Here, out of nowhere the new album by MIDLAKE, “the courage of others“ appears: you can even buy just the first track “acts of man”, let the melody rock you, let yourself go, enter a new world…

There is also a backstage video, filmed by marco scozzaro and edited very well by sperimenti.

This is my photo, click to enlarge:

First place: “the element of freedom” team comprised of arantxa&andoni santamaria&planes (photographer), irene de santis (stylist), vincenzo valvo (fashion designer), thas bretas (make-up artist), michele qureshi (hair stylist) and vika mostovnikova (model). Here below is my favourite photograph of the series:

Seeing that there was a high caliber of work we decided to give out a virtual second and third place: they didn’t win anything but glory was pouring down!

Second place, therefore, a project which I personally liked a lot, created by the team “U and I” comprised of roman pichiolko (photographer), vergi vergi (fashion designer), justina zinkeviciute (make-up artist), jevgenij iljin (hair stylist) e ana kacemceva (modella):

Third place goes to the team “Superstar S” comprised of alice pavesi (photographer), federica caggiati (stylist and fashion designer), beatrice savi (make-up artist), martina bernini (hair stylist) e giada fagiana (modella). Their work was also outstanding:

olè!

Beethoven is another level. Everyone, obviously, knows the ninth symphony, which is mad to think that he completed it when he was already deaf (the music, like all the rest, is in your head, not in the ears!). Legend tells that at the first one (triumphant) they made him turn around so that he could at least see the people that where applauding him. He could only see the applause, not hear them…

One of my favourite pieces is concert number 3, for the piano and orchestra. It is something out of this world. More rock than the rolling stones, more romantic than air, more jazz than petrucciani, more poetic than de andrè, more symphonic than pink floyd, more more… in short, the top. Listening to the piano and the orchestra chase each other like two lovers, adorable and strong, happy and angry, it is an incredible emotion. An unbelievable crescendo until the explosive ending.

I fear I am doing something highly illegal, like throwing toxic waste in the sea, like trading anti personnel mines, like breaking into isolated houses violently… in short I am going to post the link through which you can download and listen to the concert for piano and orchestra number 3 opera 37 first part allegro con brio, pollini at the piano, and abbado as director of the orchestra: download it, put it into your iTunes and blast it at full volume! your lives (or at least your weekend) will definitely change.

I will be jailed, punished and sanctioned for this serious illegality: to spread as much as possible old ludwig.

Seeing that I am risking a lot, the link from which you can download it should be a little bit difficult to find…

On the latest issue of vogue bambini, there is my miss blumarine campaign, which I shot a few months ago during a beautiful sunny day in cape town.

As well as the double spread for the campaign I have also included a few which are only present on the catalogue.

You can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them

Anyways: we are still in the month of January so you will probably find them in the current issues of photocult and photoprofessional at your local newspaper stand.

In short, excuse my excessive and invasive presence, which it is compensated for by the excellent writers that signed these two articles: ed prando (with the help of marina macrì) and his friend mosè franchi.

You can see and read the complete PDF here for photocult and here for photoprofessional

To celebrate this I have dedicated the BEST of my website to more than forty women I have shot for this column in the past year.

They might appear simply as photographs of young girls, excuse the extreme simplification, with their tits out: in reality it is not like that. As always and as I will never get tired of repeating, you have to have a precise concept when you do something, and you have to have it even more when, as in the case in question, the project lasts for more than a year.

I will try to explain the “concept” behind MAX CASTING:

When this task was given to me I had only one thing in mind, what I DID NOT want to do: I didn’t want to simply take glamour photographs, as you can see thousands everywhere. namely I didn’t want to take fake images, with young ladies that were simply and finally showing their nice little asses and their perky tits.

So I gave myself some very precise rules and boundaries, which I am going to list schematically:

-the models must not have anything fake: no fake breasts, no fake hair, no fake nails, no contact lenses… all real. Already this would have taken us far away from most of the glamour shots you see around

-through the images I wanted to tell who are the models, creating above all a portrait. Therefore before the photoshoot I have always taken some time to talk to the girls to decide WITH THEM, how to take the pictures. Actually, I was stimulating the girls so that they would decide on how to do the editorial! In short I have always tried to make way so that they wouldn’t undergo the photoshoot, as it happens often, but that they would become the creators: it wouldn’t have been MY editorial, but THEIRS.

-on this perspective I wanted that the clothing that they would have been wearing (many or few…) would be their clothing. You do understand that a magazine loves that the models wear the clothing of their various advertisers, but I thought that the brand new prada shirt would have surely been nice but also very fake.

-i have always had “hair&makeup” on set, but I have always wanted the model to choose how the hair and make up had to be done: first of all I wanted the model to like herself.

-i always wanted the technique to be as simple as possible. This year I have never used any professional equipment: never used a studio flash, never a bank, no infinity curves… I wanted to shoot like any amateur photographer would have photographed his girlfriend.

-i always wanted the poses not to be poses. I didn’t want the model to act shit hot (excuse me) in front of the camera. I wanted a normal girl, with a normal attitude.

-i always showed the photographs to the model before sending them to the magazine, to have their approval: if they didn’t like one or more pictures I’d toss them without saying a word.

-i always used photoshop in a very light way, only to give tone and contrast to the images, never to twist the physique of the girls, never to stretch the legs for kilometers, never to give curves that didn’t exist.

-in short, as I was saying to my models, I wanted a copernican turnaround to happen (really!) of the usual roles: the true boss was the model, I was only the one doing click on the photographic camera. I wanted each editorial to differ from the other, because in each photoshoot different was the fundamental thing: the model. sure some editorials look similar, but, deep down, none is the same as another. As I always say to the models I want to cancel myself, I want to disappear. I am proud of the fact that, in the end, it looks like forty editorials done by forty different photographers: as once was said “looks like is an other photographer, but it is just an other model!”

This is it. Try now to go and look at images of young sexy girls that you see all over through the filters and boundaries that I’ve conceived for MAX CASTING: you will see images that, maybe they are more beautiful than mine, but that they’ll never be able to become a MAX CASTING.

allow me the presumption and my need to be didactic, but I invite you once again to have a solid concept before you get down to do a photoshoot: each single MAX CASTING editorial could look good or bad, but it definitely goes back precisely to the concept that I had in my head since the beginning.

Alas I want to thank all the sweet young ladies that they have kindly let me photograph them in the past year: julie, inna, martina, laura, sarah, xenia, daphne, mathilde, vicki, anna, ausra, mandy, francesca, elinska, amanda, simona, lauren, eva, ella, ani, paulita, daniela, yulia, anni, oksana, jill, valentina, bianca, victoria, giselle, caitlin, pille, julia, cassandra, valeria, catherine, beatrice, tanya, gertrud, ida, julia, brooke, ines, kamila, danielle, rithina, anelly, margot, giuly. THANK YOU!

As I said in the beginning I will at least go on with the same project for another year: if a model (with the characteristics I mentioned above…) would like to propose herself she can write to model@benedusi.it

Here is the new website of a great (italian!) photographer: chico de luigi

Chico, you are really good: congratulations

(ok, he’s my friend, but he is really good…)

 As a respectable magazine would say, “we receive and publish with pleasure”:

“Hello Settimio…

My name is Simone and I have written to you already a couple of months ago, with my great surprise after just a few days I received a reply from you to my questions which left me astound… I honestly didn’t think such a fine, busy, engaged person such as yourself would dedicate some time to a perfect stranger…

Therefore first of all I want to thank you…

I also am a photographer (even though when I see your work I ask myself if I can call myself that)… therefore I often look at your photographs and I read your blog daily and I consider it simply fantastic (that is given by your vast culture and curiosity in confronting things).

I’ll get to the point so that I won’t waste too much of your time…

It has nothing to do with photography… but I’ve read that you have as a cellphone the iphone… I wanted to ask you a few questions…

I have received a 32gb as a gift… and I’ve asked myself:

-  the battery doesn’t last that long… how does a person like you that travels so extensively not have recharge problems?

-  Some tips on how to get a nice photograph with the iphone?

-  Which applications in your opinion one must have on the iphone?

-  How do you feel about the iphone?

I know this has nothing to do with your work… but I really admire you as a photographer and above all as a person that is able to become curious in front of anything… as a person that really uses his head… as a person that has ideas… so that is why I had to ask you things that perhaps do not pertain to your line of work.”

I take this opportunity to speak about the iphone but above all about its capabilities as a photographic camera.

The iphone (as all things MAC…) is extraordinary, not just a cellphone, but truly a computer that is able to do a thousand things: I couldn’t be without it.

Amongst all its qualities it has also a camera, which is not amazing, but it has two great merits: one always has it with and, thanks to a few retouching programs, it is possible to retouch the images, and use them immediately.

Below here you will see two screen shots of my applications dedicated to photography on my iphone.

Camerabag: I use it a lot, used in a simple and swift manner it often gives great results

Air photo: it is used to print directly from the iphone, through wifi

Ps mobile: light version of photoshop. I seldom use it

Vintage maker: not for photos, but for videos. Just for fun

Tiltshiftgen: to create a blur effect

Shakeitphoto: It creates a sort of a polaroid by shaking the iphone. Useless

Bes camera: application by the photographer chase jarvis. Pretty cool. Smart  possibility, which I actually do not use, to share the photographs taken with others

Dsl remote: to control your reflex through your iphone

Fototimer: timer, for self portraits, for example

Pano: to take panoramic photographs. I use it often enough, excellent

Photophorge: perhaps the most complete, maybe even too much. It even has a logo similar to photoshop

Photogene: I have to say that this is what I use the most. Simple and swift but complete

Color expert: to “encrypt” colours.

Strobox: a sort of a notepad where you can write down your own lighting scheme. Never used

Ieasy camera: to take a picture with the full screen. Never used

1shoot: never used

Photofx: thousands of filters in the palm of your hand. Interesting

Gorillacam: various utilities to shoot with. Never used

My pantone: pantone colours!

Pic posterous: to upload your images in the homonymous gallery

Hipstamatic: sweet effects

Lo-mob: sweet effects, I use it often

Autotimer: the name says it all

Pro hdr: it absolutely doesn’t take photos on hdr effect (which by the way they have abundantly busted my balls…) but it lets you take photographs with two very different areas of exposure

Retrocamera: sweet effects

Often and willingly I use different programs on the same image, starting with certain things on one application and then proceeding to others, mixing a bit of everything…

Here below two of my photos, the original and then the final one after a few retouches:

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