SOMBRERO TWIST

Walking for hours and hours looking for... Click!

Sombrero Twist is a very particular name… so I very curious to know: where is it from?

Sombrero Twist is the name of an amusement ride: I've bumped into it while reading a newspaper article some years ago. There was this carousel that was involved in an accident near Turin. Luckily there weren't injured people but somehow the name "Sombrero Twist" stuck with me and eventually I decided to use it for my project.

In your photos there is an ironic and grotesque part. What is irony for you?Irony is definitely the most important element for me: you can find irony both in funny and sad aspects of life and it's very challenging and stimulating to look at the world around us through these lens.

For you, which word can define the relationship between human and environment and why?

It could be “harmony”: it’s really satisfying to go out on the streets and let yourself be guided by the crowd, by the feelings that the places can communicate, and try to mix all these elements in a single photo, seeking a form of spontaneous harmony between the human subjects and the environment.

You told me you love to highlight the perfect combination between subjects and background and capturing the aspects of our everyday life that we are so used to see that we are not even able to notice them anymore. How much routine anesthetize our capacity of imagining and connect elements apparently distant?

A lot! I suppose people walking on the streets are too focused on their stuff to notice all the incredible things that go on in front of them. At first you need to get used at noticing all the weird details in our surroundings, you need some kind of "exercise" to find all the elements. But sometimes the subjects come up just in front of you and you simply need to look at them!

Has your job been influenced by who or what?

There are a lot of things that influence me but my main inspiration is definitely walking on the street and just looking around me. In particular, there are some places, as the supermarkets, that have a strong appeal to me. Faces, gestures, places: all these elements can be a strong inspiration for me if they have those weird aspects I’m interested in.