Today we are meeting with one photographers active on our platform, Pietro Lonoce. Born in Fragagnano (TA) Lonoce is a freelance graphic designer living in Parma, Italy where he completed his Bachelor's Degree in Media and Communications for the Creative Industries.
His research presents itself as an ambiguous stimulus and it can have different meaning based on its projective characteristics.
For me, photography is a spontaneous act, a requirement of my being.
Lonoce is interested in all subjects that concern the everyday, the 'simple' things and the contrasts of our society and ultimately by the unusual characteristics of the environment we live in, by its customs and habits.
Walk us through your academic experience. How do you think your education shaped your career?
My academic background is actually very basic; I did not attend either an art school or an academy. I learned the basic techniques of photography by taking an advanced course, but without delving into any particular technique.
The first time I started experimenting with a digital Reflex I was 16 years old, it was a camera bought by my parents and from there I started shooting, experimenting a lot, especially with post-production. After a while I gave up digital experimentation and got into analog photography, after I inherited from my sister a compact film camera and from my father his old analog reflex. From here I began to shoot with a greater awareness.
From every mistake I learned something. I can say that my academic experience was almost entirely self-taught with college I expanded a more cultural and historiographical discourse.
The first time I started experimenting with a digital Reflex I was 16 years old, it was a camera bought by my parents and from there I started shooting, experimenting a lot, especially with post-production.
What is indispensable while working with your camera as a photographer?
Feelings and courage. A lot of times you need to take risks to shoot in certain contexts, and other times you have to get carried away by the feelings, by what the place and the environment conveys to you.
I feel like in my research the medium and technique come next.
A lot of times you need to take risks to shoot in certain contexts, and other times you have to get carried away by the feelings, by what the place and the environment conveys to you.
How do you research materials for your creative process?
All my research starts from an intuition and visual and sensory stimulation. Most of my work has come about through a memory or emotion that has marked me.
I read and observe a lot, I am an extremely curious person, watching documentaries is one of the things I love to do most (I watch too much, according to my girlfriend). They always give me new insights and notions that align with my thoughts and philosophy of my work. Sometimes these stimuli become really a lot, so I always tend to jot down everything that goes through my mind, words, details, places I go to, I keep business cards, brochures, memorabilia of any place I visit. This fetish for keeping everything comes from the fact that every experience leaves me with something that allows me to continue my aesthetic narrative. My creative process stems from me and my personal and sensory experience.
Very often, I only need to spend an afternoon with my grandfather.
This fetish for keeping everything comes from the fact that every experience leaves me with something that allows me to continue my aesthetic narrative. My creative process stems from me and my personal and sensory experience.
Who are your favorite photographers and who are the ones that built your creative imaginary?
Well, there are many. But I will mention those who, in my early experiments with photography, allowed me to feel less "crazy" when shooting certain subjects or situations, which became for me a fetish I could not give up ( and still do not give up)
Michaele Northrup; Ronni Campana; Bruce Davidson (my first love); Lucia Buricelli; maybe it goes without saying but Luigi Ghirri; and as a last I would say Benoit Paillè. Each of these has left something in me, building my own store of creative insights.
What is your relationship with social media and how do you use them?
I have to say that it is a love-hate relationship. I find a lot of interesting insights and ideas (especially in pandemics when those were the only channels that got me away) but at the same time they are very empty and lacking in authenticity. Certainly, if exploited well, they can be a great showcase, but precisely a showcase. You find everything there, and for creatives this can also be a downside: on Instagram everyone is an artist. Everyone is creative. Sometimes you have a hard time understanding the profile of an artist from one who is not.
That is why, over time, I use social less and less as a means of publishing my work and focus much more on my website, where I can give proper attention not only to the aesthetics of my research but also to their cultural and theoretical side.
