history, economical & business growth and especially by the diversity of inhabitants.
This workshop focuses on a critical documentary-like approach of photography. The participant photographer will be able to identify social issues of existing subjects and have a window on a social reality.

Self Narrative

July 27, 2012

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I read, with my usual enjoyment, one of Jorge Colberg’s latest articles entitled “An Addendum: Welcome to the faith-based community!”. What struck me about this article was Colberg’s distinction about people wanting to believe in the proposed reality of a photograph, such as family portraits or individual ones, as an acceptance of the better me or better us we see in the photograph as opposed to the more flawed one we see every day in the mirror.

Photography after Photography: One theory doesn’t fit all…

July 24, 2012

Photography after Photography: One theory doesn't fit all...

Wow, I wish I had more time to write because it seems that so many people are writing instantly about whatever is said on the web. Amazing. Well, I saw that Joerg immediately wrote another piece after I published my article the other morning on our blog, The Visual Experience. I certainly don’t want to be the person to slow down the discussion nor mislead it into any dead-ends, so I’ll try and be forward moving, as we all wish to be. I’m sorry if Colberg felt that I hadn’t […]

Photography after Photography: Web talent?

July 23, 2012

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It’s difficult to write clearly about photography because you have to be specific to be clear, and that takes far too much space for most readers. Also, writing clearly requires an enormous amount of synthesis in thought which isn’t always at hand. But I’d like to enter into another of Colberg’s questions (he shifted the dialogue on the question of “trusting” photographic images by giving the word a different meaning, but there’s no point in either of us wasting time on semantics.) I want to talk about the change in […]

Photography after Photography: a good question, Joerg

July 12, 2012

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After having read with interest Joerg Colberg’s stimulating article about the conservatism we see in most contemporary photography and the trend for smart phone users to imitate old methods and effects with the click of a finger, I’d like to add a couple of reflections which I feel are inherent to understanding the first part of the question, linked to the conservatism in contemporary fine art photography, not only to explore Colberg’s stimulating point of view but also as an open analysis of what is happening in photography and the […]

Looking at a woman: reflections on the meaning of photographs

June 14, 2012

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With the passing of years, changing trends in image-making and cameras have democratized the photographic process which has, once again, altered the understanding of the photographic image and its historical relevance. From description to narration, from documentation to speculation, the photographic image has held our attention since we were born and despite the demise of much of the photographic profession we are immersed in more photography today than ever before.

Instagram, Facebook and Photography

April 23, 2012

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I’ve been following over 50 people daily on Instagram for a couple of months and I’ve made some rewarding friendships as well as seen some wonderful and serious photography. My recent friend @meanwhile, an American living and working in Tajikistan, had one of his Instagram photos published on the CNN website introducing the announcement of Facebook’s recent acquisition of Instagram, the most popular photo portal for serious as well as not so serious photographers, or should I say iPhone Photographers, or should I simply say Instagram photographers on Smart Phones […]

Do aesthetics count?

April 23, 2012

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Here’s a tough question, but it came to mind as I was listening today to Benjamin Dickinson’s interview on The New York Times video channel. Dickinson was discussing his first movie “First Winter” , shown this year at the Tribeca Film Festival, and he said, “you know, I think aesthetics have values inherent in them…”, which struck a chord because aesthetics is a very slippery subject which is often confused with taste or style or beauty. All four having to do with photography and film I thought it would be […]

Is a photographer not a photographer?

April 21, 2012

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With the changing times and the constant shifting of photographic techniques, it’s getting more and more difficult to define who is a photographer and who isn’t. It used to be that photographers used cameras. Most photographers still do, but Smart Phones are getting to be a big influence in image-making both on the popular level (like “snapshots” used to be) and on a more involved level (like Gary Winnogrand “snapshots” used to be). But then there are those who don’t even use a camera, or a phone, or a shoe-box […]

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