Photographer Niki Barbati (Italy) Tell us a little about you? I was born in Naples, but for years I have lived in Rome where I work as a journalist. For 37 years I have lived in editorial offices dealing with crime news first, and then with entertainment and culture. How and when did you get into photography? I got into photography in my teens, when, like many others, I enjoyed developing rolls of film in the darkness of a room filled with basins, acids and improvised ropes where I would dry my first prints. So, when all is said and done, it has been almost 50 years that I have been 'trying to focus’ What does photography mean to you? I have always liked images in all their expressions, from paintings to films to the thousands of colours that nature can take on in its beauty. Photography is the way I have chosen to cultivate this passion for images. Then, with the discovery of Photoshop, I understood how to modify photos according to my canons of beauty. But always respecting reality: Photoshop, I believe, should never be used to manipulate, only to retouch. And in fact the best retouches are the ones you don't see. Lighten a shadow, soften a wrinkle.... Please briefly describe your photography style for our readers. I have not attended any schools or courses specialising in photography, I am self-taught. My style? Definitely classic and black and white, I prefer b&w because it distracts less attention from the subject of the photo. I don't like over-elaborate pictures where there are a thousand disturbing elements. The subject must be one and the subject must be in the centre of the photo. Then I started my own website, www.nikibarbati.com, and discovered that many people think like me. Where do you get inspiration from? Inspiration comes to me in a thousand different ways: from the lights of Veermer's paintings or Hopper's night visions, or from a film, or simply by watching how the light filters through the shutters of a window ajar. The problem is not inspiration but being able to put it into practice! Needless to say, it is necessary to periodically go and study in detail the photos of the masters, from Capa to Kértesz to Fai Ho just to name a few.
Martina Tosi
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