A colloquio con Paolo Patrizi - finalista AAPA 2011

PAOLO PATRIZI is a documentary photographer, whose recent stories explore the contradictions between traditions and modernity, as well as the cultural disconnections produced by rapid economic growth.

Patrizi began his career in London as a photographic assistant. While performing freelance assignments for British magazines and design groups, he started to develop projects of his own. Today, his work is featured in leading publications and exhibited internationally. Some of his photographs are part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Needless to say, Patrizi's photos have won him several awards: The Association of Photographers of London, The John Kobal Portrait Award, The Lens Culture International Exposure Awards, The World Press Photo, The Sony World Photography Awards, The Anthropographia Award for Human Rights, The Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize.

Such important awards have earned Patrizi important assignments with the Observer Magazine, Stern, Panorama, Corriere della Sera, GQ, Courrier Japon, Geo, XL Semanal, Przekroj, K-magazine, Handelsblatt, European Photography, Kaze no Tabibito, Vanity Fair, Sunday Times Magazine.

Accademia Apulia has asked Paolo Patrizi a few questions:

How did you first get into photography?
My father was always very keen on documenting the family holidays with his Kodak Retinette. When he upgraded to a more modern Fujica, I started to take pictures of my friends with it and printed my own black and white shots.  It wasn’t until I moved to London in the mid-1980s that I began my professional career working as a photographic assistant, and undertaking freelance commissions for various design groups, and numerous magazines.

What kind of equipment do you use?
Digital and analogue - I see no reason to advocate or side with film over the other. I wouldn’t give up either one. For the ‘Migration, Stories of a Journey’ project I used a medium format camera and color negative film.
 
For Accademia Apulia Photography Award 2011 you submitted an essay on the Nigerian sex trade present in Italy. What motivated this work?
Driving along country roads on the outskirts of Rome I couldn’t help but noticing scantily clad women dotting the landscape. They are the subjects of a story I started a while back to which I have been adding more pictures over a period of three years. Sadly, the situation remains essentially unchanged.

I used landscape shots to capture the phenomenon of Nigerian prostitution in Italy. My photographs contain the signs left behind by cars, waiting times and customers’ transactions. What emerges is a sub-human condition these women live daily. Some appear as if tricked by the idea that on day their immigration status will be made legal.

I have tried to deliver the emotion and the atmosphere of the eerie places I visited, thus allowing the viewer a glimpse of the littered makeshift sex-camps. They are the pits of dirt and abuse, shrines to the shortcomings of globalization. I hope tmy images convey the pain these women are going through. They are human, not just body parts of a difficult social narrative.

As a visual storyteller, what do you look for in terms of themes/locations?
I believe there is a need to tell stories that are off the beaten track.

Your work conveys a certain degree of compassion and empathy for the people and situations captured by your camera. As an observer and a witness, how do you manage boundaries between yourself and the subject(s) left behind?
I’ve been passionate about photography for most of my life; it is a way of living, a discipline. I need to be part of the experience to capture it. My personal vision, my feelings, inevitably come into it, but honesty is at the basis of my interactions.

Is there a photographer past/present that you particularly admire?
There are many photographers whose work I admire. Luigi Ghirri, Alex Webb and Sebastião Salgado to name but a few.

What has been the most gratifying moment of your career to date?
In November last year I tutored a group of under privileged Cambodian children during the Angkor Photo Festival. Their enthusiasm, their spontaneous approach to photography and the results of the workshop were for me the most gratifying experience.

What are you working on at the moment?
I am exploring the underlying themes and contradictions between traditions and modernity and cultural disconnections produced from rapid economic growth.  

What is your next dream?
I cannot predict what I will dream of tonight. 

What advice do you have for aspiring photographers?
Read voraciously, trust yourself and your instincts and spend your money on the most important piece of equipment: a pair of comfortable shoes.

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Accademia Apulia UK suggests the following short London courses to start a career in Photograhy

 

 

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