Jazz Photography
Roberto Cifarelli
Image Credits: Self Portrait © Roberto Cifarelli
Travelling between jazz, Brazil and research
November 6, 2017
Roberto’s work and his approach to photography are oriented in several directions. His website is a huge collection of a multiplicity of high quality pictures.
Who’s Roberto Cifarelli?
I’m a music fan, actually, as I often say, I’m addicted to jazz and Brazilian popular music, I love photography and research, and as soon as I can I travel to take pictures and listen to live concerts.
I’m a music fan, actually, as I often say, I’m addicted to jazz and Brazilian popular music, I love photography and research, and as soon as I can I travel to take pictures and listen to live concerts.
Why did you choose to work in jazz? Are there any other photography genres you perform?
I shoot jazz because I love it, I started by chance, only to have a memory of the concerts I was attending but, during my first exhibition, which was my wife’s surprise to me, all the musicians that saw my pictures really congratulated me and, since then, I started to work more seriously and to publish and cooperate with labels, magazines and websites.
I like to take shoots of everything, but I’ve always been specialised in night photography or low light photography, I love difficult situations. Moreover, I do a lot of research and experimentation with installations as well (I participated for nine years to European Photography in Reggio Emilia, and I had many personal exhibitions around Europe) and, in the past, with many video displays. In the last period, I’m even more loving photography out of the stage, not pose photography but improvised photography.
I shoot jazz because I love it, I started by chance, only to have a memory of the concerts I was attending but, during my first exhibition, which was my wife’s surprise to me, all the musicians that saw my pictures really congratulated me and, since then, I started to work more seriously and to publish and cooperate with labels, magazines and websites.
I like to take shoots of everything, but I’ve always been specialised in night photography or low light photography, I love difficult situations. Moreover, I do a lot of research and experimentation with installations as well (I participated for nine years to European Photography in Reggio Emilia, and I had many personal exhibitions around Europe) and, in the past, with many video displays. In the last period, I’m even more loving photography out of the stage, not pose photography but improvised photography.
Would you like to share with us an anecdote connected to your relationships in jazz world?
I could write a book about all the anecdotes I have, as some of them are really amusing! I thought about it a lot of times while I was going back home with my wife, after the concerts. For example, once we caused a traffic jam on a state road, in order to take shoots of cello players Sollima and Noferini while they were playing in the middle of the road on the zebra crossing, or that time that I shot Paolo Fresu jumping before an astonished Omar Sosa (that shoot became the duo official picture).
These are all people knowing my creativity and that are willing to “submit” themselves to strange and amusing situations, even surreal, that are the last research I’m doing now with the musicians.
I could write a book about all the anecdotes I have, as some of them are really amusing! I thought about it a lot of times while I was going back home with my wife, after the concerts. For example, once we caused a traffic jam on a state road, in order to take shoots of cello players Sollima and Noferini while they were playing in the middle of the road on the zebra crossing, or that time that I shot Paolo Fresu jumping before an astonished Omar Sosa (that shoot became the duo official picture).
These are all people knowing my creativity and that are willing to “submit” themselves to strange and amusing situations, even surreal, that are the last research I’m doing now with the musicians.
Do you have any suggestions for people starting to take pictures?
Be passionate, be serious and very determined, don’t be anxious to attain or rush into things. In my opinion, it is very important to know our own limits by finding our weak points so that to be able to grow and continually improve.
Be passionate, be serious and very determined, don’t be anxious to attain or rush into things. In my opinion, it is very important to know our own limits by finding our weak points so that to be able to grow and continually improve.
Which is your favorite camera?
I do not have a favourite one, and, by now, I use compact cameras (Sony, Lumix), as well as reflex (Nikon), mirrorless (Fuji), 6×6 film camera (Rolleiflex), phone cell, everything fits. I’m more and more loving fixed lens cameras and mainly 24 and 35. I have a Nikon, but not for a precise reason, I started when I was 14 with some used lenses my elder brother gifted me with, and I went on without choosing a particular brand. In many photos my friends took of me recently, I noticed that I often hold a compact camera.
I do not have a favourite one, and, by now, I use compact cameras (Sony, Lumix), as well as reflex (Nikon), mirrorless (Fuji), 6×6 film camera (Rolleiflex), phone cell, everything fits. I’m more and more loving fixed lens cameras and mainly 24 and 35. I have a Nikon, but not for a precise reason, I started when I was 14 with some used lenses my elder brother gifted me with, and I went on without choosing a particular brand. In many photos my friends took of me recently, I noticed that I often hold a compact camera.
Is there a picture you wish you had taken?
There are many, as there are many photographers I love and I inspired myself to, but for sure the shot I’d like to have taken and that, unexpectedly is not a live picture, is a picture by Guy Le Querrec, in which there’s Charlie Parker on TV and a backlit dog going out of a door. It is so brilliant and it’s a shot I definitely would have never thought about. This is what I like, when you get astonished before a picture and you feel something.
There are many, as there are many photographers I love and I inspired myself to, but for sure the shot I’d like to have taken and that, unexpectedly is not a live picture, is a picture by Guy Le Querrec, in which there’s Charlie Parker on TV and a backlit dog going out of a door. It is so brilliant and it’s a shot I definitely would have never thought about. This is what I like, when you get astonished before a picture and you feel something.
–
Uri Caine
Richard Bona
Joe Lovano
Fulvio Sigurta
Dave Holland
Cesenatico
Reservados todos los derechos – All rights reserved – 版權所有 – 版权所有; Jazz Photography Roberto Cifarelli – copyright Jazzespresso 2017.
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Roberto Cifarelli
Web Site: www.robertocifarelli.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/robertocifarellifoto
