Who are you and what’s your profession?

I am an Italian photojournalist currently based in Mexico City, where I live almost 4 years with my wife. My professional activity ranges from editorial photography to events, including fashion and erotic photography. My work already includes many books published, prestigious collaborations and important exhibitions (USA, Italia, Spain). My personal photography is a continuous stream of gritty, grainy, out of focus, dark and hi contrasted snapshots from the street and from my dreams and nightmares. In addition to Photography and Writing, I love to cook: I want to learn how to make sushi, although my specialty is of course the Italian cuisine. I love tattoos: currently I have 5 and my brother is a professional tattooer in Italy. What else? Motörhead is my favourite band, Russ Meyer was a genius and Basquiat too.

What’s your rig?

I am working with Leica X2 and Samsung NX20 for my commercial photography. For my street snapshots my choice is Ricoh GRD IV and still Leica X2. I prefer fixed lenses, and I love to work with compact cameras in order not to create a “wall”with my subjects. DSLR simply don’t work for me and my photographic approach.

What hardware do you use?

I work with MacBookPro, and yes I make all my workflow with this computer. I don’t need big and expensive devices. I have an iPad mini, really useful to present my portfolios or particular works in job meetings with clients and business partners. I don’t use so much phones, but I have a Nokia Lumia 505.

What software do you use?

I have Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop CS5 and Aperture. But I use Adobe Lightroom the most. For my personal photography I don’t need to make editing, applying the “what I get is what you see” approach, so most of the work you see on the Internet from me is jpg straight from the camera. Editing software is fundamental for my works for clients, and I consider Lightroom the perfect digital darkroom. I would not need anything else, but Photoshop is essential to prepare the images for some printing needs requested by customers.

What would be your dream rig?

I don’t believe to the perfect camera or perfect equipment. That said I’ve got my ideas about what I want from a camera. I think Leica, Ricoh Pentax and Fujifilm are in the right direction for a reason or another. I’ve been dreaming a Leica X3 monochrom, for example. And I think digital rangefinders cameras are one of the ways to go so kudos Fujifilm, but if you will be able to improve AF (like Olympus cameras) you might be really close to perfection, if perfection exists… To Ricoh I will ask to propose a GR similar to old analog Ricoh GRS1, yes with a viewfinder, preferably hybrid as Fuji.

What’s your favorite photography quote?

I want to take a lot of nasty photos. – Daido Moriyama