In life, there are always turning points that push you in one direction or another, like in the movie Sliding Doors. In over thirty years of work, I’ve had plenty of Sliding Doors moments, for better or worse. Some have been crucial in shaping my photography.

By the way. I chose photography because I loved the images I saw in fashion and erotic magazines. I loved those women, and I wanted to photograph them too, but in my own way. To do that, I had to fully understand the technique and absorb it completely. So I attended the High Institute of Photography in Rome. Three years of total immersion in every aspect of photographic technique. It was pure joy.

The school also held sessions with visiting professionals. At one of these, I met the president of TauVisual, the national photographers’ association in Italy, who, after seeing my portfolio at the time, suggested I keep going in that direction. This advice sharply contradicted what my teachers had said, telling me to change my style if I wanted to make a living from photography.

I followed my teachers’ advice. For many years, I focused on commercial photography. I was what I did, and I wasn’t enjoying it.

It was during a fashion editorial that everything changed. The stylist was a young designer from Valentino’s style office. We clicked immediately and began an intense collaboration. I literally threw out my commercial portfolio and rebuilt it from scratch, bringing out what I wanted, who I really was.

With the new portfolio, I approached Milan’s representative agencies. The response was almost unanimous, “Yes, it’s great, but you’re not aligned.” Those words should have knocked me down, made me turn back, put me back on the tracks of conformity. Instead, for me, they were proof that I was heading in the right direction.

Today, over fifteen years later, the value of not being aligned is even clearer. Just look around, not only at the representative agencies but also on social media, and you’ll see a completely homogenized mass of nearly identical photographs and interchangeable names.

At that time, I chose to be myself. I lost clients, but I didn’t care, because I knew others would come along who could recognize themselves in my photography.

I am not what I do. I do what I am.