I am here doing my intervention on Fotografica.
There are a lot of friends.
Angela is here, eugenio, valerio, sara… and we are having a lot of fun.
Now they are applauding me.
Earlier I spoke about my obsession in using the 50mm lens.
I love using always the 50mm lens because I want to always have the same objective: to do beautiful photographs
After a few months of incubation my new website came to light.
We took our time because we needed to simplify, simplify, simplify… to be left with the essential.
Someone once said “I wrote a really long article because I didn’t have time to write a short one”. So we took really long to edit the unnecessary things in order to be left only with the essentials…
See you tomorrow night, Sunday, at FOTOGRAFICA!
Two really interesting dates to keep in mind if you want to see/know/understand how I work and what I do, for real.
The first is at FOTOGRAFICA, the exhibition dedicated to photography at the beautiful FORMA gallery. I have already talked about this exhibition in the past because it seriously deserves it: there have been a number of meetings all of which were of high standards, the workshops, the children courses, the showcases, the technical presentations, the debates and many others… this year I am also involved, I will spend some time late in the afternoon of Sunday the 29th of November in the Vetrate room. I am not going to anticipate anything, but something interesting should come out of it…
The second date instead is inside PASSION & PROFESSION, another exhibition I’ve mentioned in the past because it, as well, is extremely interesting: its purposes are very practical, trying to convey the real instruments to whoever wants to succeed in this profession. In short all fire and no smoke. And this year as well I am involved in a course on the 12th of December.
Honestly, the position of an assistant photographer is quite under estimated. On a photography course for example they teach many things (some of them quite useless, like developing and fixing…) but they never teach you how to become a good assistant: it is as if one would like to become a racing pilot and knows everything about the engine but doesn’t know how to open a door to get in…
The assistant is very important, because, if it works out, he’s the right hand man of a photographer.
A premise: it is undeniable that whoever is an assistant does it to learn things which are supposed to be useful when the latter will become a photographer. But this doesn’t mean that he’s only there to learn. It often happens that I receive emails with more or less this message: “good day, I am a photographer and I can’t seem to be one like I’d like to, I would like to become your assistant so that I can learn as much as possible”. No! It’s not like that, I’m sorry: it’s the assistant that must be useful to the photographer, not the other way around. Otherwise the money should go the other way compared to the usual…
-let’s cut to the chase, I will try to explain in a simple and schematic way what an assistant must do and know to be good:
-first rule, which comprises them all: three seconds before. Exactly, 3 seconds before, before everything. A good assistant must think/do/act three seconds before things happen/are needed/become complicated. This is the basic rule and it is the consequence of the fact that the assistant has to constantly think on his feet to think of what is going to happen to anticipate it.
-a rule that precedes the “three seconds before”, in a more wide and complete way: the assistant must always be prepared for any situation and think of anything that will happen. A good assistant mustn’t be a parcel that gets carried from one place to another, must not be dominated by the events, but must dominate the events.
-to dominate the events the good assistant has to be ready. Ready to confront the situations, places, events: if you are going to shoot up in the mountains you have to think at everything that could be useful. Everything means an infinite list of things, which might not be used for anything, which they might be not needed for anything, or maybe they will: warm shoes and impermeable, gloves, hats, scarfs, hot tea, swiss army knife, deer call, maps, gps to save oneself… and a thousand other things that could be useful. I was an assistant (a long time ago…) and I left on a plane heading for sicily to palermo with the photographer I used to work for. Too much wind at punta raisi so we landed in catania, where we rented a vehicle to drive to palermo: I brought a map of sicily with me, so thanks to that we arrived in palermo relaxed and tranquil…
-rule connected to prior: if there was an assistants school within the photographic school they would teach you a very fundamental thing which perhaps is bullshit but changes the light on the assistant in regards of the photographer in a radical way: a good assistant should have a fanny pack/backpack with things inside. Things?!? Everything! Everything that is in the fanny pack could be needed: tape, rope, lighter, tweezers, pegs, batteries, charger, pencils, pens, knife… everything and more. If the assistant pitches up on set up in the mountains with moon boots and this fanny pack won’t it be better than pitching up with moccasins and empty handed? And isn’t it a simple thing that goes in his favour? Definitely yes, what happens in most cases though is the coupling of moccasins/empty handed.. Didn’t you know? Now you know.
-a good assistant has to be informed. Once upon a time about film and developing, nowadays about computers. A good assistant at least knows MAC and PHOTOSHOP. When they tell me they know MAC I don’t do complicated tests, I tell them to create a new folder on the desktop. You won’t believe me but in most cases they start looking for FILE on the top left bar and they search and look… to create a new folder (and you know it!) is shift/apple/N. If one doesn’t know this they know nothing. A twenty something year old should know about computers more than I do! (from now on the MAC test will of course be different…)
-the assistant is and must be the last piece of shit of the group. Careful, I say this with the outmost respect. But I say this to be as clear as possible. It’s like that. And only by having this in your head things can work out. For example, at the table the assistant has to be the last one to sit down and the first to get up. (moccasins, empty handed and the first one to sit down?: go fuck yourself)
-English. You have to speak english
-small but important thing: NEVER have hands in your pockets NEVER
-not on time. Ten minutes earlier
-this is for the assistants but, obviously, for the photographers as well. It seems banal but it’s not: you have to like photography. Can you imagine! It is not that obvious. Especially in case of a photographer like… Me. If an assistant is my assistant especially because he likes to go to exotic places, because he likes pussy, because he thinks he’s going to have fun… we are not on the same page. I like photographing Max magazine’s beauties as well as I like photographing miss blumarine’s kids. honestly. Because above all I like to photograph and to do beautiful photographs. Same thing has to be for the assistant. (moccasins, empty handed, first to sit down, no english and mad for pussy?: so, you get it…)
-continuing from the previous argument a good assistant must have a knowledge in photography. And must know it better than me! Has to know the new chinese photography that, for example, I don’t know. Besides knowing, obviously, diane arbus and guy bourdin…
-delete from your personal vocabulary: “no”. “I do not know”, “I do not remember”… in short all the phrases that begin with the word “no”
-one word is too little, two are too many
-ok, I am afraid that I am going beyond the “photographic” aspect, but to be an assistant, therefore the photographer, often goes well beyond the “photographic” aspect: a good assistant must eat at the table in an educated manner. Yes, I think of it that way. A photographer s a strange, very strange job, where you sit and get confronted with cuban outlaws and next thing you sit and get confronted with heads of state. You have to be ready for everything. So in this context to eat well and in an educated manner at the table, believe me, is important. Between an assistant brilliant at photoshop but that eats like a beast at the table and one that doesn’t know photoshop but eats with good manners I prefer by far the second one: you can always learn photoshop, manners are way more difficult…
For now I can’t think of anything else. Know that to be a good assistant is the only concrete way to become a good photographer. In the end the good assistant is the one that does what he would do if he was the photographer. Therefore it is a unique training ground to learn what sooner or later, if it will ever happen, will be absolutely necessary.
PS: I have a feeling that this article will be printed out and pinned to the wall of many aspiring assistants. Be my guest. Give me as a present, wait much better, give an iTunes track as a present to whom you love for each copy that you will print…
PS #02: my dear friend toni thorimbert also gives a very interesting contribution on the subject: obviously on his blog
I am not sure I have many other qualities, but definitely (as a photographer…) I have one: I am fast.
Not so long ago, on a celebrated set, I had the pleasure to find this beautiful present, this t-shirt:
Sports Illustrated t-shirt aside I have another four images to show, here below. Thanks to the embedded data we can now see the exact hour and minutes in which the photograph was taken. We were in africa, in a situation which wasn’t really calm and serene (army men patrolling/peeping because we were in an area where we shouldn’t have been), and the model wasn’t just any model, but a personality, which on the one side it made things easier (she was really good, in front of the camera…) but on the other side she complicated things (obviously she couldn’t change clothes in the middle of the beach in front of everyone, therefore she was going up and down to the van…).
Here are the four images:
There is a 7 minutes gap between the first and the second photograph, a 4 minutes gap between the second and the third, 6 minutes between the third and the fourth and 6 minutes between the fourth and the fifth. Change of costumes included.
Excuse the egocentric blow job, but I wanted to “demonstrate” in concrete terms, also for who doesn’t know me on the field, the first line of this post.
Let’s get to the core: the speed of a photographer when he shoots.
I believe it is a very important thing. First of all it is already a quality in itself, appreciated by everyone, from the model, from the client, from the editor, from the hair and make up.. From everyone.
If then the picture you’ve taken is a piece of shit (and trust me, it is a piece of shit… and I do not mean to belittle the work of someone that I don’t know, but seeing that 99% of the work out there is shit [including mine!] it is highly probable that the photograph you are about to take is too…) it is convenient to do it in little time! At least it will have one quality!
Jokes aside, I’ll get to the point: to shoot fast means to have clear ideas.
To shoot fast means to know exactly what you are doing form your head.
To shoot fast means to have exactly pre-visualised the scene.
To shoot fast means not to go for try outs.
To shoot fast means to have had ideas before photographing.
To shoot fast means to be sure of what you are doing.
So: shooting fast is not only being fast, but it is an important sign that what you are doing works well, and has the characteristics of, eventually, being something well executed.
Take my advice:be fast, it is an excellent indication of quality…
