Valentina Martiradonna
Valentina Martiradonna is a street photographer based in Rome. Before she actually had a camera, she says, she took pictures with her eyes. That’s just how she sees the world. She’s not a fan of technology and doesn’t care to have the most expensive equipment. She also isn’t impressed by Photoshop. She cares about the shots and the stories she can tell – stories about women and the way women use their jewlery, the way they walk and go about town. Sometimes she will befriend her subjects and make portraits.
You can look at Valentina’s instagram page for more of her work.
Although you are a photographer, your academic background is in psychology. What came first, your love for photography or the study of the human mind and how do these two meet in your work?
My love for photography came before everything else. As a little girl I started photographing the world around me with my eyes and I have never stopped since. Studying psycology has certainly taught me how to get in other people's shoes and how to understand their emotions by observing their faces and postures. One subject I've studied a lot is Bioenergetics, which is based on the observation of the body to get to the root of the psychological blocks we carry as bagage and I realize that what I seek in a photo and what catches my attention is capturing an emotion that might be displayed in a movement of the body or a particular expression of the face.
What do you like the most about street photography and what do you hope to capture with your photos?
Street photography allows me to get lost in all the nooks and crannies of the cities I got to and also to set my flaneur spirit free. When I'm wandering around I spend hours and hours observing people and it's only after I've gotten myself into a certain mood that I can actually start taking photos. It happens very often that I get home having shot anynothing. I believe that sometimes a hand gesture, a fleeting gaze or an elegant stride have the power to mesmerize more than breathtaking scenery. I like portraying people in their routines and spontaneous state and I hope my photos communicate my deep love for purely observing the human species. Sometimes it can happen that I approach someone I find particularly interesting and we start talking and from encounters like this, actual street portraits are created.
You live in Rome, which naturally makes the most stunning backdrop for photography, but at the same time it's one of the most photographed places on Earth. Your Rome, while still remaining beautiful, isn't a romanticized place inhabited by stereotypes. How do you find something new in a city whose every angle has been photographed over and over again?
I love Rome and its thousand faces. It's a fascinating city, but it's also a very complex one to live in. I hope with my pictures I can show its authenticity, but at the same time stir away from stereotypes. At the end of the day, I stick to showing what I see on a day to day basis, which ties me to my city. I've been working on a street photography project for a while, starring women and their way of styling jewelry. I mainly photograph women in the streets of Rome, wearing jewels in their day to day lives, sitting at a table, or waitng at the bus stop. I like seeing how they express their personality via their jewelry.
How much do you rely on equipment and postproduction? What are your favorite photo gadgets?
I don't belong to the category of photographers who hugely rely on technology. I own a reflex, but I do my street photography with a Fuji X100T which has a fixed lens. I don't love zoom lenses, my passion are rather fixed ones. I'm a firm believer that a beautiful photo isn't the product of an instrument, but that the secret lies in the eyes of the one who's behind the camera. Shooting Polaroids has been a passion of mine since I was a little girl and lately I've gotten back into it with an old one I got at a market. My dream would be to buy the Polaroid SX-70, the one that Andy Warhol used to use. I do use Photoshop, but I barely retouch my shots, I like them to be as consistent with reality as possible.
According to you, what makes a good street photograph? When you look at other people's work, what usually catches your eye?
I've realized by looking at other artists photos, that what draws me in is the composition of the shot, its tones and when something gets captured that normally people overlook. It's what I call the magic moment and the magic isn't really in what is photographed, but in the how.
What was the best piece of advice that you got from another photographer?
A famous photographer once told me: if you really want to get something across with your photos, you need to feel free to tell stories. This is what I try to do with all of my pics as I find storytelling to be paramount.
American painter Ghada Amer said "being a woman artist makes me sell for less money and closes doors for solo museum shows". What is your experience of being a woman in the world of contemporary photography, in Italy as well as outside?
Being a woman in this moment in time isn't easy in Italy as well as in the rest of the world. Altough some progress has been made, we still find ourselves fighting against old, sexist double standards all too present in the world of photography. Women are often payed less and struggle to achieve leading roles, but I'm hopeful about the results we've been scoring the last few years. I'm a member of a group of women street photographer, called Women in Street, and I truly believe that collaborating among women is the key to everything and can lead to glorious achievements. (I'm in the street photographers world list: https://womeninstreet.com.map/ ).
Furthermore, especially in the world of the arts, I see there are a lot of women directing art galleries and having prestigious roles which makes me really happy. I can actually say this from first hand experience as I work for a foundation who deals with art in Rome (Fondazione Alda Fendi - Esperimenti).
Do you feel that gender plays a role in your aesthetics and if so, how would you define its role?
I think that the way I see the world around me is totally influenced by my being a woman. I'm a woman in love with photographing other women and I'm continuosly inspired by female beauty. In my photos I adore working, quite obsessively actually, with compositions and color palettes. Certainly, my great passion for cinema (my grandfather used to work in movies) and fashion has also had a key role in the development of my aesthetics.
What are some female artists that influenced your work?
Amongst the many women who have inspired me I want to mention: Letizia Battaglia, for her touching and brave shots on mafia crimes; Sarah Moon, for her intangible and refined atmospheres; Helen Levitt, for the inimitable style of her wonderful shots in the streets of New York; Francesca Woodman, for the way she likes to experiment with art through studying her body within space; Annie Leibovitz, for her unparalleled respect and empathy when portraying others; Maripol for capturing with her polaroids the creative New York of the 80s; Patti Smith, for the freedom of her mind and the spirit of a warrior that define her today still.
