Freeze is a project about people. One day I asked to myself, “What do I love about people?” And I answered, “their personal story”. And what things tell me a story? “the details”. The details make us unique.
A wrinkle, a necklace, eye contact, smiles, lipstick, a beard… All this things tell a story. Hence my need to get closer. I want to get close to my subjects, face to face, just me, them and the camera, nothing else.
I wanted no distractions in this project, no messy background only a person framed in black. My external flash does it well!
I never used flash before “Freeze”. But I fell in love early with it. Yes, I want to “come out” – I love to play with flash! When I saw a photo with flash, like photos by Bruce Gilden or the Fullfrontalflash collective for example, I was astonished and I said to myself, I want to do the same, but in my own way!
So I went out in the street, in one hand my Fed2 with tri-x and in the other a little Pentax flash that I could handle easily. Lens’s aperture closed down all the way ( f22-f16 ), focus zone was set at minimum, eyes open and go! Very close!
Some people get scared with flash, but the expressions are priceless. When I developed my first roll, which I shot in Milan (Italy), I think that my expression was the same as the subjects. I want that, I want the people who see my photos to be astonished.
With my flash I can emphasize facial features and pull them out. The result is a frozen photo with no place and no time. In this project “Freeze” I want show, in my way, a person for what he is, unique.
“We are a set of instants, fast as the flash light”
