I really, really love doing non-studio portraits, especially black and white ones. Human face is very rich, it can show and hide everything. What I really enjoy doing is trying to reveal something essential from inside the person I am shooting.

We can, of course, all be actors – some good, some less so. The key is to depict someone’s character under the surface of acting. That is rather difficult to obtain since most of people turn into something else when aware of being photographed – at least, prior to being coached by Peter Hurley, famous NYC studio portrait  guru photographer. So, I try to get a shot exactly and precisely when people first became aware of my camera, when they look into it, but a fraction of a second before they became fully aware of it – and before they start to act.

I also worked a bit with some young models, which I think is clearly obvious. Those portraits, however, are not very elaborately posed, or acted. Almost all the portraits that appear on this site show a lot of true personalities of the people I photographed. At least I hope so.

Valentina | Pula | 2013