Readers’ Showcase: Giulio Magnifico
Udine, Italy. 2/20/2014. Nikon D800E + Sigma 35mm F1.4 Art. This man was sitting on a bench waiting for his bus at the station in my hometown. I took the photo with a LED light mounted above my camera. Photo and caption by Giulio Magnifico
Reportage photographer Giulio Magnifico wants to take people on a journey with him when they look at his photos. He captures street scenes and card nights in local osterias in his hometown of Udine, Italy, but over the past few years the focus of his work has been reporting on the refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe. He discusses with us his experience reporting from refugee camps, how he got his start in photography and what his next move will be. See a sample of his work here and head to his website for more.
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Readers’ Showcase: Giulio Magnifico
Udine, Italy. 11/24/2014. Nikon D800E + Sigma 35mm F1.4 Art. This is a typical scene inside an Italian osteria: a group of friends are playing a card game and drinking wine, inside the osteria ‘Pepata di Corte’ in my hometown. Photo and caption by Giulio Magnifico
First, introduce yourself and let us know your history with photography.
My name is Giulio Magnifico and I’m a 28 year old photographer. I was born and still live in northern Italy, in Udine. I studied photography in high school and I’ve been a photographer since. I concentrate on reportage photography, and have traveled a lot for it. In 2014 I went to Syria, Iraq, Sicily, Paris and in 2015 went again to the Syrian and Croatian borders.
Readers’ Showcase: Giulio Magnifico
Zakho, Iraq. 9/20/2015. Nikon D800E + Sigma 35mm F1.4 Art. A Yazidi woman is on the ground cooking dinner for her family inside a refugee camp. Photo and caption by Giulio Magnifico
(cont.) I collaborated with the German newspaper ‘Der Spiegel’, and have exhibited my work in a gallery in London called Albumen Gallery as well as a photographic studio in Udine. In the last year I held a personal exposition in Tolmezzo (a city near Udine), sponsored by the culture department, with 70 of my photos and one video. This summer, I will have a personal exhibition at the MEDphotofest in Sicily. I hope to make photography my only job in the future.
Readers’ Showcase: Giulio Magnifico
Udine, Italy. 6/5/2014. Nikon 1 V1 + 1 Nikkor 10mm F2.8. A photo captured with my street camera, a little Nikon 1 V1, inside an underground passage when a man was walking out. Photo and caption by Giulio Magnifico
What do you shoot with?
I shoot with a Nikon D800E and two lenses, a Sigma 35mm F1.4 Art and a Nikkor 105mm AFS-G F2.8 Micro, but I can take almost all of my photos with just the 35mm. I love it. Additionally, I use a Nikon 1 V1 with 1 Nikkor 10mm F2.8 and a small video camera mounted on top of my D800E (the Polaroid Cube).
Readers’ Showcase: Giulio Magnifico
Trieste, Italy. 6/2/2015. Nikon D800E + Sigma 35mm F1.4 Art. This man was sitting on a bench in a Trieste park. He had one leg and may have lost the other because of disease, but he was a happy fellow anyway. Photo and caption by Giulio Magnifico
Your portfolio contains a mix of street scenes and reportage, with a clear focus on the human element. What drives you to capture the stories of others?
Life is made by humans. A beautiful landscape is beautiful because we perceive it that way. And that’s why I love to capture the human soul, because we make our own history. My goal is to transfer human emotions with my photos.
Readers’ Showcase: Giulio Magnifico
Augusta harbor, Italy. 8/7/2014. Nikon D800E + Nikkor 105mm Micro F2.8 AFS. I took this photo while reporting on migrants for the German magazine Der Spiegel. This is a Syrian girl inside an Italian marine boat, rescued from the sea during her trip from the Libyan coast to Sicily. Photo and caption by Giulio Magnifico
You’ve photographed refugees in Iraq, Turkey, Slovenia and elsewhere. What has the experience been like?
That’s a deep kind of experience. I found out that in the worst situations you can find the best people and emotions. At the beginning it was hard to do it, especially reporting in Sicily (where people land from Libya and Greece) and in Croatia (in the heart of the Balkan route), because I felt like a stranger, and the people seemed to be animals in a zoo. And I hated that.
Readers’ Showcase: Giulio Magnifico
Tal Abyad, Syria/Turkey border. 6/19/2015. Nikon D800E + Sigma 35mm F1.4 Art. A little syrian boy escaped from Tal Abyad when the ISIS seized his city, was searching in wastes and selling bottles of water for one turkish lira. Photo and caption by Giulio Magnifico
(cont.) I hate to photograph people somewhere full of journalists and media reporters. I prefer to go alone with my camera into the heart of the situation, like in Iraq or the Syrian border. That way I can live with and like them, and I think my results/photos are better. People accept me as one of them and not as a journalist, or as someone who wants to make a profit off of them.
Readers’ Showcase: Giulio Magnifico
Adana, Turkey. 6/21/2015. Nikon D800E + Sigma 35mm F1.4 Art. A Syrian mother asking for charity on a street with her two sons in her arms. Photo and caption by Giulio Magnifico
Your portraits of refugees are often accompanied by video clips as well. What can you capture through video that you can’t through stills?
I can capture the whole background and environment behind a single image. Many times there are photos which you can think that are made in one kind of environment but, instead, when you see the surroundings it’s completely different from what you thought. My dream is to take people with me when they look at my shots. You can do that with a photo, but with a video of the photo you can add the sound and the whole background. If it was possible I would even use a ‘smell capture’ in order to reproduce the smell…
Readers’ Showcase: Giulio Magnifico
Kilis, Turkey/Syria border. 5/11/2014. Nikon D800E + Nikkor 105mm Micro F2.8 AFS. A little Syrian girl was playing with me and my camera on the streets of the last small city in Turkey before the Syrian border. Photo and caption by Giulio Magnifico
Your photos are almost exclusively black-and-white – why do you prefer that look?
Well, the way I see it, light is in black and white. Colors can modify how an image is perceived – a red color can attract attention, green makes you feel relaxed, etc… Also, there are people that see colors very differently from others. I think that one of my particular strengths is to see the scene around me in black and white, or better, with the lights and shadows. I think I honed this skill at school when my teachers taught me how to draw in black and white.
Readers’ Showcase: Giulio Magnifico
Diyarbakir, Turkey 9/24/2014. Nikon D800E + Sigma 35mm F1.4 Art. A man is reading the Koran inside the Diyarbakir mosque. Photo and caption by Giulio Magnifico
What’s your next photographic endeavor?
I’m currently a bit occupied with some exhibitions and conferences here in Italy, but I will soon go to the Middle East again, to the south of Syria and a nearby region.
Readers’ Showcase: Giulio Magnifico
Erbil, Iraq. 9/22/2014. Nikon D800E + Sigma 35mm F1.4 Art. A family of Yazidi refugees in some shacks inside a yard in the neighborhood of Erbil. Photo and caption by Giulio Magnifico
What’s the best advice you’ve received as a photographer?
Don’t make boring photos that you can see in a postcard.
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