All That Jazz

Featuring Riccardo Dubitante Words by Nastasia Khmelnitski

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Photography has several aspects it leaves its mark on. It nurtures the feeling of aesthetic pleasure, it touches the emotional facade, it attempts to decipher dreams and interpret reality, through breaking norms and creating a new understanding of the seen. Riccardo works with the concept of redefining beauty, of enabling a viewer to perceive a person by means of a touching closeness, the facial features, and the underlying personality that becomes visible. In one of the recent shoots, Riccardo decided to elaborate on the theme of mirrors, creating a narrative of reflection of the person and the connection of the outward beauty to an inside character.

Riccardo Dubitante is a Milan-based photographer who started his career from studying Film and Cinema in the UCL, London. He discovered the world of visual art through mediums other than photography, which proved to add a unique perspective to his work. The approach is merging the visual representation of a person by referencing the world of painting, and the theory behind the composition, the work with light, and story building from cinematography.

Winter and the weather changes affect our mood, our readiness to be active, and our vision. During one of the less sunny days, Riccardo sat down for a chat with us. Riccardo opens up about the roots of his work ethics coming from his upbringing. He speaks about the importance of finding the right talent to complete the story and enhance the vision of the shoot, and the imperative today, in the world over flooded with information, to be curious to find a distinct approach that separates you from other creators.

‘I got to photography pretty late, I knew I had an interest in arts, and wanted to find art-related jobs, but I wasn't so sure what exactly. I just knew I had to escape the small provincial town where I grew up.’

Hi Riccardo, how is it going? What are your plans for today?

Hi, I am doing well thanks, not psyched for the gloomy weather though... I am basically scanning films all day today.

Tell about yourself and the main steps in your career that became pillars to your development and main achievements. 

It's hard to pinpoint single moments that changed my career, it's been a very organic process where small things lead to bigger ones.

For sure, one of my most important achievements was being featured in Vogue Italia, the same with having one of my photos selected for one of the main exhibitions of last year's Photovogue Festival: All That Man Is, curated by Chiara Nonino.

What was your dream when you were a kid? What did you want to do or achieve?

I remember having a pretty foggy idea about growing up, and I still do!

I got to photography pretty late, I knew I had an interest in arts, and wanted to find art-related jobs, but I wasn't so sure what exactly. I just knew I had to escape the small provincial town where I grew up.

What are the values that were important for your parents you would adapt as a grown-up?

The greatest value my parents transmitted me is work ethic. I came from a working-class family, and growing up in a very upper-middle-class environment, I would often feel inadequate, but my parents taught me, through their examples, how dignity does not reside in what you own but in how you work to achieve it.

‘Mirrors and reflections make the perfect metaphor for modern society and social media. We are all so focused on the image we project of ourselves that sometimes we forget that what is reflected on the surface of an inner world we have to nurture and keep healthy.’

There is this photo of a fashionable boy with a dachshund which you use in your About section. Tell about this shoot you had with kids and dogs, which are probably the hardest to work with on set. 

That shot was one of the hardest! This poor little boy came all the way to Milan and had completely lost interest in being shot. Also, the whole idea of the shooting was to pair up kids and pets, but at the very last moment, one of the dog owners stood us up, and so there we were with a gloomy kid and no dog. Finally, we asked a girl who was walking her dog to let us shoot it, and she agreed, the dog was not having it though and jumped off right in the middle of the street. I could only get that good one shot, this is right before Penelope, the dog, jumped.

I think it makes sense to be my profile picture since I am A) still a grumpy child in adults clothes B) obsessed with dogs.

What is creativity in your opinion? Does it have to include an element of surprise?

That's a hard one, I feel creative when I am able to transform inputs I get from what surrounds me and what I see into something new and original. So I guess yes, there has to be an element of surprise.

You’ve studied Film, Cinema, Video at UCL in London. Let’s talk about this experience and the way it helped you develop as an artist.

My visual education started with paint, skipped photography, and went directly to cinema. That is how I first approached cinema photography and the study of light. Back then, I still hadn't realized that photography could have been my way, therefore when I got to it, my vision was almost completely virgin, the only visual references I had were cinema and classical paintings, and it probably helped me find a more original point of view. I still feel a strong bond with cinematic narrative and the synthesis of Renaissance portraits. I think with photography you can have both.

What’s the last film you watched and what did you like/dislike about it?

Bob Fosse's All That Jazz, I love how it digs deep into the director's neurosis plus great, GREAT, musical numbers.

Tell about one of your recent shoots with the model Veronika Manavella. We have an editorial with Veronica on our mag, it’s nice to see her featured in a new one. The visual is minimalistic, geometrical, and at a certain point, bizarre extending the metaphor of the mirror and reflections. What was the main theme of the shoot, and what was the hardest thing to manage? 

In my opinion, mirrors and reflections make the perfect metaphor for modern society and social media. We are all so focused on the image we project of ourselves that sometimes we forget that what is reflected on the surface of an inner world we have to nurture and keep healthy. This is the premise of that story, which I see as a path of rediscovery and re-appropriation of someone's reflection. There is a moment of coexistence, of disappearance, and lastly, of synthesis of the two. Of course, playing with reflections was very tricky, especially in the most abstract shots with juxtapositions of different reflections.

In the beauty photoshoot Mask-Off, you have developed with Fabio D’Onofrio, you challenge the concept of perception of a person by changing facial features with a mask and a wig. What is your approach to working on portraits and scouting for the right person for this type of shoot?

I would say scouting the right person to shoot is probably 50% to 60% of my work. I can have the best setting and greatest team, but if the model does not fit the story, it is all for nothing.

I like to shoot people who are not necessarily and conventionally beautiful, because I feel like they have less resistance in showing some of their inner world, through the eyes, through maybe clumsy posing or facial expressions. It is maybe only one shot, but it has to be filled with significance.

What would be your advice to the emerging photographers who struggle to get their first commissioned work?  

I don't know if I am in a position to give any advice, honestly, every path is personal and different from the others, so I don't feel there are general rules to fit to succeed.

What I feel is that it is important to keep pushing your work to be better, to be closer to the idea you have in your mind, and to keep challenging yourself. Also, work hard on your references, learn what has been done before you, and find your unique and original approach.

What’s next?

I am now focusing on a couple of personal projects, one related to my family. I felt the need after the past few years to work on something more intimate. Also, I will soon go to Jordania!