Public Republic

Zlatina Dimitrova’s interview with the photographer Fabio Ricco

Fabio for Fabio

I was born in Genoa, Liguria (Italy) in 1981 and even if I feel I belong to my beautiful sea land I’ve always been attracted to foreign countries. I have visited a large portion of Europe. Last summer I flew for the first time out of my continent to reach the wonderful landscapes of New England up to New York City.

Sky Streets

I got interested in photography not long ago – I was about 22. When I got my first compact digital camera, a Casio Exilim, I thought I’d love to get in contact with this beautiful art earlier by the means of classic cameras.
With my compact camera my passion grew stronger and this third artificial eye was always with me in every moment. One unlucky winter day I fell down during a ski session in German mountains and … yes, my little camera was with me, and it broke.

Neighbors

After the compact experience I decided to buy a Reflex camera, a Canon Eos 400D, and my photography world really changed and, in spite of the bigger dimensions of the camera, it was always with me, but no more ski sessions.
I think there’s always something to care of everywhere around us and my passion for photography is a way to make a step out of the everyday life, and thanks to it, I’m able to catch every single vision which captures my attention.

Safety first

The Balance

I’m just an amateur photographer but I want to improve my techniques by studying and taking a course with the hope that this activity might become a more intense part of my life.

I don’t have a particular style in my works as I usually try to express what I feel in a specific moment when I take a photo, so it depends on what I’m looking at. What I know for sure is that I try to pull out fantasy from every single thing I notice and it is nice to see that people are happily surprised to get different views of life from my photos.

So right now I keep going with my shots and I am trying to spread my fantasy and creativity as much as I can.
Photography is a passion but at the same time photography is a positive feeling of imagination.

Gossip in the grass

How did you find out photography is important for you?

Photography is really important to me since I’ve found out that a single piece of everyday life should be caught somehow, and what is better than a good shot?

It is something really exciting and I’m a bit shy in general, so I think photography is also a way of expressing who I am.

Lola Love

What has changed in your life after getting involved with photography?

My life would change if I became famous with photography, of course! (Joking)
I almost keep doing the same things I was doing before but photography is now part of my life.
I have so many things to learn, to do, to see, to explore and many people to meet.
Photography has just made my life a bit richer than it was before.

Welcome to Paradise

Have you been involved in any other art other than photography?

Before getting interested in photography I spent a couple of years painting with oils and I usually dedicated my works to landscapes or nature in general.
Later, about four years ago, I spent my free time creating little creatures with polymer clay called Cernit.
I still have a small collection of elves and micro-fairies inside of an old wooden box.

Freedom

How do your trips reflect on your photos?

Traveling is simply beautiful and I often feel the necessity to leave my homeland for visiting new countries, as this is for sure a good way to enrich my inspiration with new points of view.
New trips mean different cultures, colors, landscapes and at the same time I feel a growing desire to give my pictures a new flavour of emotions.

Towards Dreamsland

Which place you have visited inspired you the most?

Norway with its incredible fascinating nature has been one of the best places I’ve ever seen. The silence you can perceive when you pass through the fjords was very helpful in making some good and relaxing shots.
But the best places where I had the possibility to absorb much inspiration were New England and New York City.
My attention was completely stolen from everything I saw: the amazing blue of the Atlantic Ocean, the golden sands of Maine, the warm colors of Vermont and the chaotic urban colors of the Big Apple.

Cat Woman

How do your pictures show the real life?

My pictures usually represent real life. What I love to do with them is to extrapolate an unreal second meaning that might not be visible to the eyes of everyone but only to those people who have “the right” eyes.
So my subjects might be shoes, bolts, windows or a monument: these are real things and reflect reality but with a different angle or light, you can add something more interesting to them, something that goes over reality.

Urban Relationships

What do you prefer to take a picture of?

In the past I used to take pictures of landscapes mainly but I realized my challenge was to give importance to other things.
You might stare at a landscape and you would say, “Wow, it is amazing!”, or, “What a wonderful view!” but once I understood they were already beautiful as they were I began to choose other things to take pictures of.

Terraferma in viaggio

At the moment I do not feel attracted by a particular subject for my pictures; I simply start shooting when I notice something interesting around me.
I would like to take pictures of people and to work with black & white portraits as I think that human expression has something “terribly” beautiful to be captured and admired!

The Girl with the grey hat

What stimulates your imagination?

My mood always stimulates my imagination and it comes as an easy mechanism to me.
Of course, if I should feel a bit stressed because of work or personal problems, I would only have closed doors of imagination and no ideas would come for new pictures.

Goodbye Sailors

On the contrary, and luckily I would say, often when I feel relaxed and positive my imagination goes over and I cannot stop it.
Therefore everything around me becomes an easy capture for my camera.

Il Signore del tempo

If you could show the whole of life in just one picture, how would it look?

It is life that brings us to capture different images with various emotions, happy or sad, and one single picture representing the whole of life should be a very intense vision.

A single man

As I said before, I would like to work with people, as I think human expressions are the best way to describe life with all of his deepest meanings:

“The eyes of our emotions: the picture of life”.