I trained as a painter before I trained as a photographer, and I have never really stopped thinking like one. I studied painting in Catania, then took a Master's in photography in Bologna, and I have been working in London since 2013. How I shoot I am looking for the moments either side of the one everybody is watching. The glance before the ceremony, the laugh after the speech. I talk to people gently, I listen to what they actually want, and then I try to be an absent presence in the room, catching what is happening rather than arranging it. Portraits I am after the truest and most spontaneous part of a person, which usually arrives about twenty minutes after they have stopped worrying about their hands. I treat the background as light and composition rather than as a backdrop, so a portrait ends up closer to a painted picture than a studio shot. What I photograph Weddings and engagements, mehndis and henna celebrations, parties, graduations, family portraits, headshots, dance and performance, and occasionally somebody's dog, which I enjoy more than I should. Where I am Camden, and I work across London.