…and what I love is photography. It’s as simple as that.

Three things have always been vital to me as long as I can remember: reading books - piles of them, traveling to foreign countries and creating something beautiful.

I love reading books in general and leafing through photography books in particular. They introduce me to unknown people, they open up new worlds to me, they make me laugh and sometimes even cry and they often amaze me. Books explain things to me and they inspire me. 

After “inventing” my first foreign language as a young child imitating the Italian immigrant workers of my home village, I learnt Latin, English, Ancient Greek and Spanish in school and later on “proper” Italian. I have always been enthusiastic about foreign countries, human beings, their culture and traveling. It literally means the world to me to explore our wonderful planet and visit all these breathtaking places. No matter where we live, which language we speak and what we do for a living, we have so much in common..

What I’m aiming for with my camera is to capture compelling images, to express my vision and reveal the beauty of what I see to finally tell a story and make people care. This is how I became a travel photographer with the emphasis on people, streets and landscape. 

Only a few years ago Uwe Hasubek who coached me on Photoshop talked me into attending a Northern Gannets workshop on Helgoland with him. I wasn’t into bird photography at all and didn’t even know what Northern Gannets looked like. I just wanted to discover this tiny rocky German offshore island in the Northern Sea and test my new camera and telephoto zoom lenses…and then – totally unexpectedly - I fell in love with these magnificent birds. Since then my photographic interests have shifted more towards nature photography, towards birds preferably Northern Gannets and the beautiful Dalmatian Pelicans in Northern Greece but also towards wildlife, insects and plants.  I have returned to Helgoland many times. With every visit I feel that I’m getting to know the birds a little better and with this growing intimacy my perspective, my photographic approach also seems to change and challenge me in a new and different way…and the same applies to the Dalmatian Pelicans and other favourite subjects and destinations like Iceland, Cuba, India and Venice. 

It is an important aspect of my photography: As much as I enjoy exploring foreign countries I also love to return to places I’m fascinated by to start playing with my subjects after having taken the “normal” bag of photos. It has never been documentary photography that thrills me but “the more creative stuff”: playing with light – natural and artificial – to achieve high keys or low keys, with different exposure times to create motion or minimalism, with ICM techniques and filters to create atmosphere or abstract or surrealistic pictures. 

To achieve the latter type of photos I started using a drone in addition to my “normal” cameras a couple of years ago. Flying a drone opens up a totally different perspective, the bird’s eye view. Locations that look unspectacular or even boring from below can turn into a world of awe and wonder. Above all I’m thrilled by the abstract views straight down to glacial riverbeds, geothermal fields and patterns on the beach formed by the tides.

My personal approach to photography is being open-minded to whatever might awaken my curiosity, not always knowing what will come around the next corner. My motto can be best described as “Follow the butterflies” which means whatever thrills me, fascinates me, gets me enthusiastic about that’s where I’m turning to always striving to give my photos that personal touch...

I am a very lucky person: I do not depend on photography for a living. I don’t have to pin myself down on being a travel or street or nature photographer. The only obligations I place on myself is to never stop learning, never stop improving and to never give up…