I'm a baby elephant and my memory is good, if patchy and selective.
Photography
GIOANNI
In 1970 in Venice was held an exposition dedicated to photography. It was an historical event held in six different palaces and me, my wife, an appassionate friend of mine and his wife spent a whole day there. I was really fascinated. Like pictures photos are better seen in the dimensions and print quality the authors choose. I wasn't struck by that experience like St.Paul on the path for Damascus but buried what I saw deep in my memory to simmer for thirty years. For example when I went in America to run the NYCM came back with 23 photos shot in 15 days.
Still
I went on to look at photography exibitions like the famous and infamous
"The perfect moment" by Map*lethorpe
near Florence and more memories where buried in the pot. Certainly those
memories were buried deep 'cause I never bought a serious camera being
deeply insofferent of lead times. Developing, printing, filing and loosing
prints or negatives and all the razmataz films involved was not for me.
I fell from the horse like St.Paul when a client of mine lent me his old
digital camera (Canon PowerShot 360) tragically underdimensioned (0.3
Mp amd 2 Mb card) but a bright new world was opened.
My home page was a new born baby and the first shot was the one I use
for of the ubiquitous 
.
The lid of the pot blew up like a Pandora vase and all the methabolites
I was accumulating in 30 years shot in the brain in a benign ictus from
wich still I've not recovered. (a pity for you).
Now
I have an adequate instrument I like but still don't shot like a machine
gun. I don't want reducing myself in snapping pics like "see what a beautiful picture of me and my friends covering this
splendid panorama and we are all saying cheese" or the
ones I can buy a dime a dozen in a tourists shop.
I opened the 1970 catalogue, only in my memory. As I said is patchy and
can't remember who is the friend I lent it. (nevermind, he's a friend
and I'm glad he enjoys it). But I clearly remember a few mental milestones
Edward
Weston the priest of sharp focus and more than perfect prints. I frequently
suffer of goose pimples and Stendahl syndrome and there is nothing like
seeing real masterpieces hung on museums walls or the rarefact beauty
in Mapplethorpe's or Weston's prints.
But
there where photographers who sought for life like the ones from Magnum
Cartier Bresson, Robert Capa ecc or those that in
40' shot crude flash snaps like
Weegee or freak scenes like Diane
Arbus.
What I
did not like were pin up or cover magazines photos. I'll never be able
to shot "the photo" I dream of but I continue studying and do
not despair.
To explain what I want I quote the words of one of the greatests.
"
The Decisive Moment"
"Manufactured" or staged photography does not concern me. And
if I make a judgement, it can only be on a psychological or sociological
level.
For me, the camera is a sketchbook, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity
and the master of the instant, which questions and decides simultaneously.
In order to "give a meaning" to the world, one has to feel oneself
involved in what he frames through the viewfinder.
This attitude requires concentration, a discipline of mind, sensitivity,
and a sense of geometry.
To take photographs means to recognize both the fact itself and the rigorous
organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting
one's head, one's eye and one's hearth on the same axis.
As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is means of understanding,
which can not be separated from other means of visual expression. It is
a way of shooting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one's
own originality. It is a way of life
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Still have goose
pimples remembering what I saw also on internet to illustrate these
few words
Obviously
the photos are copyrigthed. Go and see the links
so perhaps they'll forgive me .
On a second tought, I went digital, and it's a sin not easily forgiven.
Still seems that I'm an heretic.
->