GAIA *in the mirror

I've always been fond of mirrors. They have powers: they can create a new world - reversing left and right - a new space, even a non-place where who's in front of the mirror is not at. Mirrors can show a place that seems real but actually isn't. 

They can create a parallel reality, silent and suspended, where everyone can look at themselves, recognize or refuse to recognize themselves. 

Gaia, looking at herself through a mirror, making friends with another herself.

THANKS

A few days ago the “Spazzatura kilometrica in cortocircuito” (Short-circuited endless garbage dumps) exhibition was officially inaugurated. That was before Easter, the Colomba cakes and the food and wine marathon I did run in Padova. No wonder I wrote about the event more than ten days after it was actually held! You can find below one of the articles that have been published in the local papers in the last few days.

The list of the things that contributed to make my exhibition inauguration day a special one is actually endless. I want to thank all the people who supported, advised, helped and encouraged me when I was organizing this project...all the mums, dads and kids...the Associazione On for planning the event and giving me a chance to teach the Cuasso Junior High School students the basics of photography. I'd like to thank the Ghiggini Art Gallery for being helpful and making us feel welcome and Philip Abussi for his priceless comments. I want to thank all the sponsors and all those people who actually came and see the exhibition (and those who would have liked to come but couldn't make it).

I want to thank Francesco for taking this picture, the best one among many. In the eyes of my dad, pierced by so many tears, I could get a glimpse of my mum's sweet smile. That's probably going to be the main reason why I'll always remember this day. 

Goodbye Cambodia

Every time, at the beginning of a new year, besides wondering what the new year has in store for me, I also like to take stock of the one that has just ended. 

A few months went by on the sly, and I can't remember much of them. Others are still very fresh in my memory, as if they had happened just a few moments ago. I took pictures of them both with my mind and with my camera, and when I try to recall them all the emotions, smells and colors come back to me. 

Of all the months of the year 2013 the one that tops my personal list is August, when I went on vacation. I was in Cambodia, backpacking, traveling on beaten and unbeaten tracks: following my instinct I explored and discovered new places and new cultures. Cambodia gave me a lot: I learned new ways of life and met people that I will never forget. I could write pages after pages about that trip but it would be difficult for me to tell you what I felt with words. I am a photographer, not a writer, images is what I like to use to express myself. 

I will share with you some of the pictures I took (lots of smiles) and the few lines I wrote on my journal as I was saying goodbye to this wonderful part of the world from the airplane that was taking me back to Bangkok. 

Goodbye Cambodia,

There are lots of things of you that I will miss.

The dignity of people who managed to survive civil wars, invasions, bombings, visionary dictatorships and the worst atrocities that a human being can suffer or even remotely imagine. 

The generosity of people who have little towards those who have even less than them. 

I will miss your colors, your scents and your bad smells. The taste of your food. The magnificence of your Khmer temples. The echo of the mantras in the Buddhist monasteries. The slow brown water of the Mekong. The crowded buses, carrying any sort of things, the water buffalos, rice fields, air con that knocks you down. I will miss your humid and sticky heat, your afternoon showers, your muddy roads and street stalls selling insects, snakes and fried tarantulas (come to think of it, I might not really miss that much). I will miss walking among people who keep saying tuk-tuk. 

The list of things that I will miss is long…but what I will miss the most is your people's genuine smiles. Smiles made with mouths, faces and eyes. Those deep black eyes of the children that make you want to hug them when they look at you. 

Goodbye Cambodia, I'm leaving a part of me here.

Of all the photos I've got I chose to publish the ones I took of these kids. I spent a whole day with them. Rain was pouring down, they let me take shelter in their house and flooded me with smiles and happiness (and maybe that's why tears are running down my cheeks while I remember them).

BRUMS SS13 CAMPAIGN... BEHIND THE SCENES!

Every shot has its own story behind. I mean a special story. I’m convinced that those stories that have children as their main characters turn out to be the most memorable, and in the last few years I’ve collected a lot. To the point that one day I’ll throw my camera away (I’m not gonna tell you where), I’ll become an author and I’ll write a book about all that.

This might well be the very first story of that book. It tells about how the majority of boys (up to ten years of age) are literally disgusted by girls the same age…and Gerri is one of those boys.

Everything and everybody was ready for the new Brums ad campaign photo. A very important one I would say. The idea was to have each kid lying on another one’s back.

Initially I thought that the most difficult part would be to make sure that the little baby didn’t wake up. Nothing of the sort: the hardest thing is always something you were not expecting at all. Convincing Gerri to get close to a girl – as per the planned layout – was no easy feat. There seemed to be nothing to do: he was perfectly fine with being taken pictures of but not with any type of contact with girls. Girls are revolting, that was the message (which is perfectly fine for a 4-year-old boy…I’d like to ask him what he thinks about that in, let’s say, ten years time…).

Finally the negotiations we worked on in order to change his mind bore fruit (of course they involved a significant number of toys: smart boy!).

At the very last moment though he still tried a desperate move and asked whether it was possible to interpose the little baby between the girl and himself. His request was obviously rejected. And this is the photo.

MY INTERVIEW!

(versione italiana qui!)

Some time back my friends at Total Photoshop interviewed me. It took me a while before I made up my mind and published it here. The reason is that I wanted to think it over before uploading a video of my big face on the web.

Now I'm ready though.

And how about you? Are you ready to hear me talking for fifteen minutes? Be careful, it can easily make you fall asleep. 

In the video I'm talking about myself, of what I do and of course about the children, who give me the chance to have such a wonderful job. Thanks!

Le cinèma!

(italian version here!)

Have I ever told you about my passion for cinema?

I would go to the movies every night if I could, and I'd always sit in the front row (yeah, I like the front row, as I don't mind going home with a stiff neck in order to have nothing and nobody in between the screen and myself).

Unfortunately I live in Zurich and as I am not familiar with the local language I don't go to the cinema very often. Actually I don't do it at all. 

However, in the past few months I have found out that I can rent pretty much any movie I like through iTunes. 

I've recently watched The fox and the child, whose photography, in my opinion, is very beautiful. At the beginning of the story - in some scenes - light kind of invades the picture in a way that thrilles me. 

As I was watching it I did rewind some scenes over and over again. Until Luca had enough and took control of my laptop (I think that at a certain point he was so frustrated that he was about to punch me in the head). Watching a movie with me must be a real pleasure. 

Anyway, during my Christmas break (spent almost entirely in Padova) I enjoyed a movie (and Venetian soppressa) feast, as I went to the cinema almost every night.

I've seen every film I was interested in and I recommend them all!

Life of Pi (it's great in 3D) / Una famiglia perfetta / De rouille et d'os / Argo / The best offer / Skyfall (even though this is not my favorite genre I have to admit I really liked it.)

I also watched some animation movies:

-Hotel Transylvania

-The 5 legends

(by the way I noticed that when Luca and I go to see an animation movie we are always the only adults in the whole theater who are not actually accompanied by a kid. Sometimes we don't feel totally at ease and we try to hug a random child, pretending he's come to the cinema with us.)

Let's move on.

I did like a lot the movies I just talked about, even though the genres are so different. 

The one I liked the most is probably Moonrise kingdom by Wes Anderson.

I think it's poetry expressed through images. Have a look at the photo I posted below. 

PERSONAL PROJECT #work in progress

(italian version here!)
In an old post I mentioned a personal research based project that I was working on (and that I haven't finished yet). Here is a short preview of it. 

Its focus is on children and, most important, on the environment. An abused and unhappy environment.

The environment needs to be respected and protected, just like a little child. 

The environment is our life, our home, our shelter.

Their future.

I'd like to thank all the kids who took part in this project. I also want to thank their mothers for their great helpfulness.

This project isn't

VERSACE YOUNG

Some of my pictures for the new Versace Young catalogue.

NY Stories

Italian version here!

I've just come back from a trip to New York. As I am a little Masochistic I prefer to stay at home organizing the photos I took instead of going out and enjoy these beautiful summer days.

Before leaving I bought this amazing photography book, featuring a collection of really wonderful pictures: shots by unknown photographers and very famous artists such as Alfred Stiegliz, Berenice Abbot, Paul Strand...just to name a few. 

You can find it here. I fell in love with it.

I saw a lot of things, took many pictures with my faithful iPhone and walked so much that at the end of the trip I was almost forced to throw my shoes away.

I saw a painting by Jackson Pollock and I got lost in that wonderful whirlpool of colors.

I saw some unmistakable signs of Lucio Fontana's stay in NY. This one was taken at a building site near Central Park. Someone even guessed that it might have been Zorro to do that (alright, alright...that was a silly joke).

Every day I enjoyed the sunset light.

I saw a child saying hello to the East River.

I noticed some sort of geometry and rhythm both in the city's landscape and people.

Finally, at the Museum of Natural History, I found out that I am ready to pass the so called "bikini test"... well... on the moon least.

I want to add one last thing that has nothing to do with New York. As it often happens in Summer, some people (I don't know who) have decided to abandon their undesired pets. I have been having Micio (a cat) as a guest at my place for a few days already. I found him stranded on the road and he has soon become Omero's favorite playmate.  Omero has  managed to resist the temptation to eat the cat and now they get along pretty nicely (well, actually there are a few logistics problems - when Micio gets hold of Omero's tail or when he tries to approach Omero's bowl for example - that still haven't been effectively addressed...)

SPOTLIGHT MAGAZINE - Kids Photography

Italian version here!
When you have some time you can check out the Production Paradise website: you'll find some of my work on today's issue of Spotlight Magazine, dedicated to kids photography.

If you are already sick of my photos (don't worry, all my sympathy and comprehension goes to you) you might want to go through the other sections of the website: you'll find some wonderful stuff. I myself spend whole evenings looking at it, stuck in a trance-like state in front of the monitor admiring the quality of several pictures. Just give it a try.

My work has been taken care of by Sergio: I still haven't had a chance to meet him in person but I'll always be grateful to him for being so helpful, professional and I would say...patient as well. Sometimes I can really be a pain in the neck with all my requests, but he turned out to be my super-hero, putting up with me until the end in exchange for massive quantities of Swiss chocolate (which, by the way, he hasn't received yet).Besides my photos, in the website you will also be able to find a brief introduction of me. As tonight I desperately need my 5 minutes of glory I am going to paste it below. I hope you won't be too moved by it (seriously, my mum found it more touching than any episode of her favorite soap and I personally find this an extraordinary occurrence).

Silvia Coluccelli's photography world is colorful, cheerful, crystal-clear, luminous; like a child's smile, which might be easily captured but needs to be skillfully created first. Silvia is extremely good at communicating with her little friends, by doing so creating an inspiring atmosphere, when the situation calls for it she can become a child herself, playing with the kids, amazing them, wearing colorful wigs or finding new games. She also knows how to turn children into little adults, with an interpretation worthy of an Academy award. She's an emotion and spontaneity director and has her secret as well: it's not a special lens or a camera featuring a disproportionate number of pixels, it's a "tool" that can detect every slight shade of emotions, that pulses with intensity and transmits passion and serenity. It's her big heart, the children can feel it and they tune to it with casualness. The results speak for themselves...

Clients: Novalac Menarini, Versace Young, Brums, Mek, Bimbus, Sottocoperta, Ninetta, Suomy... and many more.

Rapresented in Italy by Doc Artist.

NOVALAC CAMPAIGN

Credits Deputy Creative Director: Paola Morabito Creative Directors: Luca Scotto di Carlo e Vincenzo Gasbarro Art Director: Domenico Stragapede Account Director: Anna De Gaetano  Agenzia: DoC Artist Management and production Fotografo: Silvia Coluccelli Assistente fotografo: Francesco Dedola

This is one of the photos that I took for the new Menarini - Novalac campaign. If you want to know more about it check this out... Otherwise you can jump directly to the backstage photos below. You should be able to spot Rachele sneaking into the location in between pictures. You'll fall in love with her black eyes, as deep as an ocean.

 

I FOUND OUT...

Italian version here!
I've been away for some time and in the meanwhile...
I realized that the North Sea is really poetic. Well, it's cold and windy too. But it might be exactly because of these two characteristics that it is so full of poetry.

I realized that kids find it very entertaining when I wear a wig and bear-ears and take pictures of them,

and that the photographer and her assistant might actually find it even more entertaining.

 I realized that I find it disgusting when I see 8, 9 or 10-year-old girls made up like 20-year-old ones in fashion photos. I say NO to lipstick and mascara on kids' faces. I also say NO to kids posing as adults. 

I say NO to de-kidding kids.

I discovered some unauthorized solid waste dumps. Actually it was not me who discovered them. What I actually found out in this case is that my pictures might help to stir some people's consciences. I don't believe this can really happen though, it seem kind of utopian. Anyway I gave it a try and it was a starting point for a long inner search process that I am not yet able to talk about. I'm only publishing here the photos of some locations where I realized a part of my project. 

I also found out things about each one of you. Don't worry though: being an honest and reserved person I won't say a word about it. I promise. Over.