Giuseppe IrrancaPortrait photographer, Alghero
IT|EN

Journal, the thinking behind the images

Photographs keep silent. Here I try to say what comes before them.

For years I have written about what happens before and after a shot: light, trust, the gaze of the viewer, paper. These are slow texts, written for those who want to understand a portrait, not just see it. Read them slowly, one at a time.

Black and white portrait of a woman in a white shirt leaning on the walls of Alghero, her hand in her hair
  1. 01The evil is not in the photograph. It is in the eye of the one who looks.Manifesto of a black and white portrait photographer: malice is not in the image but in the one who looks. On the truth of a face, the dignity of a body, and those who see only themselves in a pure photograph.7 min readGiuseppe Irranca, portrait photographer, black and white portrait
  2. 02How to read a photograph, and why not everyone can see oneA photograph is not judged, it is read. Why the same image moves one person and leaves another untouched, and what that reveals about the viewer.7 min readBlack and white portrait of a woman in black, arms crossed, on a dark background
  3. 03The psychology of an image, why a photograph reaches the soulProjection, empathy, levels of reading: what happens in the mind and heart of someone looking at a portrait, and why an image reaches the soul.7 min readBlack and white portrait of a woman in a concrete corridor, against the light
  4. 04What I believeI believe light is alive, that a portrait is not a copy, that one can only photograph what one loves. My way of looking at the world, in five convictions.2 min readBlack and white portrait of a woman in a white shirt on the ramparts of Alghero, looking towards the sea
  5. 05Photographing by subtractionI take away colour, studio and pose, and keep the essential: a face, real light, the moment someone stops defending themselves. My poetics.2 min readBlack and white portrait of a woman in a white shirt on a doorstep
  6. 06Connections, the encounters that remainI was looking for images and photography gave me people. On the intimacy of a portrait session and the bonds that are born in front of a lens.2 min readBlack and white portrait of a woman leaning against a wall with graffiti
  7. 07Telling stories through portraitureThe eyes are the mirror of the soul. On emotional photography, the untold stories living in every person, and the silent dialogue between image and viewer.1 min readBlack and white portrait of a woman in a long black dress sitting on a stone wall in the woods, eyes closed
  8. 08The screen forgets, paper remembersA photograph does not truly exist until you can touch it. Why the fine-art print is the last act of a portrait, and the most important.2 min readBlack and white portrait of a woman in a white shirt leaning against a stone wall, morning light
  9. 09Why my portraits have no titleA title would close the meaning. Every portrait remains a threshold onto which to project one's own life: you complete it as you look.1 min readBlack and white portrait of a woman in front of a wall with writing, raking light
  10. 10Leica, not what I photograph with, but what I look throughI do not like talking about cameras, but I can talk about Leica: a feeling, not an object. And a single lens, the 50 mm, with my steps instead of a zoom.2 min readBlack and white portrait of a woman in profile beside a curtain, window light
  11. 11Does the perfect portrait lens exist? A technical analysis of the Leica Summilux-SL 50mm f/1.4 ASPH.A dossier on the Leica Summilux-SL 50mm f/1.4 ASPH for portraiture: micro-contrast, aberrations, MTF charts, the Leica look and the science of perception, from a photographer's point of view.15 min readBlack and white portrait of a woman in a leather jacket against a dark wall, raking light