Hello Alessandro, it’s such a pleasure meeting you again, here in our virtual place for souls connection. The last time we met was in Milano, a year ago, when we were both on a similar paths of leaving the city and the life we have lived there for so many years - in order to “come back home”, not to some physical destination, but to our true soul purpose. Can you tell me when did you decide that is over with Milano and your life there? How did you feel about leaving everything and going into something new? What happened after you left Milano?
Hi Daniela, it's really a pleasure to meet you again. For quite some time, I had been harboring the idea of leaving Milan permanently: between 2017 and 2019 I had already tried twice to drop everything following by heavy episodes of burnout, but it always ended end up returning.
In early 2021 I experienced yet another burnout, the worst one. I looked in the mirror and I couldn’t see my reflection at all: I saw a sad, angry and cynical person, sick in body and spirit. What to do then? It was clear that certain compromises were no longer acceptable, but I was also aware that giving up everything and running away wasn't going to get me anywhere. So I decided to start a gradual estrangement: I went to live in the suburbs, reducing my expenses and lifestyle. This allowed me to work less and spend more time traveling and visiting rural communities and eco-villages, which had always piqued my interest. So, for various periods, I stayed in two communities on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines: Yana Casa Portale and the Meraki Project, returning to Milan only to work.
To celebrate my 34th birthday, on October 25th 2021., I bought a one-way ticket to Mexico. I left and came back, but I never went back to live in Milan. Today I live between the Apennines, Sicily and Mexico, and my life has steadily taken a new direction, which I feel fully mine.
Was there any particular moment / experience / person (or all of these) that made you realize that you need to completely change your life in order to meet your true self?Since I was a teenager, I had clear in my mind what I wanted or didn't want to do in life: I knew I wanted to see the world, I wanted to try all possible experiences, even the most extreme ones, I knew I wanted to go beyond the labels and conventions of a society that I always perceived as limiting and alien. I've always known that I don’t want to do something just because "that's how it should be done”, that I don't want to turn my head at the pain and discomfort. However, I found myself totally immersed in a society which, with a few exceptions, offered purely wrong models to refer to, on which I had developed belief systems and wrong behaviours in turn. So I ended up sacrificing my true self to a series of flattery from the ego and the comfort zone: a career at any cost, owning objects, surrounding myself with useless things that confirmed a status. Competing in an absurd society, appearing rather than being. I found myself becoming a character, a sort of caricature of who I really was, but perfectly in line with the standards of the times and the society we live in, especially in big cities.
Maintaining this standard, after the easy enthusiasm of the early days, cost me a superhuman effort, despite the fact that I tried not to immerse myself too much in certain contexts and not to lose contact with the most authentic part of me. Despite this, a moment has come in which there was a sidereal distance between these two aspects of my life: I was in the middle, torn by living this fracture. At one point, I simply couldn't take it anymore: I knew, that in order to survive, I would have to let go of who I wasn't and what didn't belong to me. And I made my choice.
You kept being a photographer, but in another context. How did your “photographer’s identity” transformed during this new experience? What does it mean to be a nomad photographer?
Honestly, I never really cared about being called a "photographer", which is also why I contemporarily continued with my activity as a lighting technician and assistant for other photographers. When people ask me today if I'm a photographer, I answer that I'm a person who does many things, one of which is taking photographs, which apparently I'm still able to do with dignity.
Being a "nomad photographer" means being free to take pictures when and how I want. To do them for me and for the people I love. It means being free from the competition and ego-trip of the "character-photographer". It means being free to love this art, in its complexity, freedom and anarchy. I definitely earn less than before, I collaborate with a few selected magazines and occasionally sell a few prints, but that's just fine: as I said, I do many other things and the abundance flows in different ways. I am sure that in this way I will never risk abandoning my camera, because I cannot and do not want to imagine a life without taking photographs.
What are the places / cultures / people that inspire you the most?
I am attracted to all those places and peoples who have maintained a lively contact with the sacredness of nature and ancestral traditions. I am passionate about folklore and cultures from all over the world: my interest ranges from music to mythology passing from languages to cooking, with particular attention to ethnic minorities and tribal peoples. Let's say that I feel a bit like a failed anthropologist. Definitely the most powerful call has always been that of Central and South America, from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego. I remember some time ago, talking to a friend about my desire to visit Argentina, I said to her: “For that country I feel nostalgic even though I've never been there." She smiled at me and revealed that there is a word in German appropriate to indicate that feeling: Fernweh.
Are there some of the different cultures’ habits / routines that you encountered on your journeys and then integrated in your everyday’s life? How does your ordinary day (if that exist in your life :) look like now?
The concept of routine is so far away from my daily life. I am attuned to my body and my my mind, letting myself go with the flow of what I feel and what happens to me. But I have to admit that I have one rather chaotic mind prone to overthinking, so over time I have developed techniques and small routines that include practices and habits borrowed from different cultures and experiences gained during my travels. I apply them according to commitments and needs.