Featured Street Photographer of the Week: Matteo Tessarow

How did you get into street photography?
I have always observed that in touristic areas, many people are used to shooting monuments in a very ordinary way, so I decided to photograph them using reflections from a puddle or a mirror. That helps me to make the image more unique .

Also, as a street photographer, I love shooting dogs and children, they express purity and this makes the picture emotionally more important.

Why do you shoot urban scenes more than people?

Street photography is like a kaleidoscope of different realities where the purpose of a photographer is to immortalize the moments that otherwise could not be documented. In this “aquarium” of different elements, the artist’s game is mediated by his sensitivity that makes a moment still. In this way, “you put on the same line your mind, eyes and heart.” -Henri Cartier-Bresson

Where is your favorite place to shoot?

My favorite city to shoot is New York. Visiting New York, having the chance to use my camera makes me excited like a child when he goes to a chocolate factory.

I also love Venice. Sometimes I get there and I listen to classical music in a boat, imagining how many artists got inspired in history by those canals.

Do you have a favorite photographer who inspires you?

Elliott Erwitt is the artist who mostly inspires me, but I also love Henri Cartier-Bresson and Vivian Maier.

I think visual art often is complementary to the art of music as an organization and composition in space and time. Listening great composers’ music by Ennio Morricone and Henry Mancini helps me a lot to get more ideas for compositions.

Behind every object there’s someone who drawn it. And behind every composition there’s someone who imagined and realized it.

Do you think street photography will be relevant in 50 years?

Today’s pictures in a few decades will be considered pictures of the past. In street photography, you can often see fashion items, objects, cars, road signs and these elements slowly but constantly change in time. In this perspective sometimes an image matures like the wine, becoming more interesting and charming.

Visit Matteo’s Flickr photostream to see more of this imaginative photographer’s work.