The photographic works of the Italian award-winning advertisement and editorial photographer Fulvio Bonavia have always a sense of design. He is known for his work with fashion editor Giovanna Battaglia and his numerous covers international magazines. His Series A Matter of Taste caught our eye and our editor at large, Zoe Warncke had a chat with him in New York.
IRMA: Your two projects: MATTER OF TASTE and SENSE OF FLOWERS really caught my eye in the most beautiful way. How do you envision those objects before you create them?
FULVIO BONAVIA: Sometimes the inspiration came from fashion accessories and sometimes from shapes of food; there was no rule. The inspiration comes from both parts.
IRMA: How do you know which accessory matches the food you have in mind. Does form follow function?
FULVIO BONAVIA: Sketch and resource it’s very important during the process. I usually made some quick tests before going ahead with the final execution.
IRMA: How long does it take you to create an object?
FULVIO BONAVIA: Food is delicate and in most of the case request some fastness in execution to keep a fresh aspect.
IRMA: How do you preserve your objects until they are photographed?
FULVIO BONAVIA: Everything is made on set as I like to adjust the creation based on an instant feeling. I’m a former digital artist and before I was a painter of movie poster, so I have a strong sense of composition and I usually test my work directly on set making some quick composition with accessory ensuring that everything work well. These two projects have been shot in large format camera, so I used to test cutting or scanning the test polaroid.
IRMA: Does it make you sad, that you can’t preserve those objects in any other way than a photograph?
FULVIO BONAVIA: Yes sure, but in some way, like most beautiful things in life, you can observe in a moment and the same beauty won’t repeat again maybe will be better maybe not but you can preserve the beauty of the moment in the photo.
IRMA: Can spirituality come with creating?
FULVIO BONAVIA: Probably creating could help to be more in touch with spirituality as it’s an intimate process and often interior research.
IRMA: What artist do you admire and why?
FULVIO BONAVIA: There are many artists that inspire my work. The one that makes me love photography was Irving Penn and thinking about these two of my personal projects Edward Weston also was a source of inspiration.
IRMA: Do we need a different concept of BEAUTY to survive as humans?
FULVIO BONAVIA: Yes sure, my last project is called “Beauty interrupted” and are some beautiful still life of flowers and plants where there is the contamination of plastic objects, piece of envelopes etc. I wanted to resume in some images the way we are ruining our beautiful planet.
IRMA: What thoughts you do not allow to ruin your day?
FULVIO BONAVIA: On these difficult days, I’m trying to protect myself from all the bad news trying to balance the information channels with positive and funny contents and meditation. In general, I always try to avoid negative thoughts.
all pictures © Fulvio Bonavia