paolo savonuzzi's photostream  

Bio (short version):
It all started when I was 8 or 9...
(but I’m about three, in the picture above ;-)





Also... give FlickRiver a try (black backgroud and no page breaks) ;-)

Please, please, please, please... don't use a glittering/sparkling/double-sheet sized group's logos to express your appreciation: a single word of yours is worth thousands of those!!!


*All my pictures* are *Copyrighted* and *All Rights Reserved*
If, for whatever purpose, you wish to use any of them, please: *ask my written permission first!*











And now... the long version:
I am not a photographer!
(forgive me, merkley???, for stealing your words ;-)

Let me say it again: I am not a photographer!
I mean... I stopped being one, many years ago, the day I realized that the pictures I had to take for living had nothing (or very little) to do with those I love to take. Sure: I was young and idealist and 25 years later... still I am!! (*both*! ;-)

The light. Just the light (pretty obvious, isn't it?). So, better: *that* light. Subject may play a role, sometimes, but... the light is what really moves me to take a picture.
Unfortunately... natural light is constantly changing and most of the times (I am "quite" lazy and slow ;-) the picture I take is just... "Too late, dude!"
Anyway... I don't mind: I got you in my eyes, and you, my beloved light of that very instant, know I did!

A friend of mine, a painter, once told me that I'm always staring too high or too low. I answered that it's not my fault if beauty is desperately trying to fly away or has already fallen, and smashed, on the ground. (btw... that was also the minute I realized how is it that he picks-up so many girls but he paints just very, very few canvases ;-)

A picture, to me, just needs the time to be taken: let's say... 5 to 10 seconds? 20? 30 sometimes? But once the shutter release has been pressed, it's over: I won't spend any more time on it (please: don't tell me about photoshop or, aaarrrgghhh, hdr and such: it's not for me!)
This means... that I don't even crop my takes. Framing was already good on the lcd (viewfinder? you mean... that ridiculous, useless, thing some compact camera still has? are you serious, dude? =:-/) or it was not: end of the story!

I'm, astrologically, a virgo but I need and search and passionately love all that's imperfect and/or unfinished (even in my life... I never finish what I start ;-) and/or weared off, neglected, abandoned, dismissed, broken, *poor*. I just don't feel anything at all for what's new, shiny, glossy, finished, polished, still shrink-wrapped and/or... "rich"! Do you get it, now, why I stopped being a photographer? ;-)
There's a marvellous song, "Vivo" by Lenine, that "explains" all this.

I don't care a damn s##t 'bout tech-specs and such. All I ask from the camera I use is:
a) confortably fitting in my (jeans) front pocket (as I told you, I'm lazy: I spend a lot of time sitting somewhere -in front of the sea, in a cocktail bar, on my, or someone else's, sofa...- *and* I am a male, so... ;-)
b) having the fewer possible buttons: shutter release and zoom lever are, in most situations, more than enough. Oh... yes, you're right: an on/off switch comes handy too;
c) if you really believe there must be more than just the three above... please, dear camera manufacturer: locate all that, to me, pretty useless stuff as faraway as possible from where my palm rests!!!
d) the larger possible lcd (but keep in mind point a) and the widest possible wide-angle;
e) megapixels? Anything above 6 or 7 is, to me, a pure waste (but *sadly*, these days, if you buy a camera, the minimum option for a good compact is 10!). To all those who believe megapixels have something to do with image (technical) quality... ok, ok... I won't be rude! ;-)
f) ... if anything else comes to my mind, I'll add it here.

I have a "pro" account but... I won't upload any original size image: 1024px is more than enough (even on that 30" display you proudly own) to look at a picture and... pixel-peeping, no matter what the subject is, is the only form of *true pornography* I'm aware of.

Once more: I am not a photographer, so... I don't know where all this leads to, if anywhere, and I don't pretend my pictures to be anything else than just one of the (not so many ;-) "things" I started in my life and that I will never "finish".
For sure, taking pictures for the pleasure of it, is the oldest *habit/vice* I still have: it all started when I was 8 or 9, and now I am... :-P


love you all! :-*


Oh, wait a minute... my favorite photographers? Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Man Ray and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Ok, ok: those are also your grandpa's favorites. Let me see... if I say David Lachapelle, Andres Serrano (his "The Morgue" series is my absolute *the best ever*) and Erwin Olaf's "Fashion Victims" series, does this sound somewhat more contemporary, to you? But, dude, let me tell ya: Art has nothing to do with time!



... beg your pardon? No: *obviously* english is not my mother language! I'm italian (but I believe nationalities are mere accidents), grown between Rome and Paris, parked for too many years, now, in Milano and... seriously wishing/planning to move to São Paulo (or, dreaming, Rio :-)