Let’s start from this image:
PORTABLE, PORTRAITABLE® is the idea that knocked onto my mind when my friends bought me a photographic backpack for my graduation and it wants to express the idea of myself being able to take portraits of anybody who wants to share their story, anywhere they are in the world. Just give me a call, arrange a flight, a hike or whatsoever and let’s go shoot!
PORTABLE, PORTRAITABLE®, with title and image together, represents the idea of myself being open and willing to travel anywhere to tell stories. I am a young professional photographer specialized in portraiture and I also love hiking so I’m mixing it up a bit in order to offer a better service.
With this project I am also discovering myself and the world of hiking offering the possibility to fund this project by simply buying a print, allowing me to keep on being free and do what I like the most.
I’m available for adventures, travel and photography projects worldwide, “anywhere to tell your stories”. For more information about me or to just say hello, feel free to get in touch. Find me on Instagram @portableportraitable.
I capture adventures as they happen, the sceneries on which they play out and the time spent in between. I’m happy to hike that extra mile to get the shot.
I met Maurizio at university when we were both studying communication. It was hard not to notice him with such a distinctive beard; there were rumors that he had to grow it, after losing a bet. I’m sure he has the choice to shave his beard off, but he probably won’t. During lab one day, Maurizio spoke to me, about him liking photography, and I thought to myself he probably likes photography as much as I like cakes. They’re good and beautiful as long as someone else makes them, but when I make them, it’s a disaster.. but at least I still try. In other words, just because I like cakes, it doesn’t mean I am a pastry chef. But it is nothing like that for Maurizio, he knows what he is doing with his photography and has a sense of direction. Portraits, that’s what he does. And you can clearly see his passion when you look at his portfolio, you find yourself being watched by all the people looking straight into the camera at first, but at a second glance they’re just looking straight at you. Being a portrait photographer is not easy job, you need to have a certain sensibility to get close to the subject, because that photograph will have to express personality, attitude, character and emotions. What Maurizio is trying to do is to create a connection as a human being before he makes that connection as an artist. His choice to only focalize on portraits, in fact, began from his passion for people, a passion that – I have to say – I had already seen at the university, when he was speaking to others deeply, than superficially to everyone and everybody. Looking for a way to express that deep connection towards others, Maurizio discovered photography, a technical mean that allows him to be creative, since he considers himself not able to create anything new out of nothing. Personally, I think he created something new, but if you told him that, he would deny it, modest as he is. I’m referring to the FRUITproj, Maurizio’s workhorse, a concept he thought of while he was an Erasmus student in Poland. Everything is set and still, what changes is just the subject and how he/she interacts with the object. Maurizio is standing there just to tell what is going on, through what he calls a “portrait reportage”. This same approach emerges in the photographs made for Passionate People, where the person’s description doesn’t stand alone , but leans on the passion of the person portrayed, as what you do is who you are. In the FRUITproj the background was white, but in Passionate People, it was black, or rather a dark blue, and it was not a random choice. The single color background makes the subject pop out more, but solid black would limit Maurizio’s possibilities to play with the light and contrasts. In case the background was not a backdrop, the location would become part of the reportage, used as well to build the meaning of the portrait. The people Maurizio decided to portray so far, are ordinary people with a day to day look. This choice, on behalf of Maurizio is dictated by the intention of giving value to the ordinary individual, showing his art that describes our acts and sensations on an everyday basis. “Look at the camera and let’s begin,” that’s how I imagine a shoot with him. I would choose the Dragon Fruit which has a pink flesh for the FRUITproj, and for Passionate People I think he should portray me with a pen in my hand, a slice of cake in my mouth and some cinema film in my hair. I’m always complicated, on the contrary of Maurizio, who made his own vocation of simplicity: one color, one light, subject centered; clean and effective, like his logo. The beard perhaps belies that a bit, but I think it suits him. Laura Spataro
