We want to grab a special moment to present you an exclusive interview we made with a great landscape photographer Enrico Fossati from Italy. His photography and image editing made him famous not only in Italy, but in all other parts of the world. His landscapes are full of unleashed beauty and dark and dreamy moods:
Dear Enrico, thank you for your time and for accepting this interview. Please tell us something about your work, when did you start doing photography, and how did you decide that photography was what you wanted to do?
Enrico: My passion for landscapes has always been very strong, and I’ve been fascinated by them in all their forms since I was a young boy, whether photographed or painted. During my holidays and school trips I took photos because it was important for me to bring home a piece of each great place that I visited, but it was only at the end of 2008 that I bought my first DSLR. I have decided to give my personal taste to my works since the beginning but it is a constant evolution, I am a perfectionist and I will never be satisfied with myself.
How would you describe your style?
Enrico: It’s always hard to describe yourself or your own work, but I define myself as a fine art photographer because my photos are my personal interpretations of certain places or moments. I really love dark, romantic, and fantasy atmospheres, and my works are influenced by paintings of many artists and illustrators like John Howe, William Turner and many others… Many of my works are titled in reference to and freely inspired by some places of the Tolkien’s Middle Earth, and my photos aim to bring the observer into another world characterized by dramatic and dreamy atmospheres.
Do you rather find inspiration when you travel, or you rather search for it in your own country?
Enrico: My inspiration is continuous every time I watch a movie, read a book or simply drive across a nice location. I never stop thinking of my landscapes and how to realize my visions. It is like an obsession.
What inspires you most? Do you relate your photos to other forms of art such as cinematography or literature?
Enrico: I partially answered you on this point in the question above, and the reply is absolutely yes. Painters from the past, modern artists, conceptual designers, movies, books and music are a great source of inspiration for me. Surely one of my greatest inspirations are the movies, love for the beautiful environments and moods transmitted by movies.
Other than taking and editing photos, are there any other photography-related activities you are involved in?
Enrico: I am involved is some tuition projects with other photographers, but only occasionally, photography is my side business at the moment.
What do you consider the biggest challenge of landscape photography?
Enrico: There are many challenges for a successful landscape photo, and surely one of the biggest is capturing a scene that people recognize as your own work. This mean a lot of things: the study of a location, of the weather, the composition and of the editing, sometimes even for an experienced Photoshop user it is not always easy to choose how to edit an image to fit the project you have in mind avoiding clichés, excesses and overdoing the effects. One of the most exciting challenges for me is exploring new locations, searching for new spots, I don’t like iconic locations even if they are good to get tons of likes and popularity on social networks, but this is not my main goal. My goal is to bring people into my fantasy world.
Aside from photography, what else do you enjoy?
Enrico: I love to travel, watch movies, read novels , history books, stay with friends tasting good wines and food. I also have other secondary interests but I have few time for the other things, photography is a very time consuming hobby, but very rewarding.
If you like Enrico’s works, and we truly believe that you will, you can visit his web site: http://www.enricofossati.it/ or his profile on 500 px
You can also follow his work via his Facebook page
