A View Through the Lens

A View Through the Lens

Photography in Spoleto 

Something uniquely special about the town of Spoleto is the large amount of educational opportunities for photography students to take advantage of; old ruins leaning up next to modern stores and shadows running long across cobblestone streets can truly provide opportunities for students to experience the world in a different light. This week, students focused on understanding certain functions of their camera, specifically aperture, and discovered how certain apertures and camera angles could change the focus of the environment around them and contribute to composing a well thought out photograph.

Students were taught to take pictures at varying angles

By clicking through various aperture modes and experimenting with a change in focus and lighting in each mode, students began to realize that setting the correct aperture was a key component in choosing the lighting for their photographs.

Piero, a nephew of one of the nuns at the convent, eagerly volunteered to model for our photographers.

As students began to see the small town of Spoleto in a different light, they began to realize how photography captures a single moment in time and space. That a picture isn't just a simple record of a certain street corner or fountain, but can capture the emotion, the feeling, of a specific time and place in its entirety.

Serafino instructs the students as they capture Piero (as a model).

New friends were made - both canine and human.

Serafino posing infront of one of his photographs displayed at the Albornoz Palace Hotel (also a museum).  The students visited the hotel and museum earlier in the week to see the show, "Organic Chess," that Serafino curated.

“Working with the students is a kind of gift. They are clever and interested in photography and photography language. I told them the first day of class this. Photography is a sort of trip through Time and Space. This is the topic of this course: search new connections between things in a new perspective. Every day I try to organize photo sessions in different places with Spoletinis .Today we took pictures in a hotel, a couple of days ago we took pictures of Piero, our Italian mascot. We try different places and different lighting. I find that all are not beginners. I can talk about concepts not really easy to understand…categories like, time –vs- space, real- vs- unreal and metaphors of visions. I think, at the end of the course they will be aware that photography is not only an aesthetic category but a real language with its’ own rules.” 

          – Serafino Amato, professor of the photography class

Until the next time, arrivederci!

More photographs of the Photography class can be found on our SmugMug site.

Visit Serafino's professional web site www.serafinoamato.it