MY BABY and I

When i first bought my Canon EOS 300D Digital, it was to appease a homesick heart; a way to battle the everyday banging of unknown Italian slang, the winter wind, the draining hours of work and the sentient familiarity of being alone banging slamming banging in my mind.

In the first two years with "My Baby" here in Italy, it was just that. It was only in 2007 when the passion unfurled in me wholly and i was intoxicated.










After four years, I believe I have taken some shots that to me were amazing because of what i felt in that moment, where i was, and what was going through in my mind and heart. That is, after all, what photography boils down to. At least, it's that way for me.

and i didn't even had to make my out of the maze

This month, a lot of my friends have asked me to be the labrat in their omnifarious avocations.
There was my friend Ping, an upcoming, IED-schooled women's clothing designer from Bangkok, who wanted me to sit in as a 'living mannequin'. The idea was cute until i realized that his fingers and hands would be all over my fragile and sensitive body, pricking layers upon layers of textile (and probably, into my skin, along the process). Oh, that, and to stand around in a dress the whole day? Ugh.

A girl friend of mine, Tina, who teaches at the Wall Street Institute, also asked me to come in for a seminar on "being uprooted". I guess she wanted me to talk about my experiences moving from one palce to another, starting new lives and starting from scratch. This one, i could get into... if not for the fact that the seminar would be held in one of the schools in Rome. Right.... with my work sched as of the moment, scratch that.

Then Albie, this aspiring photographer asked me to do a shoot with him for a series he's doing for one of the smaller but edgier galleries of Milan. I could have said yes, but then i learned that the project is to be entitled: The Naked Truth About My Gay Friend. It wasn't so much the posing around naked, but that i would have to pose around (and probably, intimately close to (on top, under and i-don't-even-want-to-think-about-it) his other women models). Sorry Albie, im just not that brave yet.

And then, Mario, this Latino guy that i volunteer with every week at the Unicef office, asked for some of my pictures because he was finishing a thesis on photography and he wanted some Asian blood for the so-called "Black" series. Now, this one was feasible enough. As i already have a ton of pictures of myself taken by me and by other people.

I don't really know for what specific purpose he used them, or what point he was trying to make, but he was kind enough to give me copies of the "edited pictures". I think these weren't just cs2-ed. But, heck how would i know. here they are.

yes, sometimes being a labrat can have advantages. For the mannequin stint, i was promised a spectacular Thai dinner. For the seminar, travel fare. For the photo shoot, a special invite to the opening and a bit of remuneration. For the black series? A free lunch at McDonald's (where we met up to give him the pictures) and where I, after months and months of not eating junk food, was magically reacquainted with the hateful but deliciously captivating world of : grease.

WORK 1

JUST TO GIVE MY FAMILY AN IDEA WHAT'S I'VE BEEN DOING WITH MY TIME.... hours and hours spent in front of the pc, learning step by step, and all by myself... i never really thought i'd get into it, i remember when i was still young and insisting that i WILL NEVER encode my stories into a computer's memory. Such an idea to me then was a betrayal of a writer's nature. I considered the humble typewriter and the simple pen and paper more faithful to the romance of being a writer. Now, however, i have re-discovered the pc as a valuable tool for communicating. This time, with images.


SOME ADS FOR A LAW FIRM












XMAS 2008 E-CARDS FOR KT





POSTER FOR PIER PAOLO'S BIRTHDAY


POSTERS FOR WORK









LITTLE ANGELS
i made these for grace, who does all the cakes herself. i had fun with the ads, and she was brave enough to choose the "gay" one!!!

WORK 2

FRAGMENTS









SOME RANDOM WORK










INDEPENDENCE DAY 2007CAMPAIGN

MORE ADVENTURES OF CESARE

THE RETURN




THE ENGINEER



THE ACCENT



PREP ATTACK

winterwind

WINTERWIND.
Wind,
why retreat
curb your cold desires
why hide behind the morning fog
sleep into dark night
come dance
your wild dance
let loose the tired leaves
and cry if you must,
your tears,
fall and wet the hungry earth
sing your howling,
end your pain,
mirror my heart,
come blow again.

WINTERWIND.