Before coming to Rome, I had no experience in photography despite my strong interest in it. As I was first looking at the course list of the Rome program, I was so excited that I would finally get a chance to learn about photography! Having been in the class for 5 weeks, I have really enjoyed taking photos around town, discussing how interesting my classmates’ photos are, and choosing (painfully) the best one out of the 100 photos I have taken. In particular, Liana Miuccio, our instructor, has been very helpful and nice. Undoubtedly, I would say this is my favorite class so far in Rome!
As part of the course, we recently had a special lecture by Mr. Marco Delogu, an Italian photographer who initiated an international festival of photography in Rome and has exhibited in many cities around the world. It was actually my first time listening to a professional photographer, and I realized that purely listening to how he explained the photos can be very inspiring!
I found it interesting that his interests could change from time to time. For example, He mentioned that at first he was obsessed with taking photos of horses, but later he became more interested in shooting close-ups of people. Interestingly, his latest interest in 2008 was soul. Although most of his photos are in black and white only, I found many of them very strong and vivid (especially the close-ups of old people).
Having seen his photos, I became more motivated to take more good photos for my photography project (the topic is “the non-Italian side of Italy”). By the end of the semester, I really hope that I will have produced a great portfolio of photos that record my experience in Rome!
See Marco Delogu’s work at http://www.marcodelogu.com