Paolo Pellegrin
[Photographer, b. 1964, Rome, lives in Paris.]
You want to be more vulnerable because that’s how your photography becomes more human. In a sense you want to become a totally blank canvas so the subject or situation reflects him or itself upon you.
We photographers live in a constant state of schizophrenia because of what we see, what we feel and what we have to overcome.
It sometimes happens that you just know... You have a feeling that things are coinciding, and that they operate and work on a number of levels—obviously visual aesthetics, but also content and narrative in terms of the bigger picture. When document and metaphor come together.
I’m more interested in a photography that is “unfinished”—a photography that is suggestive and can trigger a conversation or dialogue. There are pictures that are closed, finished, to which there is no way in.
Photography is much like writing to me. It’s a voice.
… I would recommend working to become a more developed and informed individual, a more knowledgeable and engaged citizen. This will translate into a deeper more complex understanding of the world around you, and ultimately into richer and more meaningful photography.
..the abstraction of black and white allows photography to speak in more symbolic terms. Color, sometimes, is all too real.
In my work, I present questions and concerns. [It’s] the opportunity to put a system of antibodies into circulation, without any pretense of making the world a better place, but to start a conversation with the world.
