INTERVIEW WITH:
ANNA BERTOZZI
Cluster get’s behind the lens with fashion photographer and video maker
Anna Bertozzi
From Vogue shoots to the magic of stage theatre
we chart her photographic voyage and uncover
her exciting, varied career. Here we explore Anna’s reportage photography and talk about the seductive illusion within the fashion industry.
Her brand of mean, moody and magnificent photography is hard hitting and unpretentious.
Yet always strives towards an aesthetic appeal
for freedom in body and mind.
From the series Plastic Free
Editorial Fashion
Hello Anna. Where did all begin with you
and photography?
My older brother was a keen photographer and bought an Olympus OM 10 in the late 1980s.
I wasn’t allowed near the camera: it was untouchable!
I couldn’t afford my own and as these things go…
when you can’t have something you want it all the more. So, I had to wait until his passion wore off to grab
the loot!
When did you first realise that photography was going to be your thing?
Back in 2001 I went to the G8 summit in Genoa with
my trusty old Olympus. There was a kind of social reaction among people at that time and I was curious,
so I decided to be there. The police wanted to attack us at all costs even though we were just peacefully marching. It felt like anything could happen from one moment to the next. And everything did happen, culminating in the brutal police raid on the Armando Diaz School where many protesters were sleeping.
Luckily I wasn’t there.
I documented what little I saw. My emotions were released through photography for the first time!
My Olympus actually turned out to be good for something and for me personally it was a kind of therapy.
Then, I gave the G8 pics to a friend who lived in Berlin
as a Christmas present. My friend worked for a famous theatre director who saw them and decided to give me
a chance. That’s how it all started. After that, I had to go and buy my first digital camera.
Hamlet, Teatro Stabile di Torino, Turin, Italy, 2008
“I don’t do politics and I’m not an activist but I think it’s important
to have a political ideal. My work is not political. I hate indifference
and that obviously shines through from my pictures.”
G8 Protest March, Genoa, Italy, 2001
Shakespeare’s Pericles, Venice Byennal, 39th International Theatre Festival, Venice, Italy
What is your most successful photo shoot in terms
of emotional and social involvement?
My theatre pictures. In fact, I’d love to do them again when the theatres reopen and if they’ll have me.
Shakespeare’s Pericles, Teatro Stabile di Udine, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy
“If I can send a message or even just a small emotion, I don’t back away from that.
How that message is received is another story.”
Tell us more about your theatre work…
Theatre to me is like the Tower of Babel, so many different voices creating confusion yet on stage the meaning
is somehow magically conveyed.
I was invited to shoot a theater production of Shakespeare’s Pericles, adapted by Antonio Latella. Photographing a show is quite a commitment. You’re contracted for all the rehearsals as well as the show so you work closely with the full cast for at least a month, day and night. This show was special because the actors came from all over Europe and the director wanted everyone to relate to each other using their own language. French people were speaking in French
with Portuguese people answering in Portuguese.
After an initial period of confusion the actors began to understand each other perfectly, and us with them.
Friendships, loves and a theatre show were born, and it went all the way to the Venice Biennale.
Only theatre can do this, it was magical!
Shakespeare’s Pericles, Teatro Stabile di Udine, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy
From the series Plastic Free
Your Plastic Free shoot is utterly compelling. Why Plastic Free?
The Plastic Free project emerged as a warning. The idea to be free from plastic. And also to pose the question: What is plastic? In most cases it’s a container that wraps and preserves; it encloses you. Plastic free is an appeal for
freedom of thought. It’s saying; don’t encase yourself with cellophane wrap, don’t block yourself off from physical or cerebral movement.
“The strength of the photograph depends on what it says.”
From the series Plastic Free
From the series Plastic Free
“The best thing would be to look
at what you want to see, without anyone telling you what to see.”
Weise Gitte for Vogue Australia
Your images have been published in prestigious magazines, such as Vogue. We read that preparing a photo shoot
for a magazine can be a massive undertaking...
What was your experience?
In my case it wasn’t. I had been commissioned for Vogue Australia
to photograph Weise Gitte, an art curator from Berlin. We just went around the city supported by a very small team and explored the places that had inspired her. Weise had expressly asked me to avoid chaotic locations with too many people. And I’m perfect for this type of thing!
“I love my role behind the camera; watching, observing detail, exploring a story, a person,
and just clicking away.”
Your fashion work also involves video. Do you see this
an important medium in fashion photography today?
I love making videos, shooting and editing them. Whether it is
an important approach... I don’t know. But I have a lot of fun. It’s a passion. I was given a challenge by Pier Antonio Gaspari to make
a video piece and I embraced it as if it were a gift.
I like to tackle a project with a small group of people and I like to look for some truth even if, in effect, we are just selling a jumper or a coat -
there’s always a look behind it. In most cases fun and harmony are born.
Untitled
The standard of female beauty has changed over the years: from the wasp waists of the 1920s to the plastic body
of recent decades. Do you think the 2020s will include
a more natural approach towards beauty?
Absolutely, the days of Silicon Valley are over... thankfully!
In 2020 we saw the revenge of an aesthetic that rejects make-up
and defies deception. Never before have aesthetic boundaries been questioned in this way. The search for beauty and its definition
are difficult. I simply hope that we can come to like ourselves.
For me that is a beauty that lasts and liberates. Let’s remember that
for a long time beauty was a seductive illusion; a fiction born to conform to a model that was dictated by others. Fortunately, this model has now changed. I believe over the last, strange year there has been
an evolution, indeed perhaps a revolution. Diversity has become beauty and has entered into the aesthetics of fashion magazines and thereby
it has entered the social sphere. It seems a good step forward to me.
Untitled
Post-production is an important aspect of your photography. How do you like it?
Yes, it is. I love post production. When I was working with analogue
and in the darkroom I had a lot of fun experimenting with the enlarger. Now my knowledge of adobe allows me to mess around on multiple levels. And I love it!
“I’m drawn to a warmness in my photography.
I can’t help it, and more often than not this warmness is not commercial.”
Fashion Editorial
What would be your dream fashion collaboration? Feel free to name drop...
My favourite would be Marni, one of the absolute geniuses in terms of communication.
Secondly, Bottega Veneta, a brand of unprecedented class. I think they have done
the bravest and most brilliant thing in the fashion world recently when they removed
themselves from every social network. I love them!
Lastly, Antonio Marras. I love his romanticism, his vision, his pure art and honesty.
Shoot for Pier Antonio Gaspari
Shoot for Pier Antonio Gaspari
Which photographer has inspired you the most?
Elizaveta Porodina, absolute genius.
Thank you for reading,
Valeria, Daniel & Cluster Team.