I was eagerly interested in nude photography since my student days, just, at that time it was impossible for me to turn this passion of mine into reality.
My first model was the girl I used to go out with. Unfortunately, her mother saw the pictures: she was outraged and wanted the negatives. I was so embarrassed, if I didn’t want my parents to learn about the whole thing I had to destroy the negatives and give her mother what was left of them.
I was lucky enough to find always different schoolmates willing to pose for my photographs.
In those days I was already sure that nude photography was the best way to express myself artistically but I was also strongly influenced by my very conservative education and by my sense of shame, which did not allow me to show the pictures to others and to declare my passion openly. Only my most intimate friends could see my photographs.
In 1984 I finally exposed myself. Just by chance I met the manager of an art gallery who liked my works and offered me to organize an exhibition at his gallery. It was my first one-artist exhibition and it was some sort of a confirmation that my works were not just “obscenities”, but they were the expression of a serious, demanding profession.
As time went on it grew easier and easier to find girls who were willing to get undressed to be photographed. As the works I could show them to attest the seriousness of my work increased in number, the girls felt safer and they took off their clothes more easily.
I’m always asked why I started photographing naked women. It was like going against a taboo, my inner taboo which I had inherited from my catholic background, the prohibition of freely experiencing one’s sexuality and the relationship with the opposite sex. So I was unwittingly able to fight against the conditioning influence of my environment.
That kind of education has caused me to suffer from complexes in my relationships with women. While shooting photographs I could hide behind the camera and at the same time I had a pretext to watch. Some sort of a legitimization to play the “voyeur”. When you’re not quick enough in changing your lovers or girlfriends you’ll soon be facing the problem of where to find the models. Contacting specialized agencies would be easy enough, but professional models lack spontaneousness and naturalness. So I tried to do things differently, asking directly the girls I knew. Often their first reaction is a negative one, but they start trusting me as soon as they understand that my intention is not that of tearing off their clothes right away. Then, when I show them my works, they do understand and they are willing to meet me again.
Some of them have become my girlfriends, some others just friends, others again have disappeared.
In spite of my long experience as a photographer, it is always interesting and exciting to get to know and to photograph different girls.
(Text taken from the book Le mie ragazze [My Girls]).