Interview with Riccardo Magherini; published in our print edition #19

Riccardo Magherini is a photographer and visual artist. By approaching his medium in innovative ways, Riccardo often challenges human perception, condition and context. 

Riccardo Magherini is a photographer and visual artist. By approaching his medium in innovative ways, Riccardo often challenges human perception, condition and context. 

Riccardo found his artistic voice during a journey in Japan. From that experience he developed a way to tell stories merging different times and spaces, taking pictures as fragments all around the subject, composing and tuning them as instruments in a score.  

Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo, Lisbon, Bangkok, Hanoi: his works, shot in the great metropolises of the world, sublime street life, recreating sensations through the time and space overlapping. Riccardo’s personal aesthetics continue to evolve alongside his continuously expanding artistic practice. 

His fine art photography is represented by galleries in Paris, in London and in New York. He has collected awards and recognitions from international contests such as the International Photography Awards, Prix de la Photographie Paris, International Aperture Awards, and the London International Creative Competition. [Official Website][Printed Edition][Digital Edition]

Photographing on the street is clearly a very important part of your practice. A you mention it makes you feel not at home… Being disconnected to the idea of a ‘home’, a place that makes you feel safe and easy is a feeling witch many individuals seem to avoid. We all seem to want to feel at home, yet this project seems to be more about the individuality of a nation and its people and not about how you fit into this environment. What I like about this project is that it is simply about exploration, the need to be curious and explore more. Tell us a little bit about how you came to the decision to photograph in the city of Hanoi and some of the experiences you may have had while photographing?  

For me street photography and photography in general, is actually the necessity to observe and be amazed by the things I meet through the journey. So it’s a natural thing, it’s spontaneous, to explore, to wander, to watch.

Hanoi belongs to a part of my imagination, just like all the Asia, that includes a strong fascination with the ‘other than me’. It was a matter of curiosity and fascination.  I mean, Vietnam. We all have the green mountain rice paddies image in our imagination, a shrine in the background and peaceful sunset on the horizon. At least I have. But I was interested in chaos.  Hanoi is a layered big urban agglomerate. You can see the layers of centuries, everywhere, even in people.

I wanted to walk through that, confront it, feel the diffidence of the elders and smile at the smiles of the youngers. Live the alleys, the decadence of the french concession, the heat of the wet market, smell the scent of the food cooked in the street, the noise of the traffic, meet the people that live and work on the sidewalks. As you said, be not at ‘home’.  And feel good.

I would like to discuss something which I believe is a fundamental part of this project and what I feel separates this from other street photos. That is the use of multiple images. I really like the idea that I can spend a lot of time looking at one photo, picking out new details as I go along. What made you come to this stylistic decision in the first place? And would you say this this body of work is a kind of controlled chaos, your attempt of making sense at the multitude and grandness of each corner of the city?   

Spending time looking at it. In it. It’s exactly that.

It’s the ambition to place in one image a world of things and moments, harvesting moments scattered all around, putting the time in still pictures. To gather all that fragments and lay them on the ‘surface’ and beneath it, putting them together following just the way you’ve seen it. To play with the hollows and the pauses, giving rhythm and dynamic balance, choosing the paths to tell the story. This is the push for me, and it was in the first place in 2011, during a stay in Tokyo. Since then I’m chasing this vision.

The colours and tones have also been very specifically curated. What I find most interesting about this is how you have approached colour grading differently. This cinematographic feel allows the viewer to dive deeper into these portraits. I was curious to know if all the images you used for each piece were taken during the same day or around the same area?    

Yes, mostly they had. It’s right the exact way I like to ‘paint’ the story or the portrait I’ve seen in the street. The pictures taken all around the subject keep coherent the peculiar palette.

‘Hanoi’ series colour grading comes from the ‘terre’ palette, which is natural in Hanoi, and it’s actually everywhere. It’s a patina, in the pictorial meaning, that wraps everything, that lays over things and even thoughts, giving you that smooth gradient tone.This kind of immersion in tones and colours gives you the mood into which you dip the brushes, so to speak.

In my opinion one of the most interesting images in this collection has to be the photograph of the older gentleman with the green dragon in the background. I find this interesting because of two main reasons. The first is the composition, I feel that is photograph has been composed very well and gives me a painterly kind of feeling. The second reason is of course the man’s expression. Could you describe this images for us, how you came about shooting this portrait, who the gentleman might be or if you had any prior interactions with him? 

That was a brief and intense encounter, I didn’t know who he was and I still don’t. It was a matter of a few moments, as for the whole portraits of the series.

I was outside a wet market with all the sorts of poultry and living fish, crabs, snakes and all the vegetables you can imagine (wet markets are the most incredible places).  He was there to keep an eye on the stocks. The location was incredible and he liked the idea to be portrayed, he wanted to.

The absence of communication ways, except the body language ones, forces you to interact with just looks and take permission to take a picture is all about little gestures. The dragon, a shrine porcelain decoration just on the other side of the alley, it’s him. For me it’s him. I mean, the defiant look, the posture, the rings and the nails. A dragon. Finding and then composing the connections between the things that surround a scene is magical and it’s incredibly amazing. It gives you the freedom to tell the story of the character you’ve imagined laying beneath a look or a gesture.

You mentioned when describing this collection of images, the intimacy, proudness and connection to nature the people of Hanoi expressed throughout their daily lives. I find this an interesting observation of the people within a city as is others such as New York and London, there might lack this need for nature and willingness to appreciate the earth and land they live on. One big aspect of Vietnamese life is food, did you find that much of this connection and love of nature was due to the respect that the Vietnamese people have for cooking. And were you also able to converse with locals about your observations?  

Vietnamese are connected with nature in all aspects of their life, even in the spiritual ones. Food and cooking are part of that connection and a strong popular tradition, deeply felt, but to find and appreciate those details as an outsider is a quite rare thing.  At first glance, some of them reserve to you the same diffuse standard they give to all strangers. You have to go deeper and have the luck to find someone that guides you.

During a stroll into a wet market, I met a young Vietnamese chef buying there the elements of his art. We talked about food and cooking throughout the morning, passing from one market to another, buying meat, fish, rice and coffee, teaching me how to choose and what to buy to make a ‘pho bo’ in the proper way. It was like a little culinary tour. That morning I learned that to cook Vietnamese you must be Vietnamese.

In certain parts of Hanoi, food comes every morning from the surrounding countryside carried by hundreds of women with their bicycles, wearing their typical hats.

They crowd the streets all around the markets carrying in large bamboo canisters vegetables, flowers, live chicken or raw food ready to be cooked on a little portable coal cooker there, on the street.

It’s capillary, it’s everywhere and it’s local.

Maybe is the street that gives you this kind of vision. Life at the ground level could be strictly related to matter and nature. These aspects are even stronger in the villages surrounding Hanoi, where people live and work often in direct relation with the soil.

My final question is about a previous project of yours titled: ‘Electric sheep’. I absolutely love this project as it really showcases an underbelly and grittiness of a city. The photographs are presented in such a way that to my personally, they look dystopian in nature. Will you be focusing more on night photography in the future and what kind of projects are you currently working on as well? 

Electric Sheep was strictly related to dystopian suggestions, so much to be dedicated to Philip K. Dick, even in titles. It was one of a kind experience but would be intriguing to find a night and dark situation to be explored. My fine art is strictly related to travel, so it had a stop in the past two years. When we will able to travel lightly again, China will be the next incredibly ambitious and wide artistic target.

Francesco Scalici

A recent MA graduate from the University of Lincoln, Francesco has now focused on landscape photography as the basis of his photographic platform. An author for DODHO magazine, Francesco’s interest in documentary photography has turned to writing and has had various articles, interviews and book reviews published on platforms such as: ‘All About Photo.com’, ‘Float Magazine’ and ‘Life Framer Magazine’. Currently on a photographic internship, Francesco has most recently been involved in the making of a short film titled: ‘No One Else’, directed by Pedro Sanchez Román and produced my Martin Nuza.

More Stories

Lorca a Forgotten Girl in Art History by Peyman Naderi

Lorca a Forgotten Girl in Art History by Peyman Naderi

It is the story of a girl who lived through a period of history but was never seen, and though she was a very artist, she always hid herself from others until one day her identity was revealed.
Tierwald by Frank Machalowski

Tierwald by Frank Machalowski

Is this fiction or reality? This is the question underlying the series – the images provoke the viewer question what they see. Is this a picture of a warm rain forest or a cold German mixed forest? Are these animals really living in this forest or is it a giant zoo?
Self-portraits by Camila Orleansky

Self-portraits by Camila Orleansky

All of my pictures are self-portraits, which convey the struggles and emotions in my everyday life. I’m interested in generating different atmospheres through the use of color, objects, locations and compositions.
https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/bannerpr.jpg

We invite you to participate in the first edition of the Portrait Photography Awards. Our call is open to any artistic interpretation of portrait photography.

https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BAnImage.jpg

ImageRights provides intelligent image search and copyright enforcement services to photo agencies and professional photographers worldwide.

https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/mono2022.jpg

The best 100 images along with the winning images published in the yearly book “Monochromatic – Best Photographers of 2022”

https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/banner24.jpg

Call For Entries #24 | After 23 editions and more than 100 published photographers, our print edition has proven to be a simply effective promotional channel.

Altai by Nadezhda Krylova

Altai by Nadezhda Krylova

Nadezhda Krylova (Areshina) was born in 1986 in St. Petersburg. She studied Documentary Photography at the School of Modern Photography Docdocdoc in St. Petersburg between 2019 and 2021.
The Last Mambabatok

The Last Mambabatok

Apo Whang-Od is considered the world's last Mambabatok (hand-tap tattoo artist) from her generation. At the estimated age of 99, she is now passing the tattooing tradition to a new generation in her tribe including her grand-niece Grace.
New York Hotel by Nathalie Daoust

New York Hotel by Nathalie Daoust

In 1997 Daoust was invited to decorate a room in the Carlton Arms Hotel in New York City – a hotel that, for the past 40 years, has invited artists such as Banksy, Andre Charles and Paco Simone to transform rooms and walls. 
Photochemistry : Pears in the afternoon by Karoline Schneider

Photochemistry : Pears in the afternoon by Karoline Schneider

Originally a fine artist, I swapped my brushes for a camera and my colours for photochemistry. That’s how the ‘paintings’ that I never painted emerged.
Robert Hutinski – Ecce Homo or a problem of individual consciousness and the universality

Robert Hutinski – Ecce Homo or a problem of individual consciousness and the universality

The world is not static; it is not a given. Consciousness is not static and it is not a given either.
Time and space; Suspended by Claudia Orsetti

Time and space; Suspended by Claudia Orsetti

These photos are part of an ongoing series called Suspended. During the quarantine – somehow a forced situation of suspended time – I’ve had the chance of reflecting on my own relationship with time and space.
37,4° A photographic project of Carlo Pettinelli

37,4° A photographic project of Carlo Pettinelli

At 37.5 ° you enter the anti-Covid-19 control field (you cannot enter the workplace and in all those places where the temperature control at the entrance is in force).
Impressions of nature by Neil Broadway

Impressions of nature by Neil Broadway

My photographic work, rather than being a precise documentary record, attempts to capture the feel, the atmosphere and the impressions evoked by the wonders of the natural world.
Stellar Nurseries

Stellar Nurseries

"A cloud that veils one of nature's secret places. This is a stellar nursery, a place where stars are born. They condense by gravity from gas and dust until their temperatures become so high that they begin to shine.
The human threshold of hearing; 0 dB by Sergen Sehitoglu

The human threshold of hearing; 0 dB by Sergen Sehitoglu

Decibel (dB) : A unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity (usually power or intensity) relative to a specified or implied reference level, generally assumed to be a sound unit.
Faces – Small worlds by Mofeed Abu Shalwa

Faces – Small worlds by Mofeed Abu Shalwa

A group of faces of some flying insects , part of my second project, Hovercraft flies, dragonflies, bees and wasps I photographed with focus stacking technology. It took me a few months to create and photograph this project until it was completed in the following year, to study the presence and search for these creatures.
Erberto Zani ; Documentary Photography

Erberto Zani ; Documentary Photography

In 2004 I start to work as photographer and journalist for a local newspaper. Freelance since 2008, my reportage are focused on documentary-social themes.
Five minutes with Jorge Barreda

Five minutes with Jorge Barreda

Jorge Barreda is a 23 year old fine art photographer who is currently living near the Mexico City area. His studies are based in Melbourne, Australia, and Mexico.
Five minutes with Alice Zilberberg

Five minutes with Alice Zilberberg

I predict that my work is going in a personal direction that is driven from my personal life and experiences. I find myself re-inventing what I do every few years, so I will never know exactly what’s next.
The presence of an absence by Francesco Pace Rizzi

The presence of an absence by Francesco Pace Rizzi

The ephemeral geometries of the shadows, sometimes complex, sometimes simple, exert a great fascination on me such as to push me to deepen this topic and create a project (started in 2019) where the shadows are in a sort of dialogue with the scene, able to free the imagination and create surreal and intangible images.
Via Crucis by Massimo Panzavolta

Via Crucis by Massimo Panzavolta

These 14 ruined-by-time doors, suffering, aching, are becoming symbols of a journey - a Via Crucis of the Soul. Doors are seen as diaphragms to hide human miseries, although they are tending to a light of hope.

Featured Stories

Stories Retold by Lukas Vasilikos

Stories Retold by Lukas Vasilikos

His influences from Henri Cartier-Bresson to André Kertész and from Garry Winogrand to Josef Koudelka and Roy De Carava, as well as from the great Greek photographers, older and contemporary such as Nikos Economopoulos, enrich the inspirations and form the photographic aesthetics of the new author.
Soul of India by Suvobroto Ray Chaudhuri

Soul of India by Suvobroto Ray Chaudhuri

The village is panorama of the charming scenes of nature. The scenery of the changing seasons has a profound effect on the village life. It brings a divine touch into human mind and makes life full of divine beauty. 60 percent of the population still lives in villages of India.
Dear Japanese: Children of war by Miyuki Okuyama

Dear Japanese: Children of war by Miyuki Okuyama

The Netherlands made contact with the Indonesian archipelago in the 16th century. Over three hundred years of contact with the Dutch gave rise to a population of Indo-Europeans—Dutch citizens sharing both European and Asian ancestry.
Beyond ordinary by Goran Jovic

Beyond ordinary by Goran Jovic

Goran started to regard photography as a potential professional pursuit back in 2009, initially through wedding and special events photography, as well as portraiture for artistic portfolios. Even so, he still found himself gravitating toward documentary photography, which he finds to be his main aspiration and ambition.
So Coney! by David Godichaud

So Coney! by David Godichaud

Coney island isn't only Wonder Wheel and burger shops. It is also and before New York's beach where all communities from Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens are merging during summers to escape the heat.
Michael David Adams ; Fashion photography

Michael David Adams ; Fashion photography

Michael David Adams’ Fashion photography has taken him around the world from beautiful Caribbean islands and breathtaking coast of Mexico, to exquisite European destinations like Paris, Venice, Nice, and Croatia to name a few..
The ordinary by Lotta Lemetti

The ordinary by Lotta Lemetti

For me creating still life compositions is a form of self-exploration. The creating process is an intriguing and almost devotional journey through my mind. Through predilections in aesthetic decisions such as subject matter, color and composition the work reflects who I am, where I come from and what I have experienced.
The beauty of tribal dances by France Leclerc

The beauty of tribal dances by France Leclerc

The beauty of tribal dances project was selected and published in our print edition 20. As the sun is setting in the tribal areas of East Africa, one can often hear the sound of beating drums and joyful voices coming from the villages.
The last tide by Marco Campi

The last tide by Marco Campi

Last November Venice experienced the second highest tide in recorded history. Looking at the top 10 tides, we see that five have occurred in the past 20 years and the frequency of exceptional tidal flooding above 110 cm have ramped up dramatically through the years.
Time To Rush Home by David Nam Lip

Time To Rush Home by David Nam Lip

This portfolio is specifically captured an environment with expression of muslim people after they completed the congregation of the Bishwa Ijtema at Tongi, Bangladesh.
Greatest jockeys; Fortza Paris by Marco Cheli

Greatest jockeys; Fortza Paris by Marco Cheli

Fortza Paris; Marco Cheli’s project was selected and published in our print edition 16. Over the years, until today there are many young Sardinians, specifically from Barbagia, who leave their island with the dream of becoming a jockey of the Palio di Siena.
Street Photography; Man in the city by Edgaras Vaicikevicius

Street Photography; Man in the city by Edgaras Vaicikevicius

Man in the city

,What is a city? The city is a rush, speed, noise. The city is a place where many people live. The city connect these people. But we become individually in the city. 


City Space by Clarissa Bonet

City Space by Clarissa Bonet

City Space is an ongoing photographic exploration of the urban environment and my perception of it. I am interested in the physical space of the city and its emotional and psychological impact on the body.
The Nenets by Sara Bianchi

The Nenets by Sara Bianchi

The Nenets are an ethnic minority with fewer than 50.000 people dedicated to reindeer breeding. They live in Yamal peninsula, Siberia. Yamal in the language of the indigenous means "the end of the world"
60s NYC by Michael Seif

60s NYC by Michael Seif

In the 1960s I lived and worked in New York City, carried my camera everywhere, and photographed every chance I had - day and night, above ground and in the subways.The camera forced me to look, and to actually see.
Albinism by Georgina Goodwin

Albinism by Georgina Goodwin

Georgina Goodwin / These images are of people with Albinism taken on assignment for CNN during the world's first Mr and Ms Albinism Pageant held in October 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Trending Stories

The Promenade by Cyrille Druart

The Promenade by Cyrille Druart

The title reflects the photographic practice of Cyrille Druart. Unlike his other passion, Architecture, a field in which the progress of projects is slower and anchored in practical needs.
Mysterious people by Amy Sacka

Mysterious people by Amy Sacka

“Mysterious people” explores the tension in our curious reality. The moments when we find ourselves looking and looking again, maybe even asking, “Did that just happen?” “What did I just see?” Or maybe even, “Did the camera see something that I didn't?"
Statement of intent, Flowers photography by Heiko Römisch

Statement of intent, Flowers photography by Heiko Römisch

To make this portfolio I had the idea to show the inside of blossoms before they open all her petals and pistil. For this idea I´m looking for corresponding flower buds.  After testing a lot of flowerbuds in the springtime and summer and experiments to show there inside in a really manner
Varanasi and the Scent of Sadhus By Abhijit Bose

Varanasi and the Scent of Sadhus By Abhijit Bose

Standing on the bank of the Ganges, I could hear the faint sound of a prayer-bell. Someone is doing Aarti (worship) nearby! Suddenly there was a flash of a match stick at a dark corner of the ghat.
All seeing eyes by Jady Bates

All seeing eyes by Jady Bates

As women and identifying females everywhere, we see, we act. Our voices are not loudly heard or read, or broadcasted as often, but we act - many times without fanfare.
New York City; Street Scenes by Paul Kessel

New York City; Street Scenes by Paul Kessel

New York City is considered as one of the best places to practice street photography. It has a history of being the breeding grounds of many of the finest street photographers over the years.
Composition, light and focus; Mikael Ackelman

Composition, light and focus; Mikael Ackelman

From the very first instant that I looked through the viewfinder, I was captivated by the frame. The endless possibilities of composition, light and to shift focus. In many ways I think of an image as a concentration of life within borders.
Landscapes by Mam´At

Landscapes by Mam´At

I am a self-learned photographer from a very small village in Cantal, France. I began photography four years ago when I was 44. I left my job and came to the mountain of the « massif Central ».
La Jeune Fille Et La Mort by Milana Angelova

La Jeune Fille Et La Mort by Milana Angelova

Milana Angelova was born in the beautiful Omsk of Siberia. It was said that the day she was born, hundreds of white doves sang songs on the roof.
Dreams; Les Mémoires by Sergen Sehitoglu

Dreams; Les Mémoires by Sergen Sehitoglu

"Les Mémoires” is the first series of mine, which is going back to the roots. The photos consist of the superposing dreams of thousands and me where we studied from the age of eleven to nineteen in Saint Joseph High School.
Dolomites Diary by Stefania Piccioni

Dolomites Diary by Stefania Piccioni

Dolomites are a section of Alps in the north Italy. The Mountains around us of soaring rock spires seemingly suspended above the clouds. The Dolomites are a unique landscape.
War surgeon: Gino Strada lives! by Gibi Peluffo

War surgeon: Gino Strada lives! by Gibi Peluffo

I met Gino Strada, during brief meetings, on the occasion of the three Emergency exhibitions, where my photos on Sierra Leone, in Empoli, in Milan and then in Genoa were exhibited.

Other Stories

stay in touch
Join our mailing list and we'll keep you up to date with all the latest stories, opportunities, calls and more.
We use Sendinblue as our marketing platform. By Clicking below to submit this form, you acknowledge that the information you provided will be transferred to Sendinblue for processing in accordance with their terms of use
We’d love to
Thank you for subscribing!
Submission
Dodho Magazine accepts submissions from emerging and professional photographers from around the world.
Their projects can be published among the best photographers and be viewed by the best professionals in the industry and thousands of photography enthusiasts. Dodho magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any submitted project. Due to the large number of presentations received daily and the need to treat them with the greatest respect and the time necessary for a correct interpretation our average response time is around 5/10 business days in the case of being accepted.
- Between 10/30 images of your best images, in case your project contains a greater number of images which are part of the same indivisible body of work will also be accepted. You must send the images in jpg format to 1200px and 72dpi and quality 9. (No borders or watermarks)
- A short biography along with your photograph. (It must be written in the third person)
- Title and full text of the project with a minimum length of 300 words. (Texts with lesser number of words will not be accepted)
This is the information you need to start preparing your project for its presentation
To send it, you must compress the folder in .ZIP format and use our Wetransfer channel specially dedicated to the reception of works. Links or projects in PDF format will not be accepted. All presentations are carefully reviewed based on their content and final quality of the project or portfolio. If your work is selected for publication in the online version, it will be communicated to you via email and subsequently it will be published.
Contact
How can we help? Got an idea or something you'd like share? Please use the adjacent form, or contact contact@dodho.com
Thank You. We will contact you as soon as possible.
Submission
Dodho Magazine accepts submissions from emerging and professional photographers from around the world.
Their projects can be published among the best photographers and be viewed by the best professionals in the industry and thousands of photography enthusiasts. Dodho magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any submitted project. Due to the large number of presentations received daily and the need to treat them with the greatest respect and the time necessary for a correct interpretation our average response time is around 5/10 business days in the case of being accepted. This is the information you need to start preparing your project for its presentation.
To send it, you must compress the folder in .ZIP format and use our Wetransfer channel specially dedicated to the reception of works. Links or projects in PDF format will not be accepted. All presentations are carefully reviewed based on their content and final quality of the project or portfolio. If your work is selected for publication in the online version, it will be communicated to you via email and subsequently it will be published.
Get in Touch
How can we help? Got an idea or something you'd like share? Please use the adjacent form, or contact contact@dodho.com
Thank You. We will contact you as soon as possible.