issue #08: starring objects
Caleido tells the Travel diary of Federico Barbieri, fashion photographer. Welcome to Caleido, an inspirational diary that narrates many stories: about creative people, trends, travels, objects. / Read the Editor’s letter here
Diary of: @federicobarbieriph
Ph. Federico Barbieri
1. What a photographer takes with his/her shots is a mental journey… towards a place, a person or an object. Do you remember a particular object, or a series of objects, that you decided to photograph? What is the memory attached to this shot? If you were to give this shot a title, what would it be?
I quite well remember all the still life shots I have taken. For instance, I do remember them better than the ones I took of people, I think it’s strange… My job is in fact to take fashion photos, so I usually take more photos of people than of inanimate things; yet, perhaps because of the long study that a still life shot requires of me. I particularly remember a photo of a Dior bag taken in the late afternoon in a beautiful place near Sorrento (Italy). We were shooting a fashion editorial in the beautiful setting of the Amalfi coast with Vesuvius volcano in the background. I remember it was the turn of the Dior look: the famous Bobby Bag attracted me and I wanted to capture it in a slightly different way, so I decided to give the model a jug full of water and place the bag on top of it, at an angle. The rusult is a photo I really like and even if I look at it a thousand times, I don’t get tired of it. If I had to give this shot a title, I would call it “Bobby and the jug”.
2. Let’s think about a trip you take in your heart, and imagine that you have to send a postcard showcasing an object (rather than a typical landscape). What journey would that be? What object would be printed on the postcard? Why is that the object?
A food and wine trip, which is actually what I did when I went to shoot at the Bonello farmhouse near Ferrara (Italy), my hometown. The theme was ‘homemade pasta’, and we couldn’t do it without cappellacci di zucca (pumpkin ravioli)! I decided to place a bag and a pair of shoes on the wooden table, along with some plates, cheese and eggs… In short, all the ingredients needed to prepare this magnificent typical dish. It was a journey into my homeland, made of countryside, cultivated fields, rivers and sea.
3. Who would you send it to? What message would you write?
I would send it to my girlfriend at a time when we are far apart. I would write to her: “Soon we will make cappellacci together, I miss you”.
