1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): PAOLO ROSSELLI
BY HUGO OLIVEIRA
HO: Where was this photograph shot?
PR: It was shot in the room of the hotel where I was staying in Katowice, in Poland.
HO: When was it shot?
PR: It was shot in January, 2014. It's my most recent work.
HO: What type of atmosphere of Katowice were you trying to reflect through this photograph?
PR: Firstly, I think that there is a confusion between the "inside" and the "outside". Then there is a confusion between two subjects: landscape and camera. And then there is a view in the second camera which is blurred. So I really like to put these things together.
HO: What made you select this photograph?
PR: First I must say that it is not a real collage. In a way, as a photographer I see the world as a collage, it is artificial, it is built. It is sort of “fake” thing. But at the same time very real. This set is not made with Photoshop, it's made by me. I like to put things together that have no relation. Normally you see the landscape as a landscape. My view of the world is already a collage, it's a sort of a “set”. I think about the “set”, I prepare it, and then I go around the city, and I try and propose to see the world in this way.
So, this series – with the camera “inside the picture” - is something that I conceived around one year ago. I started to put the camera as a subject inside the photo that looks at the landscape. So, the world for me is not “reality”, it is a “set”. In my opinion, there is a difference in the perceiving of the world before and after digital photography arrived - let's say, ten years ago. In my view this change came with other changes in the view of the city. The growth of cities “exploded” in the last 30 years. If you go to China you perfectly understand that! It's a chaos. But nevertheless a very interesting chaos. And in my view, all of these changes - urban, technical, etc. - came at the same time. It influenced the perceiving of the world by the photographer. And as a photographer, I react to these changes through my work.
HO: What do you like the most about this photo and is there anything valuable to take out of this experience?
PR: What I like in this picture that I took - or any other that I take inside of a room or of a car - is that I can put together two experiences. The experience of the inside and the experience of the outside. If I was in a helicopter I could only see the experience of the outside through a medium (a drone or a helicopter). This is not interesting for me. I cannot compose the image as I do, through a drone.
HO: What is the importance of storytelling and narrative in your work?
PR: I think that ideas, words, or concepts lead me in taking a particular picture. That is very important in my point of view. Otherwise, I think that, while taking pictures of architecture is a very interesting thing, in the end you need to think about what you are doing as a photographer.
Paolo Rosselli is an Italian architecture photographer based in Milan.
The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".