Paolo Barretta

CINEMATIC PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

Talk with us a bit about your beginnings as a visual artist and photographer. Did you receive any formal education? How long have you been practicing photography?

My name’s Paolo Barretta, AKA, I am Winter. Well, there is a lot to say about me, because I have always been so full of things inside. I approached photography when I was really young, but it wasn’t the first thing I started doing to express myself in an artistic way. I’ve been playing the piano since I was a kid, and music has been what really formed me, in the beginning.

I reached photography some years after, when I felt the real need to “see” the visions I used to have while I was playing the piano. The places I created in my mind. So the photography was born as a plug-in of music.

I studied it at high school anyway, and the film has been my first approach ever with photography. When I grew I decided to make it – or trying to make it – a job, and that was the reason why I moved to Rome to continue studying it.

I don’t even know how long I have been practicing photography, but I think something like 12 years.

What is it about the cinematic world that you are drawn to? What do you enjoy most about working with people?

After my studies in photography I had a long dark period about me and my art. About who I was, who I believed to be, what I was trying to communicate to people around me and what I wanted to communicate to myself. I stopped making pictures and actually it was illuminating because with the right time I found the answers to my questions. I wanted to be myself, and I wanted to talk about my feelings.

I started taking pictures like I never did before: in a cinematic way, like representing my life, my ideas, my thoughts and feelings as a movie. And I started mixing this with portraits, which is what took me to meet new people, to find the right faces to take a picture of.

This is what I love most about working with people: when you find something similar to you and you can learn something new through it, something new about yourself that you did not know, or something new of the world you are living in.

What do you feel are the most common themes in your photography? Is there anything in particular that you want to say with your images?

I have always been attracted by the [idea of] pain, and I wouldn’t even be able to tell you why if you asked me. This is it. I have always tried to create stories of isolation and emptiness. Maybe is this the most common theme in my pictures, but I think it depends on the situation too.

With my work I would like to talk about everything I feel, and I don’t feel only pain and isolation. Everyone of us feels millions and millions of things, so maybe I just follow that flow.

Typically, how much post-production to you do on your images? What tool do you find yourself using most often?

Okay, let’s talk about post production. Post production has become the most important moment of my work, and I would have never even thought, years ago. Infact, it is that moment in which I can make that photo as I imagined it in my mind before starting.

I made myself known by people thanks to my way I post produce and recreate colors in my pictures. This is what I do most often. I love working on colors, to make them in “I am winter” style. Cold colors, anyway.

How do you approach your ideas? Do you find that you execute your ideas immediately from memory, or is it something that you spend time planning?

Well, this really depends on the situation. I would say both of them, but everything’s relative. To be honest I usually create my pictures getting inspired by my memories, because memories, music and feelings are my main inspirations. But I also spend time planning the whole scene and the concept, and I truly love doing it. I think both of them are important to each other and definitely both of them are important to me.

A lot of your photography feels really hazy, isolated, and lonely. What usually inspires this sort of feeling and colour pallet within your images

Yes, as I said before all my pictures aim to talk about my loneliness in the world, as a constant state of emptiness. The colors that I choose to represent are my personal way to decorate them, and I create my project “I am winter” with this purpose. Everything inspires me, but most of all a thought: the idea of being lost in the world, paralyzed by the awareness to have always a missing piece.

What are some accomplishments of yours that you feel most proud of?

Well, honestly I think I can’t answer to this question as I wish. I think I am satisfied of who I am now. I wouldn’t talk about photography prizes or goals. I just want to be proud of the person that I have become at this point of my life.

What equipment do you use? What are some of your favourite tools?

For my work I use analog and digital systems, but definitely my favourite one is the analog one. I think there is not a specific reason why I prefer it, but I always loved it most than the other one. I use both anyway, and most of the time I go on digital because it is cheaper, of course.

Where would you like to see yourself and your work go in the near future?

This is the most difficult question until now. This is always a difficult question because most of the time I have no idea about it.

Where do I see myself? Somewhere good. In some safe place, living my life, appreciating the little details. The sun on my skin, the feeling of being not alone in the world. All I want is to be happy, and I know that happiness doesn’t exist as a constant state of mind, but people will always try to reach it because the hope is the most important thing we all have.

I would love to live thanks my job, to wake up in the morning knowing to be satisfied of myself, to have no regrets, to look behind me and see how much I loved everything I had.

I am trying to work hard on this. We all want something we don’t have yet, but I am trying to appreciate what I already have in my life, and definitely there is so much to be glad of.