Traveling for work, Riccardo always has with him his camera in order to be ready to photograph a face, a site, a detail capable of rendering the essence of a place.
Riccardo, tell us about your training as a photographer.
Initially I used to do fashion photography, and it was in that field that I was formed and started working. So we are talking about pictures with publicity and commercial applications. The most personal part of my production, which I entrusted to Cinquerosso Arte, is on the other hand travel photography. Some of the shots on the website, for example, were taken in Marrakech, where I traveled for a shooting. I like taking pictures of places, and especially of people, capturing in an image, their habits, and their way of living, which is different from country to country.
What do you like most about the job as a fashion photographer and that of travel photography?
Of travel photography, as I said, I like the idea of the story of the places told though the people. I love Cartier-Bresson, and he is my inspiration in a way. I shoot landscapes, too, but I believe the human element is always the most interesting. Of my work as a fashion photographer, on the other hand, I like making editorials for magazines. There I can free my creativity: the magazine sets a very general theme, or even gives me complete freedom for the contents, and the team, guided by the stylist, creates a story with a character and a setting.
Among the photographs you shot, is there one you love in particular?
I’d say Il volo, which represents a clochard amongst pigeons flying. I was in Paris for a workshop and I was walking during my lunch break with a colleague, close to the Centre Pompidou. I had a sandwich in my hand. This homeless person was sleeping, and suddenly got up and made a gesture to throw some bread, or something like that. And I started shooting pictures, sandwich in my hand, because I knew that something interesting was about to happen. I like the happy and serene expression of the clochard: I believe I caught a small instant of absolute happiness.
