WALKING IN BERGAMO’S CITTÀ ALTA.

Although I had been before photographing other cities in the area, such as Milan, Turin, Brescia and Verona, I had never been to Bergamo. Work in L'Eco di Bergamo let us not spare time to my Cases’ fellows, Javier Rodriguez, Enzo Iaccheo and me. We would go to the Newspaper before ten-thirty, spent half-hour break for lunch, and ended our work on nine in the evening, after completing the first meeting to decide on the cover.

Many people had told me about the beauty of the Città Alta in Bergamo. Enzo and Javier had already visited it. The days were beautiful and sunny, so I told people in the newspaper that the next day I would visit the Città Alta, first thing in the morning, from eight to ten. I was very lucky that after hearing that, Mauro Albonico, production manager of the newspaper group and a passionated for photography offered to accompany me in his car. The next day we walked, both of us, taking pictures and enjoying the beauty, so common to many Italian cities. Mauro took me some great pictures and got the permission to photograph the Piazza Vecchia from the windows of the Municipal Library.

FOTO: MAURO ALBONICO

The pictures I took with my digital camera do not differ in anything with the ones I use to take before with analogic cameras and slide film. But the picture I made inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was entirely different. To achieve a similar result, I would have shoot using a tripod, at a slow speed, so I should have asked permission. In addition, to prevent the fall of lines should have used an expensive PC lens (Perspective Control), also known as shift lens. With digital technology, I just made a single shot, with an ISO of 200 ASA, hand held, using a speed of 1 / 8 of a second without getting a blurred image thanks to the 18-55 mm zoom with stabilizer (VR). After, I straightened the lines using the lens correction tool in Photoshop. Here you can see the picture as I took it. You have to trim it a little, but it was worth it.

FOTO: MAURO ALBONICO

PHOTO EDITOR AT THE ITALIAN DAILY L’ECO DI BERGAMO

ENZO IACCHEO & JAVIER RODRÍGUEZ TEACHING THE ITALIAN JOURNALISTS

Yes, I know that seems strange, But I'll explain it to you. It’s been a job for Cases i Associats. Casas is a world famous Catalan company, named after its founder and creator Toni Casas, and that is mainly engaged in newspaper design.
And it does all over the world. To date, more than one hundred and fifty newspapers, some Spanish as El Periódico de Catalunya, AND, Public or Avui. Among foreigners, many South American, British, French, Russian, Irish, Belgian, Dutch, Croats, Poles, Italians, and even in Nigeria, Ukraine and Latvia.

The study was remodeling l'Eco di Bergamo, the journal of the beautiful Italian northern city, near Milan.

The newspaper renovation was beeing done by two reputated designers, the project director, Enzo Iaccheo, Italian, and art director Javier Rodriguez, a Venezuelan who lives in Barcelona. Both observed an evident lack of quality in the newspaper’s pictures and thought of me to accompany them for a week, give a lecture to the entire newspaper staff explaining, with examples, the qualities needed for commissioned and published photos. I designed a program tailored to the daily, which of course had many of the concepts and examples I taught at the University, and also many photos taken by me in Italy.

JAVIER RODRÍGUEZ & ENZO IACCHEO

The main problem I detected was the lack of a chief photographer or editor. The newspaper has a network of freelance photographers. The asignements arrive to them, usually, by phone without any further information. Photographers send their pictures online to the journal and there, the journalist chose the photos and inserted them into pages where the spaces for the photos to fit in are, most of the time, of formats other than the original photos, often square.

WITH TWO OF THE NEWSPAPER'S PHOTOGRAPHERS. FOTO: BEPPE BEDOLIS

During the days in Bergamo, I met with photographers and art director, Carlos Steiner, exercising, sometimes the role of picture editor, but of course he could not cope with all the work. In the afternoon, I controlled the photo elections and the page layout exerting a didactic work. At night, I attended the meeting to make the cover and provided my opinion on the choice of the pictures and the best frame.

AT LUNCH WITH THE DAILY DIRECTORS

RESTAURANT L'OSTERIA DI VALENTI

L'ECO DI BERGAMO

MEETING FOR MAKING THE COVER. WEARING THE YELLOW SHIRT, DIRECTOR ETTORE ONGIS

Meanwhile, Javier and Enzo taught courses, morning and afternoon, to the newspaper reporters. In my view, the main problem was not the photographers but the poor editing of their photos. Here you can see one of the newspapers in which I participated and where you can see a display of more modern images, like the train and the blurred pedestrians, and photos more dynamic like the fire and the firemen.

Communication was quite fluid regardless of language. Every time I had been to Italy before, all the movies in original version of Fellini, Pasolini, Visconti and Bertolucci I saw, the songs of Adriano Celentano, Ornella Vanonni, Domenico Modugno, or Mina I lissened to, and the book I studied during the holidays helped in a very positive way.

THANKS TO THE NOTEBOOK I COULD KEEP ON DAILY WITH THE BLOG ENTRIES, BACK AT MY HOTEL