Pagan Lovesong by Francesco Merlini

I’ve never done many fashion photography assignments; usually it’s something that bores me since it’s all about creating fake situations that are aesthetically pleasant. I’ve chosen to work with reality, and reality cannot be destroyed because it has not been invented.

When I’ve been asked to realize this series, they have given me cart blanche and this has enabled me to do something that is mine, something that belongs to my vision of reality.

As a lot of photographers of my generation, while studying at university (industrial design) I’ve started taking pictures of friends, road trips, drunken strangers at parties and this kind of stuff; later, 5 years ago, I had the great luck to start working with the photo-journalism agency Prospekt that now represents me and I started to realize small reportages and news pictures for italian and international magazines. In the meanwhile I’ve started being charmed by how photography was enabling me to find something that maybe I had already found but that was hidden inside me. The photographic quest started to assume another meaning, another value giving life to a journey of discovery that sees its arrival into myself. Usually, with my personal works, what happened in front of my eyes and my emotional and visual fund moulded together in order to create a personal interpretation and narration of things, places and people, transforming something that is totally extraneous to me into something that is mine. My background, my interests and especially my curiosity make me choose what to photograph; It’s my mind that makes me see something special in situations that often are quite usual. The camera becomes an instrument to break people’s blindness to the reality’s wonder and to the fascination that I feel. [Official Website]

A series for Pizza Magazine

The fall/winter 2014-2015 collection of the italian brand N°21 through the eyes of photographer Francesco Merlini.

Styling Veronica Mazziotta.