Interview: Luca Sorato
Luca Curci talks with Luca Sorato during RITUALS, first appointment of ANIMA MUNDI 2022, at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello.

“I am a self-taught photographer based in Venice, Italy. I approached photography to witness my holiday travels in my late teenage years. Year after year, looking at the pictures, I realize that I was more attracted to the people I saw than the places I visited, without knowing about street photography. After forty years I’m still framing people in their everyday life. My works have been exhibited in Italy, England, the Netherlands, and Spain. Some others have been published on photobooks. I prefer black and white photography because, when looking at a picture, the observer is concentrated on the entire image; but sometimes I make a colorful detour“.

Luca Curci – What are you currently working on?
Luca Sorato – Now I am working on “The lexicon of love”, a project to document how love expresses itself, from holding hands to a passionate kiss.

LC – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
LS – My background is in the digital world of computers: I started to work as a software developer and grew in the years until I reached the CIO level in domestic companies; but the artsy side of my heart made me play drums, design, and apply decals on shop windows in student times. I started taking photographs to witness my holiday in my late teenage years; year after year, looking back at my pictures at the end of every journey, I realized that I was more attracted by the people I met than the places I visited, an attitude that accompanies me still now. My turning point as a photographer was a two-days stop in New York during a summer holiday tour with a friend of mine: the city is a stage open 24 hours and the people fantastic characters. I was so excited to be there that I took more than 20 films!

LC – Did your style change over the years? In which way?
LS – Well, in the very beginning I was a little shy and my gear was a zoom lens, to keep the distance and to give me a sort of protection from the subjects. Over the years I realized that stealing the pictures was a little bit unfair; so I started to shorten the lens to be much closer I can to the scene, sometimes too close…

LC – What is your creative process like?
LS – It might sound crazy but during my photo walk, when I approach something that could be interesting, in my brain starts a sort of connection to a song, a book, or a movie. Then I take my picture and most of the time this connection becomes its caption. That’s the reason why the portfolio page on my website is called “Sound and Vision” and the titles of the projects remind me of the music albums.

LC – What is the most challenging part about creating your artworks?
LS – First, I want to clarify that my photos are never posed. Then, as a street photographer, I need to be invisible to my subjects to keep the picture candid and this is the most challenging part of the process. When sometimes happens that somebody notices me because I’m very close, I approach with a smiling “Don’t you mind if I take a portrait of you?” telling what I am interested in. Most of the time I get a smiling “Yes, please”. Then I ask the subject to forget about me and I take my photos; at the end, I thank them with another smile, show it on the camera monitor the picture and ask for a mail address to send the best one.

LC – We were attracted by your last artistic production, has the artwork presented been created for the festival or as a part of preexisting works?
LS – The artworks presented are part of three different projects: “The Seeker” is from “Time passages”, about living in the third age; “A rose in Red” is from “RGB – Red Green and Blue”, my first color project; “Three Men and a dome” is from an ongoing project not titled yet.

LC – In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the festival’s theme?
LS – In the poem “As you like it” Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”. My project, “Urban Humans, extraordinarily normal people and places” wants to portray moments in which every place becomes a stage and people transform the ordinary of everyday life into something extraordinary; that’s why I consider myself a sort of stage photographer.

LC – What do you think about ITSLIQUID Platform?
LS – Well, I just met ITSLIQUID Platform and I don’t know all the services but the first impression is very positive because of the relationship, for me the most important thing; furthermore, the people I met are very kind and skilled: a great staff!

LC – Do you think ITSLIQUID Group can represent an opportunity for artists?
LS – I feel the lack of support for the emerging photographers in the metropolitan area of Venice, even if this city is one of the most photographed in the world! Fortunately, ITSLIQUID GROUP is a great opportunity, especially for the network of connections all over the world, one of the most important factors to be noticed outside the local area.