“I was waiting for the train that would take me back to Yangon, tired and sleepy I was sitting on a crumbling bench when suddenly my gaze was captured by this wonderful girl who was waiting for the train with her mother. She had two magnetic eyes made even more unique by Thanaka’s doused face.”
Paolo lo Pinto has won 2nd place in the Portrait category of the Sinchi 2018 Photo Competition.
1979, Rome, one of the world’s oldest cities of art, is also Paolo Lo Pinto’s birthplace. That’s where he lives, that’s where he works, that’s just one of the many cities he portrayed with his camera. He lives in every town, in every place, in every shot, he lives exploring the world with his backpack.
“…I am literally obsessed with photography! I take a thousand pictures with my eyes every day. Photography is everywhere; you only have to see it!”
He inherits his passion for photography, at a very young age, from his father; Paolo discovers his love for what was to become his reason to live in his darkroom. His first portraits of relatives and friends will mark his future forever.
Later in his life, he studies photography at the Accademia Fotografica in Rome, then deepens his knowledge focusing on the works of great masters such as Salgado, Mccurry and Webb. Today he works with several photographic agencies and some of his photographs have been published by the National Geographic Italia.
Paolo Lo Pinto goes through a very rough patch in his life, and decides to plan the first of his many travels aimed at discovering different cultures and peoples: Vietnam, …the place where his love for photography blossoms to the fullest!
…”I remember that day in Hoi An, an ancient Vietnamese town where I met by chance French photographer Réhahn, currently one of the greatest portrait photographers in the world. I was in this café, and I saw a tiny room full of pictures on the walls. Those shots were amazing. While I was leafing through his photography book, he came up to me and introduced himself: he was the owner of that café, so I started going there for breakfast every morning. We would have coffee together and talk about his work. He gave me some tips on how to improve my style and where to go for interesting portraits. A few days later I called my mother and told her… mom, I fell in love with photography!”
Paolo Lo Pinto‘s pictures tell a story of social research, they show the different lifestyles and appearances in a beautifully engaging way. He tries to find people’s soul through their gaze, turning each shot into an opportunity for them to come alive through their eyes and their actions. Brings awareness to the many realities and different kinds of people across the world as he photographs people in real surroundings.
Each photographer has their own style, each moment captured by the camera is unique, so this is the true passion and challenge that all photographers have to face throughout their career. Paolo is walking along his own path, made unique by his resourceful and resolved personality. His fragments of life are highlighted by his talent, his shots reveal an energy that allows those who see them to discover new gazes that reach and pervade their souls.
…”I don’t like to ‘steal shots’, I try to create a relationship with the people I portray, which is definitely the hardest thing to do. When this relationship happens, each picture acquires a different meaning, for people seem to show their true self before your eyes- I remember I was trying to take a picture of this young Cambodian girl: I kept following her, she was playing hide-and-seek and running barefoot around the temples, she didn’t want to pose for me; so I started playing with her as I often do with my nephew, then I asked her if I could take her picture. And she said yes, which filled my heart with joy!”
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