Interview: Maurizio Galimberti - Celebrity Instant Film Collages
This Interview by Michael Behlen was originally published in PRYME Magazine Issue 4 in the Summer of 2015.
Maurizio Galimberti is known internationally as an instant film artist and is renowned for his rich and detailed photographic mosaics of celebrities. Each portrait is created by using up to 150 photos to capture a 180° view, horizontally and vertically, of the sitter. These extraordinary portraits are works of art, not straight documentary photography. The artist comments about his work, “I do not consider myself a photographer, but a painter who uses photography.” Galimberti has captured portraits of a variety of celebrities - such as Johnny Depp, Robert De Niro, George Clooney, Lady Gaga, Sting, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Benicio del Toro, Andres Serrano, Julian Schnabel, Wim Wenders, Monica Bellucci, and Javier Bardem.
In 1983, at age twenty-six, Galimberti first started experimenting with Polaroid film because darkroom chemicals cut into his hands, and he wanted to see the outcome of his work “instantly.” Influenced by Braque and Picasso’s Cubism, Boccioni’s Futurism, Daniel Spoerri’s black and white mosaics with paint overlays, along with David Hockney and Lucas Samaras’s mosaics, and others’ works, Galimberti started to work on his own Polaroid photo mosaics in 1985 and 1986. During this period he was introduced to the photographic tool which would come to define his style.
Alan Fidler, a Boston Polaroid engineer, showed Galimberti “The Collector,” also marketed as the Polaroid Close-Up Stand Duplicator, or Polaroid Jewelry Pro, in 1986. This closeup attachment was developed by Polaroid to help photographers capture images of small objects such as stamps or coins; it works with the Polaroid Spectra, Image and Onyx cameras. Galimberti prefers the rare white model of the Jewelery Pro. The tool revolutionized Galimberti’s style and led to his developing the Polaroid mosaic portraits.
In 1988 Galimberti met Achille Abramo Saporiti, Polaroid’s Italian communications manager, during one of his photographic art exhibitions in Vicenza. By 1991 Galimberti began to work with Polaroid Italia, then in 1992 he quit his job as a surveyor to work fulltime as a photographer, and in 1995 his book “Polaroid Pro Art” was published. In 1999 he won first place in a portrait contest in Class magazine, which led him to be chosen as the official photographer for the 2003 Venice Film Festival.
Galimberti’s portrait of Johnny Depp, taken at the 2003 Venice Film Festival, became an international sensation after it was featured on the cover of Time magazine. So started Galimberti’s international career during which his images have appeared in magazines, art galleries, and museums worldwide. He has worked with companies such as Cartier, Rolex, Jaeger LeCoultre, Nokia, Fiat Auto, Lancia Auto, Illy Caffè, and Veuve Cliquot.
Connect with Maurizio Galimberti on his Website and Instagram!
Interview
Michael Behlen: You work exclusively with instant film. Why do you prefer instant film photos to digital pictures? What is it about instant film photography that fascinates you?
Maurizio Galimberti: I loved instant film immediately. I was 12 years old and I was at the “Rinascente” department store in Milan with my mother. There was a photo setup where I was photographed dressed as a king. I was immediately struck by the fact that the pictures came out right after the shoot. With instant film the wait does not exist!
MB: You prefer using a Polaroid Spectra camera with “The Collector” close-up duplication attachment. How did you develop your process with this tool? How do you currently create one of your multi-image portraits?
MG: “The Collector” is my “invention” for the realization of my portraiture. The Collector allows you to make the right size images of what you are shooting. I lean close to the face of the person and shoot various instant films and then recompose the mosaic.
You recently photographed the American artist Chuck Close whose work, like yours, is based on the collage process. Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Lucas Samaras, Jeremy Kost, and others have used the photo collage. What is it about this medium that you find valuable?
MG: I was inspired, on a spiritual level, by photography by Franco Fontana, Mario Giacomelli, Gianni Berengo Gardin, and Robert Frank. I was very influenced by a point of view of the images by Wim Wenders. I had many suggestions. In Italy, there was Nino Migliori, for example, who used the Polaroid before me. I like very much Lucas Samaras. I also appreciate the work of Paolo Gioli. I believe that my images have their own well defined personality.
The mosaic, as mentioned, was born, in the modern sense of the term with the Bauhaus and, before me, it has been experimented with by David Hockney, a great English artist. My mosaic is different because it is dynamic, with a rhythm.
MB: Your portrait of Johnny Depp was a turning point in your career, but it didn’t originally go smoothly. Please tell us the story of how you took this image.
MG: The portrait of Johnny Depp gave me great personal satisfaction and international visibility, making me understand the power of my pictures in the panorama of photography. It was the cover of the magazine of the Times of London.
I shoot in sequence from top to down and from left to right and then I put together all the pieces, very quickly, in the same order. I adapt this technique to other portraits in the world of art, fashion, culture, and entertainment.
MB: Aside from the Depp portrait, what has been your most memorable celebrity photographs and why?
MG: Robert De Niro, who then wanted that I make a portrait of a member of his family. Other celebrities: Lady Gaga, George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kate Winslet, Javier Bardem (which has been on display at the museum Polaroid in Las Vegas), Giuseppe Tornatore, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, and many others.
MB: You have made filmic homages to the great artists Mondrian and Brancusi. What do you think of the opinions of many people that photography is not a “true” art?
MG: I started as a photographer, but now I feel more as an artist, in the sense that my vision is between Futurism and Marcel Duchamp’s Dadaism. But then my journey has been influenced by the history of art, so I am more artist than photographer. For photography these days everyone now has a digital camera in his or her phone.
MB: What are your thoughts about this development? What do you think of apps such as Instagram? Are they good or bad for photography?
MG: Now everyone wants to make photographs. Especially now that there are social media that allow you to post photos and share them. I also use Instagram. Not just the desire to do photography creates art; you have to be influenced by the history of art, for those who want to make a work of art like mine. As novelist Italo Calvino put it: “The fantasy is like jam, it needs to be spread on a solid slice of bread.”
MB: What tips or advice would you give to photographers who want to make strong work with instant film?
MG: You have to create a background with which to shape your idea, your imagination. It is important to think that one thing leads to another, that your work has to be an evolution of the history that has preceded you. You can not think of merely inventing. This is my advice.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Behlen is a photography enthusiast from Fresno, CA. He works in finance and spends his free time shooting instant film and backpacking in the California wilderness, usually a combination of the two. He has been published, been interviewed, and been reviewed in a quantity of magazines and online publications, from F-Stop and Blur magazine to the Analog Talk Podcast. He loves the magic sensuality of instant film: its saturated, surreal colors; the unpredictability of the medium; it’s addictive qualities as you watch it develop. He is the founder of Analog Forever Magazine. Connect with Michael Behlen on his Website and on Instagram!
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