The goal of a 500px Guest Editor is to highlight active members of our community, while selecting individuals who are not only amazing photographers in their own right, but have experience in curating unique, quality content. With that in mind, we are excited to introduce our two new Guest Editors for the month of February, who will be curating our prestigious Editors’ Choice page! Scroll down to read more about these inspiring artists and visit their breathtaking work online.
Meet Carmine Chiriacó
“My name is Carmine and I am a self-taught photographer based in Rome, where my passion for photography began in 2014. My work is a depiction of reality as I perceive it. I’m constantly asking myself to look beyond what is in front of me. I find myself gravitating towards scenes that are full of friction, distortion and movement, using photography as a way to share my perspective on reality.”
Q: Who is your favourite photographer and why?
A: My passion for photography came from watching everyday life go by on my street, therefore Henri Cartier-Bresson would be my pick. Not just because of his great photos, but because his approach to photography which was to walk down the street, to photograph the reality and seize the right moment. This has really inspired my photography. Another photographer that I like a lot is Alex Webb because of his extensive use of color, light and emotions to create beautiful, complex images.
Q: If you could have dinner with one person (living or deceased), who would this be and why?
A: I’d like the chance to dine one last time with my father. My father shared his love of photography with me since I was a child. I would love to show him my pictures so he could see the progress I’ve made. I’m sure he would be very proud of me.
Links
500px: 500px.com/carmine_chiriaco
Instagram: @carmineph_
Meet Alessandro Varacca
“I started taking pictures with a DSLR camera in late 2012. I was going through a rather difficult moment, and I thought that throwing myself headlong into a new hobby would have somehow helped to get out of the quagmire. That’s what eventually happened. Unsurprisingly, I approached photography the way everybody typically does: by some taking random shots of people, landscape, flowers, etc. For quite a few months I tried hard to make my way out of an ocean of different categories and styles, seeking to understand which one I liked the most. I can’t say that it wasn’t a bit frustrating at the beginning. However, it was not long before I got passionate about cityscapes and, in particular, architectural photography. Since the beginning, I have always placed a great emphasis on modern buildings such as skyscrapers, futuristic residential estates, contemporarily designed shopping malls, etc. In particular, I would shoot both details and entire figures black and white, possibly using very long shutter speed to create a distressing and abstract mood. I recently decided to bring colors back into my shots while cutting out all the unnecessary details that might distract from the core artistic message. Geometry inspired much of these works: first, I seek ordinate patterns, complementary colors, straight lines, and sequences, then I suddenly break them by introducing some natural elements such as sky, clouds, and birds. My recent project is called “Abstract Cities” is a collection of minimal shots where I try to apply this “geometry” model to abstract buildings from a chaotic and often uninteresting urban context.”
Q: Who is your favourite photographer and why?
A: It goes without saying that most of my pics have been profoundly inspired by the Italian photographer, Franco Fontana. Just like Fontana, I like to concentrate on few essential details and leave the rest to the imagination. In other words, I want people to wonder how the architecture I shoot fits in the urban context and what these structures look like in the real world. To this extent, I would suggest taking a look at Franco’s last works on Expo Milano 2015. Those photos should be part of the standard toolkit of every photographer approaching minimalism and architecture. Also, Michael Kenna: As I mentioned above, there was a time when I would shoot almost exclusively black and white. Though I haven’t shot monochrome for quite a while now, my inspiration when I go black and white is indeed Michael Kenna. I just love the way he creates presence and mood in every single shot he takes. Each photograph is the product of a perfect mix between nature, ordinate and decadent architecture or gloomy industrial areas. Of course, everything is stitched together by a superb analog black & white production and fine art print. The Ratcliffe Power Station series is perhaps the most remarkable among his publications.
Q: If you could have dinner with one person (living or deceased), who would this be and why?
A: If I could have dinner with one person, I’d surely choose Salvador Dalì. Why would I want that? Well, the reasons are too many to for such a short paragraph, yet I’d like to mention two: first, all his paintings (but also his sculptures) from the ages of World War II are just brilliant. Of course, I’m not just talking about image quality: I think of the messages, the perfect fusion between nightmare and reality, the way news melted with everyday objects, animals and fictional characters in a mixture of serenity and delirium. Second, Dalì was a real artist, hedonist, well educated and passionate lover. Could anyone find someone more interesting to have dinner with?
Links
500px: 500px.com/_a_v_
Instagram: @alevaracca
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