Hi, I'm Tamara Lackey and on this
episode of reDefine Show for AdoramaTV I
speak with David Bastianoni, an Italian
wedding and concepts photographer who
speaks to the amazing power of having
strong mentors and how to create images
that last a lifetime and beyond.
Check it out.
So you're 24 years old, you're going
to quit photography because you can't
get any clients because you're a
terrible photographer...
I understood later, how I was terrible.
At that point I think also I
excused myself.
I had not tried because of excuses.
But at that time...
Do you believe in serendipity?
I do, deeply.
Me too.
So a certain day when I
take this decision, a good client
called me because they had
seen the image and believed
it's something and I had the
opportunity to shoot.
With this first opportunity I
decide to think,
"OK, what did I miss."
I forget everything that
I'd been doing for all my life.
I love art, I love painting, music and
there is nothing about this in my photography.
It was just something mechanical.
You remember, with film, 125, f/5.6
flash on board, shoot.
So I started to love the shadow,
to love drama.
Start working like a photographer to
live like a photographer because
unfortunately, we do this work
24hr a day, never stop.
So all the things that you were
passionate about were in no way present
in the work you were producing?
At the time, nothing
because the work that I produce is
just work.
And my interests were not combined.
I don't think that the painting,
the light of the painting,
composition...
I know it can sound stupid but
that's how it was.
After I started to study again and
meet in my life some mentors, I
was so lucky because in the year,
personally, before meeting Jim Garner after the most
important person for my business, Jerry.
Maybe you know Jerry Ghionis?
Not because he is the greatest photographer
ever, but because he is the greatest
mentor of all time.
So follow him on his website,
icesociety.com.
This thing combined all that
I love.
So it brought in all those elements.
So leaving Florence,
the painting that you see is
made with that light.
A little Botticelli there.
If you walk in to Florence
you go to
Piazza Signoria and the Loggia dei Lanzi,
you see the beautiful statue,
the copy of David...
You can walk up the Doma, right?
There's inspiration everywhere.
Everywhere because of the color,
the mood and you put
what you like in what you do.
So this is the first part and when you
think about wedding photographery
today, the bar is so high.
It's incredible! We had 2800 prints come
through when we were judging and they
were, the vast majority of them were like,
OK you're starting up here.
It's insane how
this industry grows with a quality
What I noticed in your work is,
specifically I'm thinking
about a few prints that I just judged
and looked at for quite some time is,
you'll have an overall scene with
multiple stories happening.
Is that a purposeful thing?
I think that
when you shoot an image that it has to tell
a story.
It's something that you have to be
able to feel and have that empathy
with that event.
I'm not really a great photojournalist
but I love to study it.
So I try to be a little bit objective and
find the nicest point of view to
tell the story in one single shot.
That is the point.
You just do something that
happens naturally. I love a simple light,
maybe just one window, close the other
one and leave them free to talk, to
have emotion.
Sometimes you make that
emotion happen like, remember the father
in the moment they exit from the
house.
It's the last moment before the daughter
gets married.
Remember the first kiss that he gives her.
So you invite the emotion but you're
also set up to capture it?
Yeah.
I think, a wedding photographer
has in his hands important rules.
Because we have in our hands
memories for the next generation.
It's not something objective,
it's our point of view.
How we want all the family to remember.
You are in that image that
they're going to look at 20 years later
whether they know it or not.
Yes, when you think about it,
this album, this story, not now
but in 20-30 years will be a great
document for the family.
It's something that the son or
the daughter can never sell.
It's more than a Picasso because it's the
only real document. It's not like Instagram
or social media. You can look, smell,
touch it. You can cry on that album.
This is what I really want from our works
because the next generation
have to be educated about us.
When you're shooting a
bride you have to think about what her
son will think about his mother.
So when
you're photographing a bride you're
already thinking what the bride's child
will think of that bride as a mother?
Yes because you can show her as elegant and pretty
and allow them to think, "Wow
my mom is so elegant."
But if you shoot cheesy or something else
they think, "My mom is so cheesy."
Or with the groom, I'm asked
"Why don't you put roses in the mouth of
the groom?"
Why do you think!
We are superheroes for this.
So you have obviously
been able to bring in a significant
amount of passion for your work, from
where it wasn't there before, and you
would attribute that to not only great
mentorship and education, but also you
looking out and saying, "What do I really
care about and how do I bring all that
into the work I do, so that I can
feel passionate about all of it?"
Yes, I don't know...
When our business, our work brings
stress to our lives
we need to put in passion because
we lose time with the person that we
love. We just think about
how I can do better.
What I want to do to improve myself.
It's not absolutely for
an award.
If you'd like a
reward for being a better photographer you
have to be a better man.
You need to have
someone that you can be inspired by.
So you see the passion,
how they recharge,
how they are sweet and gentle
with us and how did they take care.
Integrity and all of that.
So you think that you have to do
something forever, work and business and
passion. In the end we are
photographers.
Last September when
Jerry won IPP fashion photographer
he reminded
me of one thing, "We are
photographers, NOT wedding photographers."
So, about that, we have the
opportunity to tell what we want and to
tell it how we want and it's a great
starting point.
It's the first part of a new
idea that I had in the last month.
So you obviously photograph quite
a few weddings and do very well at them
But you also had been recently been
doing more concept work
Yeah, yeah,
This is an interesting point
Cause I do my first two pieces
For Image
last December
And everything was happening when
I was in Singapore
At Keda Wedding, Keda? Oh Keda...
the Asian Photographer, the most famous one
He is incredible. What is his last name?
Keda Z. Ok, I know Keda Z..
But I thought there was more than that..
There's another 10 names.. and Kelly...
amazing... wedding. I'm sure
So I was there with these other friends
Johnson Wee. Also not a shabby photographer!
And just you know we started talking
and they say, you are so lazy
you find a concept and you want to win the grand
award! Come on...
And we discuss a little bit...
And I say ok.. next
year< I will do something like you
I will try to have a concept
when you try to have
a piece for a concept
It's not for the award, you think about
what you want to tell, and
I want to give a free message to everyone
cause, the image that you saw...
he will never see his father
is something, that there is no race
It's not about US or about the war
It's about this woman who is pregnant
and has lost her husband
So very simple concept but can be about all
the wars, the women of everyone
cause, it's just to figure something very simple
and something to tell you.. ok...
take a moment, I hope that someone
just have a moment, to think about what
happened now in the war, it's 2000 years
that still continues...
So where can people go to find out
more about you.. mmm yes my website
although I am not so 'social'! It's just my name
David Bastianoni... and they see
something on Instagram and Facebook
and I think that best is yet to come
I think.. and maybe this can become a suggestion
Don't do photography for social, to promote
for me it's never been the goal.
The goal is you do it for yourself
Thank you so much David for sharing your passion
your energy, and your sensibilities with us
really appreciate it. Check us out
here next time on AdoramaTV
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