Interview curated by Jasmine Laurenti
“When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls!” Ted Grant
And it is precisely Ted Grant — British activist of South African origin — whom Andrea Federico Santicoli draws inspiration from, Luganese by adoption like me: one of the gifts that the “Clubhouse” application gave me, during the challenging three-year period 2019-2022.
It was there that our voices met. Then we made an appointment in the city center to continue our vis-à-vis chat, on the deep meaning of life.
And it was there, that I discovered that Andrea lives life from a different perspective: that of one who looks at the world from a wheelchair.
It has not always been so. He told me about his motorcycle accident and that banal distraction which, by causing his fall, would have revealed itself – unless a miracle occurs! – fatal.
But he not only did not surrender. He made of the mishap a gift for himself and for the entire world: a new point of view!
Yes because one day — not even he could explain the how or the why – the crazy idea came to him to purchase his first camera. From there he restarted for a new, exciting adventure rich in emotions, travels, surprises, stories and new encounters.
I fear he does not like the word “career”, and neither do I like it. Yet, I am certain that this passion of his will take him far, much farther than he can imagine.
And here he is in the role of “Lupin” of shots, stolen wherever the occasion arises for him. To not miss even one he wears around his neck, from March 8, 2020, his inseparable “Margot” Leica M. Those two, together, create wonders.
When I ask him how he manages to capture instants so beautiful, Andrea smiles and does not find the words. He follows his instinct and it is there, snapping the photo in the place and the right moment. He “steals” the instant, saving to return it to the photographed subject, via email or WhatsApp, at a later time.
Looking at his black and white images, it is impossible not to capture of him the essence of curious explorer in love with life and the moments of which it is full… Moments that the majority of us misses for distraction, but that he captures and offers us as gems of extraordinary beauty, spontaneity, freshness.
His mentors are the greats of black and white photography: Henri Cartier – Bresson and Robert Doisneau, those who made of street photography an Art consecrated to spontaneity, to immediacy, to the emotion of a storytelling concentrated in a single and unrepeatable image.
The protagonists of the stories summarized in one shot are people of every age, alone or in couple, encountered on the street, on the lakeside, in the squares, at the fountains, in the bars… People immersed in their daily life and intent on playing, kissing, conversing, embracing, reading a book, taking the sun, playing a musical instrument… Not “in pose”, but while they tell themselves with a smile, a glance, an ironic gesture, expressing the ineffable. Flowers caught in their half-closing to life, releasing their most authentic fragrance.
In the images taken from nature, from the street… In the faces of people… The images are multiple, for two reasons. The first is that I always have my camera with me and therefore I photograph what I see, what I live, what I am. The second reason is that I am not monothematic. Even if I am always attracted by the human being, whom I love, I am always very curious to capture the soul of everything that surrounds me, human beings and things…
Usually I prefer to steal the shot and then share it with the person, with whom I get in contact to send her the photo. See… A stolen shot in itself is a photo without soul, because it has no story… I am thinking of my first photos, which I keep with much pleasure, shot at some beggars, especially in Milan. I stopped doing this type of photography because it seemed to me to be stealing their soul like that, without saying anything… Then I began to ask permission to take my photos, I dialogued with them, I listened to them… It was more beautiful, more constructive… When we have the story of what is around us, everything acquires sense.
È una bellissima idea, ma sono già stupito che sia riuscito a fare queste fotografie. Non mi capacito ancora di come abbia potuto trovare questo hobby – ringrazio Dio per questo – che mi ha permesso di conoscere gente, di viaggiare, di passare il tempo in modo costruttivo e soprattutto di trovare uno sfogo mentale, psichico che a volte è molto importante.
I believe that photography is the mirror of the photographer’s soul. We can use the same machine, but the photos will be different from each other. Not necessarily better or worse, but different.
In mine there is certainly a spiritual part. I see more and more a progression, without wanting it, it is a growth, like in all the things in which one puts one’s soul. I believe that one can see a certain evolution, a certain change and to me, this is pleasing.
To my followers I would like to say that it is all in evolution and what I am today, what my photography is today, is not said that it will be tomorrow, because mine is always a search, a descending into the details, excluding those things that then seemed beautiful, but that now have become mature and no longer have the same vibration that they could have had then.
Therefore one seeks other things that give emotion, joy…
What I always wish for is to find themes and to be able to develop them, because in this I find myself lacking, in the sense that I never have precise ideas of what I want to photograph. At the beginning it was a bit frustrating, then I understood that it is also beautiful like this, because I let myself be surprised.
Perhaps I do the work backwards: by doing a certain type of shots, I see that the project is created for me. And this happened for the lakes, the mountains, the portals, the walls… After two or three shots of this type, I saw that I liked them and I continued.
It happened with the photos that I shot at people with tattoos on their face. I did one, then another, and another still… Then, talking with them, my preconceptions towards them revealed themselves for what they were.
So I thought that, if I had shot other photos like those, I could have exhibited them to the public, allowing other people like me to reconsider…
The images arrived with immediacy, but not their soul and so, the visitors, sometimes, felt a sense of disgust and were disturbed by the fact that a person could tattoo their whole face.
And I say to myself: ‘Why not? If this person does no harm to anyone and does only art on their body, why not let them do it?’
All this was born thanks to having talked with these people. Here is why the story is important.
Yes. It moves me. It moves me because it is a photograph that unfortunately I do not even have anymore. The disk on which I had archived it broke, and therefore it is not recoverable. It was the photo that I had shot at an African little girl who however lives here in Lugano. She is Down and is of a sweetness and of a beauty… I printed the photograph in A4 format – then I did it often, at home, also with other photos – and I gave it to the mom. It is one of the photos that has remained most in my heart. I published it on Instagram, with the mom’s authorization.
(He hands me the cell phone, which frames the photo recovered from his Instagram profile: it is really so sweet!)
I am in love with all my photographs, even those that I will do. Mine is a continuous love… I can be stressed, angry, have everything crosswise, but if I manage to do some shot, everything frees itself for me and I become happy again, calm and serene. It is this love that I have for my machine, which is an extension of myself. The very few times that I went out without it, it is as if I had gone out of the house without clothes.
