SAM MILLAR’S NEW CRIME NOVEL (ITALIAN EDITION)

My b&w portrait of friend writer and playwright Sam Millar on the back cover of the new crime novel – Sul fondo del Black’s Creek – by Italian publisher Milieu Edizioni… SOON IN BOOKSTORES!

LIVE MUSIC: THE HIDDEN RHYTHM OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES

WHO: Xabier Iriondo and Snare Drum Exorcism

WHAT: A live show. East and West. Vibes and rules. The hidden rhythm of human activities. Tierra/Maree EP (Wallace Records)… Environmentalism

WHEN: December 16, 2021 

WHERE: Germi Luogo di contaminazione

WHY: Along the line between black and white you may discover the source of a common pleasure 

SAM MILLAR IN “FOCUS VIF” 43

My black and white portrait of friend crime writer and playwright Sam Millar from Belfast in Belgian magazine Focus Vif n.43

BACKSTAGE: THE LIFE OF THE ARTISTS

Often the most interesting frames of a live show or a music festival are those from backstage – I would also include soundcheck-time and the after-show. The spectator’s eye cannot reach behind the stage. Behind the stage the photographer’s curiosity is constantly fed by the “everyday” life of the artists. The backstage-soundcheck set is a discreet appetizer that everyone would like to enjoy… Thoughts, smiles, jokes, technical adjustments, “last calls”… CLICK! (Shots taken with Fuji X100, FujiFilm X30 and Olympus OM-D E-M5)

“OUT OF THE NIGHT” AT ARTESPRESSIONE

Thursday, September 24, at Paula Nora Seegy’s Artespressione Gallery (via della Palla 3 in Milan): OUT OF THE NIGHT opening. The exhibition by Milanese photographer and essayist Matteo Ceschi curated by Matteo Pacini is scheduled during the 15th edition of Milano Photofestival, “Scenari, orizzonti, sfide. Il mondo che cambia”.

Originally scheduled for April 2020, the exhibition was postponed because of the pandemic. The 24 September opening inaugurates Artespressione’s 2020 events program. OUT OF THE NIGHT presents an inter-generational look at the jazz music scene, past and present, by two great photographers: a visual and musical tale lasting 40 years.

Inspired by Joe Henderson’s classic standard, OUT OF THE NIGHT puts together and compares Matteo Ceschi’s black and white frames, taken during JazzAscona 2019 and Jazz Cat Club Ascona’s 2019-2020 season and Swiss photographer Maurizio Gonnella’s precious film photos (from Luciano Bignotti’s Archive) taken during the 1970s and early 1980s editions of Estival Jazz Lugano.

Gonnella was a highly regarded public figure in Lugano and Canton Ticino, where he was an appreciated visual artist and a well respected musical and cultural connoisseur. Gonnella’s stage and backstage black and white shots blend with Matteo Ceschi’s recent ones: both Gonnella’s and Ceschi’s frames record the evolution of the changing jazz music scene, reflecting its magic, its everlasting vibrant and thrilling vibes.

Originating from an authentic fascination with music, Matteo Ceschi’s black and white shots find in Blue Note Records producer and photographer Francis Wolff’s works a narrative and stylistic reference model. Approaching the music world with a typical street/straight photography philosophy, Ceschi tells us what happens on stage but also everything that happens away from the eyes of the audience: today, in a very intricate and difficult historical period, Ceschi’s unadulterated portraits can help the audience regain those vibes and real emotions of the live shows they are missing so much at present.

Matteo Ceschi’s shots were done and collected for JazzAscona Festival, Tessiner Zeitung newspaper, Pnp musical culture magazine and Nicolasound Concert Management. A selection of shots dedicated to the 2019 edition of the JazzAscona Festival was recently published in the Portuguese specialist magazine Fuji X Passion.

CRISTIANO GODANO: BACK TO LIVE SHOWS… TO SAVE THE MUSIC

We have to work hard to get the music re-started after the pandemic tsunami. Cristiano Godano’s live show (a new book and CD presentation featuring Giancarlo Onorato in truth) at RIDE Festival in Milan was the right time to return to sharing music but also to seriously reflect on the future that awaits music and art: without an adequate support from politics, in fact, it will be very difficult to plan new events. Music feeds on live vibrations and cannot be reduced to an online streaming phenomenon. The prevailing carelessness can only be overcome close to the stage, experiencing again the magic exchange between the artist and his audience. No likes needed, just love, people, notes and… frames! The beat goes on!  

ZUIKO 75MM F1.8 REVIEW IN OLYMPUS PASSION

In the Olympus Passion July 2020 issue you can find my article on Zuiko 75mm f1.8 lens with frames of crime-writer and playwright Sam Millar, Grammy awarded trumpeter Leon Kid Chocolate Brown, guitarist and singer Dave Blenkhorn, Black Lives Matter protest and more. ENJOY!

THE FUEL OF COMPETITION

The crowd in the S.Siro South Stand moves and sings in unison, the team in heart and mind. But if you look closely at this three-dimensional mass, you can see the faces of the individual football supporters. Every face has a story. More than the football players’ performances, these faces have immediately attracted me and continue to attract me. These individual souls are the fuel of competition, but each also changes the dimension and profile of the mass. (All frames taken with Olympus OM-D E-M5)

 

MILAN, DECEMBER 12… 1969-2019

 

Memories and faces cut the darkness of the darkest Past. Men and women whisper the sad chronicle of a bombing. Milanese civil society once again remembers the citizens who were slaughtered by extreme-right violence. In Piazza Fontana people loudly condemn fascism. The public speakers speak. The flags flap. Eyes fire up. Another December 12 adds new memories to the heart of the city.

 

EYES SHOULD SURVEY THE WORLD

Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás wrote: <A man’s feet must be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.> This quote came to my mind as soon as I met Vancouverite songwriter Bocephus King at Ponkj bar in Milan.
That’s the reason I decided to take a bunch of shots before the live show began: I was curious to see what his eyes could tell me and how they kept surveying the world.
A few shots were enough to obtain amazing postcards from Bocephus King’s world.
Then there was a friendly chat – I’m a Vancouver lover.
The concert has begun and Bocephus King’s eyes have continuously surveyed and narrated the world. His feet were at the same time in Canada and in Milan when he started to sing Bonnie Dobson’s Morning Dew…