The slowness he dedicates to research projects nourishes the often frenetic work of a young product and interior photographer, Federico Villa

I like to consider photography as a complex language with different applications, nuances and depths of intervention.

Photographing products, interiors or architecture are different episodes of the same book. Each has its own grammar but, in essence, it is also the variation of the same story that is enriched, chapter after chapter, with new characters, events, atmospheres, words and adjectives from other worlds. In fact, contamination is, in my opinion, the more the value of an image increases.

To best photograph a space or a product, I always look for the angle of the story. Which must, necessarily, start from an intimate understanding of the subject of the image I am about to create. It seems obvious but it is not, especially in a historical moment like this when speed is often considered a value. It is often difficult to find the time for in-depth study and understanding of the subject in commercial projects, but it is essential to do so precisely to give the right dignity to what you would like to promote.

It is precisely on the theme of slowness that my research projects differ most from my commissioned works: here I work very slowly, if I can in analogue, dedicating months only to research and inspections (often in a non-urban environment). But the differences end there because personal photographic studies allow me to broaden my professional vision and complete it. Working on themes such as the relationship between artificial and natural, inserting the factor of relative time in my reading of reality allows me to create a different dialogue, with several voices, with the professional situations in which I find myself. Because every photograph is an increasingly precise question that allows me to grow.

This narrative approach to photography is, I believe, what the new generation of photographers is chasing. I think of the very young people, whom I see on social media, people who are half my age but already show a great capacity for storytelling and to add a narrative component in every shot.

 

 

Cover photo, photo by Federico Villa of the notebooks P di Pigna in collaboration with Danese Milano, project curated by Giulio Iacchetti.