A Photographic Life - 99: Plus Massimo Vitali

In episode 99 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the changing role of the photographer's assistant, using music as a metaphor for photography and finally finding a camera to fit in his pocket. Plus this week photographer Massimo Vitali takes on the challenge of supplying Grant with an audio file no longer than 5 minutes in length in which he answer’s the question ‘What Does Photography Mean to You?’ Massimo Vitali was born in Como, Italy, in 1944 and moved to London after high school, where he studied photography at the London College of Printing. In the early Sixties he worked as a photojournalist, collaborating with many magazines and agencies in Italy and Europe. It was during this time that he met Simon Guttmann, the founder of the Report agency, who was to become fundamental in Massimo’s growth as a “Concerned Photographer”. At the beginning of the Eighties a growing mistrust in the belief that photography had an absolute capacity to reproduce the subtleties of reality led to a change in his career path and he began working as a cinematographer for television and cinema. However, his relationship with the still camera never ceased, and he eventually turned his attention back to photography. In 1995 he began the Beach Series a series of Italian beach panoramas begun in the light of drastic political changes in Italy. He lives and works in Lucca, Italy, and Berlin, Germany. www.massimovitali.com If you have enjoyed this podcast why not check out our A Photographic Life Podcast Plus. Created as a learning resource that places the power of learning into the hands of the learner. To suggest where you can go, what you can read, who you can discover and what you can question to further your own knowledge, experience and enjoyment of photography. It will be inspiring, informative and enjoyable! You can find out here: www.patreon.com/aphotographiclifepodcast You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-lifeand Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His book New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019. The documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay can now be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47549knOU&t=3915s. © Grant Scott 2020