Color photography: August 2007 Archives
Italian photographer Paolo Ventura is interviewed in the latest update (issue?) to FStop online magazine. Ventura does a lot of commercial magazine editorial work, but this interview focuses on his tableaux work. Ventura is becoming well known for his photographs of action figures reenacting World War II-era scenes - but notably, not combat.
In contrast to the Lori Nix interview from a few days ago, Ventura works in a looser style than Nix, working out the camera angles as the diorama comes together and using common household table lamps for lighting. He also builds the miniatures himself, whereas Nix uses a "fabricator".
Doing a little research on Paolo, I found he'd also done the project "Dress for Eternity", a documentary project about the catacombs of in Palermo, Sicily. Strangely, that work is difficult to find online and isn't even on Ventura's own site. The two subjects and styles are so different, I never would have made the connection otherwise.
