1. Tell us about your job.  When did you understand you wanted to be a photographer?  What do you like about your job?
I am from Emilia and in 2012 we had an earthquake that affected everyone deeply.  It was there that photography saved me for the first time, helping me manage stress and from there I never stopped.
Today, in this crazy moment of the world, it still gives me the same calming effect.  Shooting makes me feel comfortable.
I like the immediacy of communication and the testimony it gives of time.  It has given a face to history.

2. Your greatest job satisfaction?
To date, being able to support my family doing what I want has never happened to me before having this freedom.

3. I saw your “skin to skin” photos.  Can you tell us about this project?
Photograph a very intense and delicate moment.  How does it unfold and what emotions does it transmit to you?
I photograph family stories, from the delivery room to the altar, in these two extremes I find the maximum pleasure in my work.
I made my first report in the delivery room on February 14, 2019, the most beautiful Valentine’s day in my life.  Unlike weddings, however, the photo shoot in the delivery room is poorly understood, especially by couples who are about to have their first child.
I realized instead that almost always, mothers in their second pregnancy welcome this type of story with great enthusiasm.
I therefore decided, on a promotional basis throughout 2020, to offer the shots of “skin to skin” to the new born of the hospital in my city. At that moment, after the baby is born, the family remains alone in the delivery room for about two hours.  It is a sacred moment and I make discretion one of my fundamental values, so the service lasts just ten minutes at most, but those shots will remain forever etched in their family history.  It is exciting for me, I have two daughters and I believe that each of us should attend the birth to better understand the value of being born.

4. Your favorite photographer?
I can’t tell you less than a dozen, but I can say that at home I hung two photographs on the wall whose authors I feel are fundamental: Eugene Smith and Gianni Berengo Gardin.

5. In your opinion, a memorable shot that you wanted to do?
I would say these two photos that stand out in my studio:
Gardin’s “vaporetto” and Smith’s “walk to paradise garden”

6. Do you have two daughters?  What do you see of them in them?
Yes, I have two, Nina (12 years) and Noa (almost 2), similar and very different from each other.
They are sensitive and stubborn, prone to rice and joy.  I would say that curiosity is the strongest thing that I think I have transmitted, besides appetite …

7. How do you deal with this period of “imprisonment”?  Can you draw any positive messages or lessons for the future?
I believe that this period is an unrepeatable opportunity to deal with yourself, with your present. In some ways, 2012 also struck me, after the earthquakes that shook Emilia and, consequently, all the people of Emilia.
The difference between then and today is that I am now where I want to be, and as far as the near future is uncertain, I know what to do.

8. Your 3 favorite songs?
“Soldier, poet, king” by the Oh, Hellos

9. If I now look around you, which object attracts your attention?
My coffee mug, I am a serial consumer of hot drinks, primarily coffee.

10. The last time you experienced a strong emotion?
The birth of Noa, my daughter .. but also the parts I attended were very strong.

11. Going more on the technician, what tools do you like working with?  Which camera do you use?
I have always used canon, today I have a 5dIV and a 5dIII as a second cover for weddings, with a good fleet of fixed lenses, although I almost always use the 35mm lens.

12. What do you think of social media?
They are part of our life too deeply rooted and it scares me in some ways.  “The algorithm” is the new master of what we see on the screen, to the point that without it it would be difficult to imagine how we would face a period like this.
In any case they are fundamental in my work, I would not be here to write these lines without.

13. In an era where everyone is a bit of a photographer (just by looking a little Instagram you realize the amount of people who can take good pictures), what distinguishes an amateur photographer from a professional?  Do you like or bother you that everyone is taking so many pictures now?
I don’t know, it’s a dog that bites its tail.  Photographs today are “content” and anyone who takes and divulges becomes a “content creator” … being a photographer today is a different thing from the past precisely because it is strictly connected to the diffusion on social networks.  In this sense, I think the professional photographer is the one who maintains himself with photography, but this does not mean that you shoot better.
It is certainly a profession in constant evolution.

14. Photo retouching yes or no?  How much postproduction is there in your work?
To date, post production and photo retouching are an integral and essential part of the workflow.

15. What makes you most angry in life?
The unsaid, the unaddressed, the unresolved.

16. In photography, is technique or the eye and sensations more important to you?  Can you take beautiful photos without technique?
I care that in my photos I pass my way of seeing, to get to this I know that I will never stop studying and experimenting.  If I had the same willpower at school, things would have turned out differently I think.

17. Which book do you recommend?
The entire photography department of any library.  You can find them all, from the basics to the indications on which is your way as a photographer.

18. A place in your heart?
The mountain, the path, I would say … my partner and I are walkers, we struggle to stand still.  As tradition we love to walk the arcades that from the center of Bologna bring to San Luca every first of the year, and every time we need to breathe.  I would say that San Luca is a place that we carry in our hearts.

19. What do you think will be the first thing you do as soon as we can leave the house freely?
I will certainly go to photograph Zoe, the last child photographed on the day they declared quarantine, the first child of this year that I saw born.  I hope you don’t spend too much time, but it will be interesting to perceive it in its growth.

20. Dream in the drawer?
I dream and I am awake, I already have everything I need to be happy.