– How and when did you become interested in photography?
I think I was 20 years old. I found an old Kodak camera at my grandma’s House, preserved between books and objects of the seventies. I asked permission to use it and so i started shooting just for fun. Then, some time later, I bought the book by Robert Frank’s The Americans, especially to read the foreword by Jack Kerouac, of which I am a big fan. It was then that the game became a passion for street photography and black and white.
– Is there any artist/photographer who inspired your art?
There are many photographers that i appreciate and that somehow influence my work. Of course the great masters such as Cartier Bresson, Erwitt, Doisneau, Giacomelli, Davidson, Stock, Scianna. Nowadays I follow with particular attention Daido Moriyama, Michael Ackerman, Morten Andersen and Trent Parke.
– Why do you work in black and white rather than colour?
Most of the masterpieces created by the great masters of photography is in black and white. Perhaps for this reason, i developed the idea that true photography is black and white. In fact, I think it’s a matter of feelings. In black and white I perceive a more powerful emotional charge that color. It’s an instinct: black and white attracts me immediately, unlike color.
– How much preparation do you put into taking a photograph/series of photographs?
I love photography and I love to travel. My shots come in the streets that I discover while traveling. These shots are children of time and context. I don’t like planning. I prefer to focus on single shots, rather than on wide-ranging projects. In my view, single shots are those which penetrate more forcefully in the collective imagination and stay longer in memory. As the songs.
– Where is your photography going? What projects would you like to accomplish?
Like the previous question, I’m above all focused on single shots rather than on wide-ranging projects. My goal is to collect the most important shots and, in a few years, make a corpus of images that can better represent the essence of my photography.
Website: www.rieristyle.com
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
© Michele Rieri
