Talking with Stefano Mirabella: Street Photography

  

Stefano Mirabella. ROME – 21 December 2019

The most beautiful friendships are those with which passions are also shared and mine, of course, is photography. Among my closest friends, there are many photographers, and Stefano Mirabella is among those I respect most.

We have known each other for some years now and he is a person I esteem a lot, even before the photographic value, for the human aspect.

The world of Photography is – unfortunately – full of individuals whose egos go hand in hand with the focal length of the lenses; it only takes nothing to make vanity splash to unbearable levels.

Stefano has always remained the same since I have known him, the same humility, despite being a high-level teacher in one of the most important photography schools in Rome, Leica Ambassador, and one of the best Street photographers in circulation in Italy.

This would be enough to get to know him better, but given that many fill their mouths with the word Street and clog their social networks with photographs of Street which, in fact, only the “street” as a physical place, but not intended as a philosophy of thought, we grasp the opportunity to know his point of view.

As a teacher, photographer, and visual thinker.

Rome, 2013

Rome, 2015

First, introduce yourself to those who don't know you. 

Hi, Stefano. First of all thanks for the beautiful presentation and thanks for the interesting questions to which I am going to answer, I was born in 1973 in Rome, the city where I have always lived and worked. Photography has always been my greatest passion until it became my job about 4 years ago. Before, I worked in the field of television, making television formats for a satellite broadcaster. 

Now, as you have already mentioned, I am a lecturer at “Officine Fotografiche” and lecturer at the Leica Akademie. 

I don't like genres or classifications in photography, so I'll tell you that I love my city and portray the every day in a unique and original way. As for me: “Photography is the synthesis between the representation of reality and the ability to transcend it.”

Rome, 2013

When and how was the love for photography born? Tell us about your beginnings and what you shoot with. 

It started a long time ago, when in the company of a Yashica, which an uncle gave me on the day of my first communion, I started the first “photographic” weekends around Italy first, and for Europe immediately afterward, then first training courses and a long personal journey made up of practice, study, and study. I firmly believe that looking at the work of others, studying, getting information, visiting exhibitions, and leafing through books, is essential for the journey of every photographer.

I shoot with a Leica Q, a small but high-performance camera obviously. I prefer 28mm, a lens that “forces” you to get close and literally enter the scene.


How did you come to be a Leica Ambassador and what did it mean for you? 

Through an online competition that Leica Camera Italia organized a few years ago, the Leica Talent. In 2014 I also participated and to my great surprise and satisfaction, I won it, thus becoming Ambassador. A strong and formative experience that allowed me to enter the world of professional photography from the front door. Getting to know in person and being able to interact with internationally renowned photographers, who until a few years earlier were only absolutely unattainable myths, was really important for my growth.


Very often the passion for photography, like all devouring passions, involves renunciations, sacrifices. Was it the same for you too? 

I don't think I have given up anything for photography, on the contrary, I think it has given me and is giving me a lot. I often say that without the love of photography I don't even know what person I could have been. Certainly very very different.

Often the work takes me away from home, but I think I can manage everything with the right balance.

One thing to pay attention to is never losing the “amateur” spirit, keeping the spirit and passion of the early days even when photography, as in my case, becomes a job, with its commitments and pressures.


If you had to give your definition of “Street Photography” what would it be... 

Definitions are always “dangerous”, which is why I don't like to give them, or as I said before, to classify, categorize, and divide by genres. But in some way, I presume I have to answer you... So I tell you that for me Street Photography is simply investigating the every day with the specific intent of documenting it but also of reinterpreting it, in an attempt to create evocative, interesting, and above all original photos, in which can always catch a glimpse of the photographer's gaze, attentive and never banal.

You have to put your accent, your point of view on everyday life.

Enjoying your city and those who live there, loving the streets, markets, stations, being guided by instinct, light, and noise. Always keep in mind that everyday life is anarchic, the photographer must always be ready, he must be attentive, curious, and fast, but then it will be the way to “give you” the right photograph.

Rome, 2014

Which are the authors you love most and which would you recommend to beginners or to those who love this photographic genre? 

This is really the hardest question of all, we could talk and write about it for hours. So I'll tell you how my personal discovery of the great authors was born. All thanks to the purchase on newsstands of a famous series that collected the volumes of all the photographers of the Magnum Agency. Inside those volumes, there is almost everything. From there the love for some authors and for some genres were born. Cartier Bresson, Alex Webb, Constantine Manos, Trent Parke, Richard Kalvar, David Alan Harvey, Nikos Economopoulos, and many others. I assure you that you are spoiled for choice. 

Tell us about your projects you are carrying out, including exhibitions. You recently showed me a work that is not within the scope of the Street, very nice, when will it see the light? 

I hope my main project is inexhaustible, for me the real goal is to wait for the next good photograph, and to do this you have to go out, walk and continue to be passionate. Also, I'm dedicating myself to the creation of a photographic series all focused on one place, but I can't say more, for now, forgive me. 

Yes, you're right, I worked for a long time in a small village in Poland, an intimate family diary came out that has been touring Italy since last year, it was on show at the Bi Foto Festival in Sardinia and in Corigliano Calabro, next September. I will be a guest in Verona for a photographic festival called Grenze. I don't know yet if it will become a book, we'll see. 

DOM. Poland, 2015-2019

DOM. Poland, 2015-2019

David Gibson, in his famous manual, writes that the history of photography has not been fair to “Street Photography”, which has always been considered a minor genre, while - quoting Nick Turpin - argues that in reality the "Street Photography ”is“ photography in its simplest form ”. What's your opinion?

I believe that Street Photography has always existed, especially when there was no need to call it that. It is perhaps the most “noble” approach and genre, just think of the work of Cartier Bresson, Willy Ronis, André Kertész, and then Robert Frank, William Klein, Joel Meyerowitz, what do you say is enough? It is these names that answer your question.

To conclude, what is the advice you give to those who start: why should someone grab the camera and go out on the street?

For love.

Where can we see your photographs?

www.stefanomirabella.com

https://www.instagram.com/stefanomirabella/

 

Rome, 2013

Stefano Mirabella. Photographed at “Officine Fotografiche”

 

READ ALSO:

• Talking with Fabio Moscatelli: Storytelling 
• Life is Dream

David Gibson: “Street Photography – Photographer's Manual” (Quintet, 2014)
David Gibson: “Street Photography – A History, 100 Iconic Images” (Prestel, 2019)
“Street Photography Now” by Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren” (Thames & Hudson, 2017)

Italian version