Public Republic

Mariana Velichkova’s interview with the photographer Giorgio Mercalli

When and how did you start your career in photography?

I started when I was very young I mean a child. My first approach with the camera was something like curiosity for technology. Forty years ago we did not have computers, hand calculators, cellular phones and so on.

But the photo camera was something interesting because of its form with its beautiful brown coated lens. My father had a Voitglaender Vitessa and I studied on it making all kind of pictures, astronomical, still life, self portraits. The idea of freezing the reality was obsessing me.

What is your quest in the modern photography?

I think that photography reaches the communicating needs of people. So many concepts can be expressed with photography because it is the reproduction of vision, and with photography we accept to look somehow through the vision of somebody else, the photographer.

We get the visual suggestions of the photographer as a human being, as an artist, as a poet. Modern photography is for modern people with their modern symbols and concepts.
Modern people understand modern photography.

How has the culture in your country Italy influenced your photography?

I am influenced by so many stimulations and media; I look at so many pictures from different artists in the web. I live in Sardinia, a beautiful natural island in the middle of Mediterranean Sea; and the sea and nature gives me inspiration.

I think I am also influenced by some paintings of Botticelli and Michelangelo and how they invented a realistic light with those perfect bodies. It’s wonderful.

In your opinion what is the essence of taking good portrait photographs?

Catching the mystery of a mind in a 1/250 of a second.

Your favorite models are…?

My wife (but those are private photos) Silvia & Michela.

What is your vision about the photography’s future?

Holography?!

Your inspiration and creativity comes from…?

Beauty of nature, beauty of people.

If you have to take only one picture to capture the spirit of Italy what would it be?

I would like to express in one picture the contradictions of my country.
I would make a portrait of Monica Bellucci with a directional light plasmating her body forms. She would be sitting over the Italian flag, a crowd of jobless people all around her hypnotized by her beauty as if they were watching television, waiting for better days.

Biography:

Giorgio Mercalli was born in Sardinia from Prague’s origins. He likes to dominate the techniques of composition in order to fold them to the requirements of the communication. His passion for images and the collage of newspaper pieces began very early, since his childhood.

Thanks to the professional job in the television and multimedia photographic field he has replaced the scissors with elaborate software. Decisive experiences in his career have been the exhibitions in Germany, at the Italian institute of Culture, Monaco, Bavaria and the intense activities in the multimedia and documentary field.

Such as, director for television programs dedicated to the culture, the traditions, the economy and the lives of sea people. Meaningful documentary works for the Ministry of Environment dedicated to protect the marine area of Villasimius in the south east part of Sardinia.

Concerning the photography fine art field, he loves the “portrait” universe, applying techniques of lighting and elaboration. He is now working at making a new photo book in which he wants to join the character of his land Sardinia, the ancient atmosphere of the coast, the beauty of young models and the traditions of the Sardinian people.

Currently he collaborates with various advertising agencies and reviews and he takes care of the production. Also attempts to make private photo service for weddings and other events.