‘Brought to Light’ – Mobile Photography / Art Interview with Gianluca Ricoveri

Describe a moment that changed your life

Certainly when I managed to retire and could finally devote myself to photography leaving behind time-related worries. Having the opportunity to go back and visit with no hurries the places of my own Tuscany that I wanted to shoot, where I passed so many times for work without having the time to stop, meant an unspeakable joy.

Image – ©Gianluca Ricoveri

Describe a childhood photographic / art memory

I do not have a definite moment to recall since my whole childhood was always full of art. My father was a painter, so I always lived amongst canvases, brushes and oil paints. It comes to mind when I was 5 or 6, posing for my father while sitting on a chair. This is what brought me as a boy to painting and shooting photographs, always trying to integrate the two. I used to use many photos as a reference for my drawings and paintings. I also would intervene with painting techniques on my own photos. iPhoneography eventually allowed me to combine the two.

Image – ©Gianluca Ricoveri

Describe your Mobile studio

I now use an iPhone 6s and an iPad Pro. The apps I mainly use are Hipstamatic – I own all its packs even though I usually end up using only 3 or 4 – VividHDR, Fusion and 645PRO. For portraits I mainly use Tintype because it manages to make simple and immediate a technique that can be very complex if done through analogue means. I use Snapseed for the initial editing part, I love that app. Sometimes I use Leonardo, then move on to Stackables, Mextures and occasionally Pic Grunger.

Image – ©Gianluca Ricoveri

What do you like to think about whilst creating images?

I try to reproduce the feelings the picture gave me when I took the photograph. They’re not often easy to recreate, but I keep working on the photo until I reach what hit me originally and until I feel I am expressing the full potential of the image. I often leave the photo to settle, to get back to it after a day or two so it can show me different look and I can almost always find some things to fix or emphasise that I had overlooked in the first stage of the editing.

Image – ©Gianluca Ricoveri

Share one mobile photography/art tip

The same subject shot at different times, different hours of the day and using different apps can give unexpected results.

Image – ©Gianluca Ricoveri

What or who ignited your passion for mobile photography / art?

While on vacation in Sardinia, I happened to find the catalogue of a splendid exhibition by Roberto Murgia. Everything had been done with Hipstamatic. That find ignited something and I haven’t stopped since.

Image – ©Gianluca Ricoveri

What is the most unusual subject you have photographed / painted?

I have never done particularly strange things. The most unusual shots I did is a series of B&W photos done using a view camera , shooting reflections of trees in a swampy area of a park located near Pisa. I think that if you can look carefully you won’t need to find strange or exotic subjects to take pictures that have something to say; subjects are countless, even close to where you live, that if observed carefully can disclose all the beauty they hide.

Image – ©Gianluca Ricoveri

What are your favorite Mobile photography accessories?

I bought Moments’ Tele and Wide lenses. Sometimes I use especially the Wide because it has a good optical performance. I don’t use anything else.

Image – ©Gianluca Ricoveri

Who would play you in a movie of your life?

Jeremy Irons.

Image – ©Gianluca Ricoveri

Do you have a favorite app?

A couple… Snapseed and Stackables.

Image – ©Gianluca Ricoveri

Describe your dream Mobile photography / art assignment.

I’d love to make a book with my photos. That is a project I have in mind since quite a while now. I’ll have to get myself at work on that sooner or later.

I want thank you Joanne for your priceless work !!

Image – ©Gianluca Ricoveri

Gianluca Ricoveri was born in 1950 where he lives, he has always been devoted to the art of painting and photography experiencing the interaction of one genre with another one. In 2012 he discovered the iPhoneography which allows him to blend the different means of expression. He was given the opportunity of showing his own works in many personal exhibitions in Pisa, Lucca, Asuni,  San Gimignano and Florence at FIPA 2015. He has been chosen many times as “The artist of the day” in IPA and the picture of the day at P1xels. He received an honorable mention at AX3. His works has been selected for  43mm Issue 3 – International Mobile Exposee, for The exhibition at Exposure Mobile Photo, Ohio, for The Contest of The  Art Group The RUSH, in Praha, for the MPA Pocket Vistas, for The Markham Vineyards Gallery exhibition in St.Helena Ca, for the 2014 MPA, for Light Impression in Tour in Miami, had won The Landscape and Nature GoPix Awards. His works are in permanent exhibition at Mobile Digital Art & More Gallery, Boonton NJ.

He is a founder artist of The New Era Museum.His works has been featured in the most important sites and magazines of Mobile Photography.

[email protected]

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