Alessandro Cinque: in Cuba with the Minitar-1 Art Lens

Photography is a marvellous way to explore and understand different cultures: immortalizing people's moments of everyday life from far away countries and telling their stories. To achieve this the most important challenge is to develop your own abilities, personally and photographically, as a way to connect each other with the chosen subjects.

Today we are showcasing some of Alessandro Cinque's work, a young and talented Italian photographer who has recently returned from Cuba. Let's get to know him better and see the extraordinary shots taken with the Lomo Minitar Art Lens.

Hi Alessandro, welcome to Lomography! Tell us more about yourself.

Hi! I'm Alessandro Cinque, class of '88. Born in Orvieto, in the Umbria region of Italy, but I've lived in Florence now for many years. My passion for photography began as a child when my father, also a photographer, gave me my first camera for my first communion: a Yashica fx super 2000. Other people's stories and experiences have always fascinated me as well as the intensity and spontaneity of everyday gestures. Since I was little I used to enjoy snapping pictures of my grandmother and her friends and shortly after I began shadowing my dad while he worked.

I didn't attend photography school and learnt through practical learning. A mix of these elements, along with my need to illustrate the world around me, led photography to be an everyday presence in my life. I started on this journey determined and opened my own photography studio when I was 20 years old. Today I combine professional work - photography shoots for events, business, fashion and national advertising campaigns - to my passion for photojournalism.

How would you define your photographic style?

I don't think I can define my photographic style just yet: I love photographic classics, I look for analysed and harmonious compositions, tidy representations, corresponding colours and lights. I admire and am inspired by the great masters of this art; I think that each shot expresses meaning and a story. I prefer the classical approach to the contemporary. I'm just starting out however so my style remains a work in progress and is constantly evolving.

You're a professional photographer, do you still manage to find time to develop your own personal projects?

Yes I do! Sometimes in more intense periods it's not easy, other times the two combine perfectly. I often find myself working over the weekends and finding myself infront of a computer at two o'clock at night but I've been lucky to have my passion be my work and to have grown up with it.

Where do your ideas come from for your reporting?

They come from everyday life, from my passion and from my interests in combination with the necessities and objectives of the NGO's with which I often work.

Do you have any self imposed rules when you shoot?

I imagine the scene before it happens and then I patiently wait for it to come to life.

Tell us about the series of pictures taken with the Minitar Art Lens.

When I was in Cuba I worked on several photography projects: in one I tried to photograph normality, every day life, especially children. In the other I photographed amateur boxing, the aforementioned you'll be able to see in my first photography book published in February 2017.

Are there any specific memories from the trip you would like to share with us?

I was in Cuba a couple of weeks before the American election and before the death of Fidel Castro: you could really breathe an air of change. A desire to open up to the rest of the world. People wanted to be photographed, I think it's the best time to go, definitely a significant historical moment.

What did you like the most about this lens?

I liked how easy it was to use. It is definitely a lens I would recommend to who wants to begin focusing manually with a rangefinder.

Any future projects we should keep a look out for?

Lots as usual! My new book Incipit comes out in February, a collection of images from 2016 - a year that has been of great significance for me and of big changes - which will be followed by an important press campaign. Then Morocco, India, Perù and Iran. There's really a lot of projects in the work for 2017, you should keep up with my work!

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Thanks to Alessandro for sharing his photographs with us. Check out his website and his Facebook page to see his upcoming work.

written by lomosmarti on 2017-01-08 #culture #people #minitar #minitar-1-art-lens #art-lenses