Q: Hi Bartolomeo, tell us something about you.
Hi everybody! I’m Bartolomeo and I’m a 24 years old photographer from Udine, a quite small town in the north of Italy.
Q: When and why did you start taking pictures?
I honestly don’t know when and why, I can’t remember why I started taking pictures; I’ve always find it very naturally. Maybe there isn’t a specific reason, it’s just the medium I use to talk with the world. Someone use music, other poetry and someone use photography. I think I’ve started taking pictures seriously 5 years ago, but I don’t have a specific day nor year.
Q: How would you define your genre? In general, what is the genre you like the most?
This is always a difficult question for me. When people asks me what genre of pictures I take I never find an answer because I don’t think that exists one. I love nature, but I’m not a landscape photographer. I love people, but I’m not a portrait photographer. So? I don’t know. Maybe the most “correct” answer is documentary photography: I love to tell stories with my pictures but I mostly love asking question and not giving answer to the people that are watching my works.
Q: A recurring theme of your photography are houses in a Nordic landscape, is there a specific reason?
No, it’s not so specific. I mean, I love nordic village and everything is cold. But during my second trip in Iceland I found myself walking around this small villages (Holmavik in particular) during the night and I found something romantic in the little light that glimpse through the windows so I just started taking pictures of it, thinking about the people inside the houses and what they were doing during the night. I never saw a person, but the light allowed me to immagine their life.
Q: You also photographed few details of interiors (like empty chairs) and when I look at them I feel loneliness. Was it your purpose or am I misinterpreting your message?
The next step was obviously get into the houses (where and when it was possibile) and the felling that I felt from the outside was confirmed and amplified by the interiors. I don’t think you are misinterpreting my message. I think that everyone can read a different story and having different feelings looking at that empty chairs, that’s the beauty of photography. Of course I tried to represent the lack of human contact that I felt in the west fjords: I met few people and I speak with less, so that empty chairs become the way I express this with a picture.
Q: Do you believe that every artist shows a part of their own personality and character in his photographs? What do you want to show in yours?
I think is inevitable that part of the personality of a photographer is inside his pictures. This permits to a photographer to create his own style and language, so it’s quite important. In my pictures I just want to tell my version of the story and give to people another way to see the world
Q: You also shoot film. What do you like about film? What is the film you like the most and what analog camera do you use?
I shoot film when I think and realize that film is the right way to tell a particular story. Photography it’s just a tool, so for me it’s just a question of choosing the right one, analog or digital it does’t matter. I don’t shoot film because is just more romantic. But yes, sometimes I use film. I work only with my old Yashica mat 124 g, a medium format 6×6 camera and I use mostly color film (Portra 160). What I like about film photography is that allows you to slow down a bit and think more about what you are doing.
Q: If you could meet a famous photographer who will be?
Alec Soth or Alex Majoli.
Q: Do you have any upcoming projects?
Yes! I’m traveling to Bolivia next week. I’m going to meet and photograph the people who works in a mine in a village call Potosì!
Q: Suggest us a film and an album.
Nebraska – Alexander Payne as a film and Lost in the Dream – The war on drug as an album.
All images © Bartolomeo Rossi
