Lens: Voigtlander color-skopar 35mm f2.5
Camera: NEX-7, ISO1600, f2.5, 1/40, raw
And here it is. An editorial. The opening one. The cover of the magazine is dedicated to it (though I didn’t shoot the cover). On a national magazine. On my favorite national magazine. L’Espresso. You can see the opening shot on my facebook page. For the rest, either you buy the magazine (number 39, year 2012) or just wait for the story to eventually get on the magazine web site.
How did I ended up shooting dark portraits and scenarios to visually describe the use that Mafia bosses do of facebook? Well, this really can only be described with the picture of the day. Life is like a pinball machine. You have a number of balls you can play, which you focus on not wasting and keeping in the game as long as possible, you can only try to aim at some targets when you have the chance to hit the balls, but at the end of the day you have no control on the chain reaction than each shot will produce. You may hit your intended target just to be bounced in a deadly zone, or you can horribly miss it just to trigger a fortunate million hits reaction.
Well, I played my ball trying to hit a media-box on the website of the magazine to share my Sony-Alaska job, and ended up receiving an assignment. Apparently they needed dark portraits of shady people in uncanny scenarios. The photo editor of the magazine had visited my website and she must have found what she was looking for, since I eventually got a phone call from her, asking me to do the job.
It’s been a lot of fun. This time I wasn’t wandering around for inspiration, but rather planning the poses, the scenarios, the lights, the mood. I knew which story I wanted to tell and with how many photographs I had to tell it. I needed a boss, I needed a henchman, and I needed a scary house seen from outside. I wanted the boss to be immediately recognizable as such, so I placed it into the Jacuzzi in a Scarface pose, a flute of champagne on one hand, the iPad on the other, and a cigar in his mouth. A girl in the background completes the story of picture of power, money, and perversion.
You are on a roll! This is great news, nationally published and in your fav magazine for the bonus points! Don’t know if that mag is available in Canada, but hopefully I’ll get to the see the pictures at some point. Make sure you keep some time open in your every more busy schedule for celebration!
E
Cheers Erich! I’ll celebrate tonight, all my best friends will be there, we’ll have a good time 🙂
I don’t really know where I am, right now, but I like it!
Hi Luca,
Like your work a lot that goes beyond documenting reality. Also, appreciate your insight on the “NEX”. I have been thinking to buy a “NEX”, which likely the NEX-6 now. Your shared information is very helpful to me.
I am a somewhat weekend/holiday photographer myself that I am trying a maintain a photo blog as well. http://afetzone.blogspot.ca/
Looking forward to see more…
Best,
Andrew
Hi Andrew, thanks for the nice comment 🙂
I’m glad you’re enjoying the project and that you find the info useful. I’m sure you’ll be happy with your NEX camera, whatever model you’ll chose 🙂
Cheers!
I really like this shot – the colours are so rich and it’s hard to tell this was even a photograph at all.
You seem to use the color-skopar 35mm quite a lot; why is this? Size? Weight? Minimal focal distance (better than the 50mm?). The SLR Magic 50mm T0.95 and the Voigtländer 50mm F1.1 are both very expensive lenses, which I cannot likely afford without earning money through some of my photography. I’d like a slightly longer, large aperture prime, but I may have to wait until it’s my time.
As an aside, I went ahead and ordered one… my NEX-7 will be in my hands in just two days. I almost cannot wait! A 365 project is something I’ve wanted to do for years now… and I might just make that extra effort and do one… soon 😉
Hi Martin, thanks! The skopar is my favorite lens principally due to its size, weight, and optical quality. The minimal focus distance is shorter than the 50mm, but yet far from being a macro lens. However, with the trick of detaching the lens from the camera I used it here to focus very closely. The skopar is also a very cheap lens compared with the other Leica M mount lenses!
I’m very happy that a NEX-7 is on your way, I’m sure you’ll make great use of it 🙂