A Cinematic Photographer Discovering New Horizons by – Nicola Armento

I can’t remember how it all started, I never even thought about taking pictures, but then one day, on that plane to New York in 2017, something changed.

I was going on a trip with my first camera, a Canon 1200d (not even mine, borrowed from my sister) just to take some photo-memories in better quality than what my old phone could produce.

After all, all tourists do it, you always see them with a camera around their neck while visiting cities, so I decided that I couldn’t go on a trip and not take the camera. And so I did.

As soon as I got off the plane I stepped into the Big Apple, and I was immediately hit by the magic of that city: lights, colours, different ethnic groups mixing together. Everything there seemed like it wanted to tell a story! The city gave me a powerful energy that even thinking about it to this day, it seems like I still can feel it.

So, I started filling my eyes with all those stories; stories of people I didn’t even know but who through my camera seemed to tell me their emotions. I noticed every detail, and so, without even thinking about it, I started to capture every moment I could.

Since that moment, my life and my photography have become one.

Years have passed since then, now I mostly shoot with digital cameras, like my beloved Sony a7III. But, to be honest, I’m getting closer to analog photography too. This is thanks to a gift from my father: a Yashica fx3 super2000. I cannot hide the fact that I find this type of shooting really fascinating. I also really love to have a cinematic mood that helps tell the story in my shots, and I am finding that film is a way I can achieve this look. I have also since bought another analog camera: the Olympus XA2.

I have already thrown away a lot of rolls due to my inexperience. I have suffered completely blurred, overexposed and underexposed photos. I still remember my first time with a camera and a roll of film, not knowing how to rewind the film, I opened the camera and I burned all the photos; a disaster!

Despite these issues, this way of shooting satisfies me more and more every day. Not knowing how my results will come out, means that I am 100% focused on the composition. The anxiety that takes me when the laboratory has my photos ready is something priceless too!

Feeling free to make some mistakes while shooting has helped me a lot through these years. This has all become the basis of the advice I give to people who now ask me about photography. I always say to people to just look around them and take photos of what catches their eye, what feels like it tells a story and what inspires them. From there, it has all felt like downhill running for me!

Thanks for reading,

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