ALAN GELATI

Curated by Valentina Ciarallo Exhibition coordination by Manrica Rotili In collaboration with WIB Milano by Mario Rescio, representing Alan Gelati

Exhibiting from April 13 2022 at Gallery Hotel Art

When and how did you start taking photographs? It was a gradual process, like the one that is built and acquired over the years during the course of life. There is no precise date. It all started at a very advanced stage, if not in age, certainly in maturity and after various work experiences. From there I understood first how I would not accept living the rest of my existence. Your first photo shoot and your last? The first were some photo tests for a fashion agency. The last one is a cover story for a soccer player. Who were your teachers or your sources of inspiration? The masters in life are always many, not necessarily related to the photographic field. In my professional training, various life experiences matured in different working environments and apparently far from my world proved to be fundamental. In the end, photography is a look at what surrounds us and from which to grasp all its nuances. Knowledge and intelligence are never limited to a single "color" and does not arise from a single experience. A memory from your childhood? Playing with my sister in the snow. A beautiful photograph. You divide yourself between Milan, Paris, Los Angeles. Which city are you most attached to? Each of these cities, but also many others, create strong emotions and offer me the opportunity to meet different types of people. I find everywhere completely different but fundamental ideas and aesthetic stimuli in the search for my existential and professional balance. Your favorite subject? The body and the face. It has always been like this even at the beginning, when my professional path was not yet outlined and the idea of ​​living with photography was perhaps just a beautiful dream useful to anesthetize a daily working life that did not make me feel good. I remember once, a photography agent after delivering a free photographic test that was rejected said to me: "You will never go anywhere as a photographer, you only photograph the faces of the models". At that moment I was very hurt, later analyzing the words and differentiating them from the arrogance with which they were spoken, I realized that all in all he was right. Even then my propensity for portraits was strong. Fortunately for me, those "faces" have opened many paths in my artistic career. Black and white or color? Small or large formats? The technique used is not important, but the image created is.  You can be a great photographer using just a smartphone. The content and form are molded into the essence of the photographic image. The most difficult well-known face to manage? No one in particular. It is enough to photograph, freeing yourself from the imposed aesthetic canons and finding beauty in every form that presents itself before your eyes. Is fashion art or is art fashion? A discussion too complex and articulated not to fall into banality. What over time was considered "commercial work" or fashion was later rediscovered as an art. Andy Warhol and Toulouse-Lautrec taught this. Has anything changed after 2020 in the way of photographing and how do you see the future of photography? It depends on what you photograph, for whom and for what purposes. Photography as an artist's interpretation of the world does not change. What changes is only the medium and the final use. The future for me corresponds only to the realization of planned events. It is a path that is undertaken without knowing what awaits us, a frightening prospect for me before starting my career as a photographer. Now I am looking for the stimulus to discover and search for the unpredictability of life itself.