Girl with a Pearl Earring (and an Octopus) - Giulia Valente

Girl with a Pearl Earring (and an Octopus) Giulia Valente

“Most of it, I think, is that photographing human beings is like looking at yourself in a mirror... In the end, I believe that if you are able to look in the right way, you can see your own soul.”

“I’ve always had a big passion for figurative art. Here in Italy, with a lot of museums and living next to centuries of art, it’s easy to fall in love with the Renaissance and Baroque masters, like Tiziano, Leonardo, Antonello da Messina, Giovanni Bellini, Caravaggio, and all the other great ancient painters. In 2006 I graduated at Padua University, in Disciplines of Art, Music and Theatre, because it was a perfect way to study, know and entrench myself into these three beautiful disciplines.”

“I was driven to portrait photography after a sad personal experience, that made me realize what is obvious: life is too short to waste it. From then on, photography became a more serious game.”

“I take most of my inspiration from the Italian and Flemish painters of XV and XVI centuries: I have always seen photography as painting’s ‘younger sister’, and here in Europe we have a vast, precious treasure trove of amazing artists to look at.”

“I had started using analogue and digital cameras lots of years ago at concerts, but then, two years ago, I felt that this was not enough and that I needed to find another way to express myself. The love for art, cinema and music found it’s natural way into portrait photography, so I started taking portraits, studying light, composition and colour, trying to catch that warm yellow-green mesmerizing light of the Italian masters and recreate it in my photos.”

“While planning a new shooting, one of the most challenging things for me is to search for the right face, that could better represent the purpose of the shot.

ThisThat is not say that the model has to be beautiful full-stop. Their personality has to come across, and has to fit, and in some way dialogue and interact, with my initial idea. Finding the correct subject is the biggest bet behind every shooting because you can control everything from lights to lens to props to clothes to makeup, but you can’t control the emotions and the connection between the photographer and the subject.”

“Photography is the best way that I know to clear my mind. While thinking of a new project, photographing someone or retouching an image, my mind is in some way empty, and creativity and imagination are finally set free. Most of it, I think, is that photographing human beings is like looking at yourself in a mirror–you see yourself while looking at someone else, you see your emotions, your feelings, your fears, reflected in the other person’s eyes. In the end, I believe that if you can look in the right way, you can see your own soul.”

“Now, I have new projects to develop my style and go deep into the themes I most love to explore–the dream, the darkness, the antithesis between love and death, the silence–I always try to search for something mystical and unsaid in my photos. Maybe this is the reason why I love photographing people with closed eyes, as if they are lost within themselves, in their own dreams and thoughts, absent to everything and everyone else.”

The photos I'm submitting have been all realized in my little studio, and nothing would have been possible without the help of my assistant, Marcella Montesello @silvergelly, who always helps me with makeup, hair, and during the shooting.