“To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Tell us about yourself!
My name is Giuseppe Marano, a Sicilian-born photographer, grown up in the province of Catania, between Misterbianco and Valcorrente countrysides. I love the Light, Nature, Scents, my Land, the dream I have to get where I want, I love the music and in general perceptions, senses… I like to lose myself in the joy that it is possible to discover in an smell, or to discover a music that makes me travel with the mind. Photography is for me the synthesis, the opportunity to try to capture everything, this world, in and out of me.
How did your passion / your job start?
My passion is a bit the sign of fate. The encountered with it started in a laboratory of photojournalism at the Humanities University of Catania. During the fascinating lectures of the photojournalist Angelo Di Giorgio from Catania, listening to the stories of the great photographers of the past (William Eugene Smith above all) I felt that feeling in my stomach that made me say: I want to do this. Until then I had never had awareness of the photographic medium that soon would have become a major language to know and discover parts of me that I ignored.
Why weddings?
Marriages were a natural evolution of my need to tell stories. Many people think they are a second-best, I see them as an important part of my vision and my need to photograph. Thanks to continuous weddings I can travel to Italy and abroad and I have met stories and exceptional people. It fascinates me so much the anthropological aspects that hide behind weddings. I love to observe people’s behavior and the differences that I discover at each new location. They are a mix of tradition, habit, ritual and religion.
Your biggest achievement so far / your biggest disappointment
There are several achievements in the recent years, which surprised and excited me. I can not choose one, but there are several moments that feeded my dream: from the scholarship that brought me to New York to the articles published recently by “Huffington Post” and “La Repubblica”, through the selection of one of my projects (“Finché Morte non Ci Separi”) to Tbilisi Photo Festival, up to the trip that brought me in November to shoot an amazing wedding in the Caribbean, in the Turks & Caicos where I had the honor to follow important filmmakers.
The biggest disappointment? I do not know, again I do not remember one in particular, but several discussions where my expectations were revealed highest of my ability to do. They have been key moments where either I could give in or find the spirit to move forward and go beyond. I never gave up.
In your wonderful photos there is the true Italy, the one with countrysides, the antique furnitures and houses that recall the tradition… a deliberate choice? and if it’s so, why?
Years pass and I realize I have a strong melancholy mark inside me. I love life and I wish I could keep alive all those feelings that I find in my path. After all photography it’s needed for this reason, to take care of our fear of losing important moments. Objects and subjects of my photographs are a consequence of this desire, I am never fully awake of it when I click, often the meaning of what I do comes later, and there are cases in which it takes years before I understand the meaning of a given photo. I think those photos are the result of my desire to be always in touch with my origin, my roots, a way to remind me who I am and where I come from.
The morning you wake up and what is usually the first thought?
Often, very often it is a thought projected into the future, wanting to find out where I can still get and what this new day sets aside. My mother instilled me this need to look ahead and never settle for anything less in life: the risk is to never be satisfied, but when you find the balance then you discover that this is the driving force of wanting always improve itself.
There is a phrase that you repeat like a mantra when you’re in trouble or to go on?
Particularly when I am under pression, maybe because of an important job, I try to reconnect myself to that most intimate and instinctive part of me that, for some reasons I can not explain, at the end allows me to make the photos I make. I try to transmit confidence repeating to myself: you just have to watch what is happening around you.
I look at your photos and I see poetry and the past, the delicacy in representing moments of normal life that seem rare paintings… How much work is behind it and how much love it takes to get such special results?
The first years I did many researches: I read portfolio reviews, books, I visited different exhibitions. All these have helped me to understand that it was necessary to become estranged from everything and try to connect me with myself, understand what my “obsessions” that are the outcome of this personal historical moments in which we live. Several times I was told: I do not see Giuseppe Marano in these photos. Then I worked trying to give an answer to that question, that was my biggest thought. The rest is the result of a lot of determination and perseverance, fundamental elements to accomplish their dreams. I have worked hard over the years to simplify and release, that ideal path mentioned by Cartier-Bresson: eyes and heart.
“To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.”
How to face life and work?
I always try to face it head on, not looking for escape routes and I like to deal with problems and solve them, not leave them aside or avoid them. I am since always sure that only improving as a man could make me been a better photographer, so even before making workshops or photography courses, I took care to keep the peace within me, figuring out who I am and where I want to go.
“To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Mind’s Eye: Writings on Photography
Discover more about Giuseppe Marano: maranovisionart.com
