One of Us #70: maricontis

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   One of Us #70: maricontis 

Dyxum member maricontis writes...

Well, dreams sometimes come true...and amazingly I’m having here my piece, among a such great company that I’ve never imagined to be part of!

My name’s Stefano and I am from Crema, a little town in northern Italy, but now I live and work in Bergamo. I’m anesthesiologist-intensivist (in Italy it’s quite the same study course) and since some years I specialized in pediatric area. Besides that, I’m a husband and a dad of two, Riccardo and Ilaria; you might think I haven’t too much spare time to dedicate to hobbies... but in fact I play also goalkeeper in a waterpolo team, and of course I like photography! So let’s talk about that.

I bought my first DSLR quite reluctantly in 2010, being a lazy and content user of cheap compact cameras; and I was assisted in the choice by a colleague I worked with for one year, a Dyxum fervent fan and member, Francesco (emopunk). He advised me to step it up a notch, buying a reflex by Sony - and I chose a alpha330, of course thanks to precious information available on Dyxum. Thus, coming to write here today is somehow a paradox: without Dyxum itself, the story would have been totally different! The main reason to buy “advanced photographic gear” was a self-drive safari in Botswana; an adventurous, self-designed journey I organized in 2011 with Claudia, my wife. 

It wasn’t my first adventurous journey: I travelled before in Peru, Bolivia, Australia, Madagascar... but I didn’t care about photography yet. Since I was a child I loved Nature, and I dreamt about journeys; I am still a fan of documentaries, above all, sir David Attenborough’s “life series” on BBC. I collected all since long ago. No wonders it was Nature my first photos’ favourite subject.

As soon as I started shooting, I become increasingly curious about lenses. I bought, and sold, and bought many used lenses, trying not to lose money in the process, and I become an enthusiast experimenter. My favourite lens was the Minolta 100 mm macro D. I was definitely in the period “gear is important”. I begun to post on Dyxum, trying to catch any feedback, useful to improve my technique. Also, I joined a couple of challenges, in general I like very much the polite and careful atmosphere here on Dyxum. 

In 2015 many things happened. First of all, I joined a photo club for a couple of years. I learnt more and more, and considering the great past photographers’ work, I thought “well, gear isn’t so important!” Particularly I was (and still I am) admired about Salgado operas. I knew Salgado thanks to the documentary “The Salt of the Earth”, and nowadays I am collecting Salgado printings and books. The last, I bought for Christmas: Amazonia. 

Secondly I met, thanks to the club’s activity, my maestro: Raoul Iacometti, a well known Italian photographer. I begun to attend some short courses with him about portraiture. Watching him working in the field made me to learn a lot about portraits, and how to cope with shooting to strangers just met in the street. 

Finally I seized the precious opportunity to travel in Tigray (northern Ethiopia) due to a colleague's withdrawal, as anesthetist volunteer. I bought the flight just three days before the departure! That one week experience changed my life, and of course my photographic eye. I came back in the same place (Hewo center) 5 other times, and had the chance to meet incredible people.

About Ethiopia, if you are curious, I link here some reportages that I posted in the past on Dyxum:

Sons of the Plateau
Salt mining in Danakil
Back to Africa’s roof 

2020 was a black year. Not only covid spread (and hit first and hardest Bergamo in western world), but also a terrible war broke out in Tigray. That year I returned to work in adult intensive care, it was hard time, but in the end I liked it. Resources were limited, and patients were countless; but my African experience helped me to cope with that. I worked with fantastic colleagues. I am also a humorous person, and that helped me much. And photography helped too. I share below just one shot from that period.

Hoping to see Tigray soon again (now the war has just ended), last autumn I’ve been with the same equipe in Madagascar for medical purpose. We were on the south-western coast. That is a wonderful land. The ocean presence was so magical. Hopefully I’ll post a reportage on Dyxum about it soon, but below there is a sample.

Nowadays photography is changing fast. Equipment is cheap and everybody takes pictures. We are overwhelmed by tons of “perfect” images, technically flawless, but the truth is a few drive me into any emotion. Sometimes I stumble upon a great work. There are many great photographers around, great communicators, storytellers, even on Instagram. But of course their work is muffled by a binge of images. 
I shoot mainly for fun, and that’s enough, but... the years are passing by, and I realize that photography is taking a fair more important role in my life. Since I begun, I tried to do better; true photographers have a project, and they put in their photographic work their identity, their stories, their life. I believe I’m on this challenging and exciting path.

Riccardo

Ilaria

Claudia