Edited by Carmela Loragno and Valentina Pellegrino
Maybe because he is the great-grandson of Evaristo Maurione of the early Italian photographers or because the photography has always breathed it since childhood, when his father used to shoot and print with his friends, while there was no lack of equipment and magazines in the house, such as Photographic Progress or books and albums of all sorts: boxes of memories that could be opened when needed to bring out stories, experiences, people and characters from true and fantastic tales, poetic suggestions that only photography can evoke.
The fact is that since then, those years have marked a child, Adriano Mauri he realised what his path would be: photography. A sacred fire that he has cultivated over the years and that from far Iglesias, his homeland, took him first to Rome, then to Cagliari and finally to Milan, passing through a series of countless journeys, because the photography Inevitably 'condemns' you to professional nomadism, especially in the relentless search for new perspectives to seize and capture.
A narrative, intimate, profound style: in the shots of Adriano Mauri there is all his education enriched by reading and music, but also by family and important memories. A child of mining land, raised among bricks, pits and iron architecture, hands and faces marked by hard work, the faces and souls of the people he met along the way are not missing from his projects.
A poetic and documentary approach that distinguishes him, so much so that he defines his way of taking photographs as almost feminine, due to his distinct sensitivity, his ability to stop and capture the moment at the moment of its greatest expression, in that artistic afflatus
which is the soul of things.
Also the food photographyto which the professional now devotes himself, demonstrates all this. Foods that reveal themselves in their complex beauty, the fruit of skilful hands and minds that have shaped them. And then the protagonists, the chefcaught in their most authentic moments because
food is, first and foremost, the people behind it, those who, with their study, sensitivity, desire to experiment and dare, have changed the very destiny of a sector, elevating it to a true art.
And then you understand how photography of food is, with the shots of Adrianoan art within art, sensitive lenses of light and stories, moments stolen from beauty, perfection that is
unravelled in photograms, a technique told through juxtapositions and mixtures of colours.
Food takes on different nuances, dishes tell of the hands that composed them, ostentation becomes history, matter takes on a soul!
Where does your passion for Food Photography come from?
Mainly from the fact that I love good food and I like to cook, even before I started photography as a kid.
Moreover, still life is the specialisation that most involves me emotionally, it is, from a creative point of view, a so-called 'slow' type of photography, where attention to detail, composition and light must be governed with care and attention, even though I am by nature instinctive and adrenalinic. So still life photography is a kind of mantra for me, I have learnt to be disciplined with myself.
As a professional photographer, what do you think of the food phenomenon on social media? Can we consider it an art form or a compulsive sharing fad?
I already have a hard time considering photography an art form... I think it is absolutely a compulsive fashion in which often, unless the publishers are professionals, the very quality of the images is poor. I never photograph food in restaurants, perhaps because I am lucky enough to do it for a living, but the moment of the meal is sacred to me and also very intimate, I enjoy it with my eyes, with my sense of smell and with my taste, shooting with a smartphone is distracting and distracts from the experience as a whole, which is why even while I am shooting on set, I rarely taste what I am shooting, I wait until the end of the shoot to enjoy what I have captured.
What, in your experience, is the most 'photogenic' food to create a good Food Photography shot?
I think it is necessary to make some distinctions; 'food' photography, I like to say food photography, lives on two opposing camps. One is the more strictly advertising field, where food is often fake and has a certain language and technical realisation. The other is where the food is real, cooked by a chef and edible, and is presented as if we were ready to eat it, and this is the field I prefer and deal with most professionally. Having said that, one might think that the most photogenic are the wonderful creations of chefs; for me, however, the most 'photogenic' are the products that end up on the plates of great chefs, especially vegetables. My love for Flemish and Italian still life painting from the 1500s/600s, on the other hand, testifies to this. That painting is my constant creative reference.
You have worked with many chefs. Would you like to share a curious anecdote with our readers?
When we took the photographs for the new book of Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia with Alessando Negrini and Fabio Pisani, we could never be satisfied with one of their iconic desserts, Tiramisud. We photographed it changing plates up to eight times. It was a magnificent team effort and we also had a lot of fun to achieve the desired result.
For beginners who want to try their hand at food photography, what are some technical tips for taking professional photos at home?
A good camera with a 60/85 mm fixed lens, a tripod (essential), a window through which a nice diffused light enters, which must be screened with a thin curtain, through which the light can be softened, some reflective panels, a nice neutral tabletop and, finally, always place the set against the window, front or side but never back to the light. Ah of course nice subjects to photograph of course. Good work.
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