Recently I read a book by Ferdinando Scianna, ” A photographer self portrait ” which recounts of his path in photography, from the very first contact with the camera, to his greatest successes and achievements.
Scianna is a great photographer of our time, a true photography master, and after reading one of his books for the first time, I must say he is a great person too!
He has never been a wedding photographer, but on the other side, he has always watched and photographed people and events, preventing to loose their memory, to preserve them as a vivid memory.
As always, when we discover something we are passionate about, we find aspects and details we recognize ourselves in; reading this book I discovered our vision is somehow similar to some of this great photographer thoughts.
A photographer self portrait: photography as memory
“We start from there. We have to deal with that reality, in and out of us, otherwise we’re not going anywhere”
In ” A photographer self portrait “, Scianna often speaks about his origins, his hometown Bagheria, his Sicily and the special sensitivity of those born and raised in that land.
I believe no one can break away from their origins, whatever they are : our whole education, studies and passions, create the men and the women who we are today. If we are who we are, it’s because something has guided us here, because we have made choices that have lead us where we are. We are largely us, because we keep memory of our experiences, of others and of the places that surround us, of the emotions that have been layered in time in our innermost being.
“The world, life, people fascinate me. I photograph them to try to know them. To keep track of them. For me, photography is narrative and memory ”
We practice wedding photography because we love to capture such important moments, we love to know people and share with them a very special day. For us it is an honor to participate in the joy of the couple, together with their relatives and friends; we are aware that these moments should be frozen in time, photographed and remembered forever.
The importance of a printed book
A constant throughout in the photographic journey of Ferdinando Scianna, is the need to create books with his images. He is a fashion photographer, a photo reporter, a travel photographer; he has photographed many great people of our time, who he has been lucky enough to call friends, who accompanied him in his growth, who shared thoughts and words with him (Leonardo Sciascia, Henry Cartier-Bresson, Cesare Brandi, Lamberto Vitali just to name a few).
After every photography service, he feels the need to collect those pictures, to create a book with them, he personally care about, both in the layout and graphics. And in this we feel related to Scianna, firmly believing in the importance of printed images. We believe in the taste to open a book and to leaf through its pages, in looking at printed pictures, letting them to tell you something, letting them to convey an emotion.
And this is what we always share with any bride or groom, photographs are made to be printed, to remember important moments, without letting them go away.
Daniela Demichele
