Finding good art is not an arduous task. More often than not, it can be found on any street corner or avenue. Even simpler, it can be as easy as launching a Web browser and fumbling around Flickr. In the Piedmont Triad of central North Carolina, Mario Gallucci, assistant curator of the Green Hill Center for Art, has carved an indelible impression on the local art community for a triumvirate of talents: photography, origami and drawing. The following Q and A focuses solely on his photography collection. Head to the jump to read the interview and see some of Mario’s photography.

RMP: Describe your path to becoming a photographer?
Mario: It kinda happened by accident. I took one class in college, but really got into it when I was living in Japan. Once I was in Japan teaching, I finally had the money to spend on an expensive digital SLR. Shooting digitally really helped reinforce everything I had skimmed over in that one college class. I was inspired by the scenery of the island that I was living on and the surrounding areas. When I got back to the States I was showing this fashion photographer in town some of my photos and was asking him if I should go back to school for photography. He said, “Don’t go back to school. You get it. Just keep doing what you’re doing. Unless you really want a degree, don’t go back to school.”

RMP: How long have you been a photographer?
Mario: I guess I would consider myself being a photographer for about 4 years.

RMP: How would you describe your approach to image making?
Mario: It depends on the subject. I have about seven different cameras that I have for various things… Polaroid Land Camera, medium format, digital SLRs, point and shoot cameras, iPhone… so really, it depends what I’m doing or what my goal is. Is this shot about capturing a feeling? Is this image about the light? Is this a documentation? Am I exploiting or annoying this person if I set up a bunch of extra lights to shoot someone? Is this landscape about the huge scope of everything, or one tiny detail, or is it about a repeating pattern that I happened to notice? Like I said, it really all depends. One thing I like to keep in mind is that photography is really just about pointing your finger at something and saying “Hey, look over there! That’s interesting.”

RMP: How would you describe your style?
Mario: That’s a hard one for me, because I feel like my style is still developing. With landscapes, I definitely think that it is all about the emotion of the scene. The light, the wind, the feeling of being there. I also like lonely landscapes and cityscapes. That’s why I’ll do a lot of night-time photography when no one is out, or just zoom into a part of the landscape that I like and think is interesting. By cropping out the distracting surrounding areas, I’m able to manipulate the feeling that my photo is going to give someone. I worry somewhat about technical details, but sometimes its just about getting the shot. Some of my favorite shots have been done out of a car window.

RMP: Who or what inspires your vision?
Mario: I have a long list of photographers that I look up to, but generally my constant inspiration is finding interest in the details. As an artist, I would like to think that I might have something new to say in the world that other people haven’t thought about. Also, I will sometimes just try to emulate the feeling that other photographers get, or actively try to NOT shoot the way they do. There is a lot of over-sharpened, over-saturated, guy on train-tracks, HDR shit out there..

RMP: What projects do you enjoy the most?
Mario: I’m working on a portrait project right now. It started out as me simply shooting other artists in their surroundings so that it might illuminate why their art is the way that it is. Since I work a lot with artists in a gallery, I always think its interesting to get to see their work before meeting them and kind of ponder what it’s about. Then I meet that artist and I’m like, “Ahhh! I see it! I understand.” Right now I’m taking portraits of everyone around me that I come in contact with. I’m not sure what will come of it, but I’m enjoying it. Plus I’m working with medium format film. You have to be a lot more painstaking in your setup, and film is expensive. So I only will take five or so pictures per session at the most. I like how that kind of constriction brings out my creativity.

RMP: What is your approach to lighting?
Mario: When shooting portraits with natural ambient light, I like positing my subject in the shade or near a window. It creates a very flattering, luscious light that can be easy to get if you meter it right. For landscapes, I usually have to wait for just the right moment. A lot of my Japan landscapes were about sitting in my car for an hour or two to get just the right moment. With night photography, it depends. Sometimes I’ll do what they call “light painting”, where you put the camera on a tripod for a very long exposure, three minutes or longer, and then “paint in” the parts of the scene that I like with a flashlight or speedlight, off camera. When I’m in the studio with the studio lights, it all depends on what I want. I have some softboxes, snoots, grids, gels, etc..

RMP: How has your lighting changed through the course of your career?
Mario: It started with landscapes. Like I said I would just wait for the right light. Then I learned about off-camera flash photography. Strobist is an excellent resource. I bought some studio lights and basically forced myself to learn how to meter and set up a scene that looked good. I read a lot of books, looked on a lot of forums, traded ideas with other photogs. I’m still learning how to light, though…

RMP: What factors influence your lighting decisions? Subject (am I shooting a product? A person? Are they thinner? larger? is their skin smooth? does this need to be a bright scene? Do I want to show more sculpting of the form with more shadows? Do I want to flatten everything out?)
Mario: Budget can be a factor to a certain extent. I’m not rich, so I can’t shoot using $3000 studio strobes… not yet at least. Whether I’m shooting film or digital, influences my deciding too. I’ll try something more complicated with a digital camera because I can see right away what I’m getting and tweak it from there. If I screw something up with film, I won’t know till it’s developed. So I usually do more “tried and true” lighting approaches. Like the window positioning, for example. Also, if I know I will be digitally compositing the image later on, I’ll try to match the lighting from the background image.

RMP: What do you look for when trying to find a location?
Mario: Something interesting. Something with a mood. In the case of my portraits, it will be dictated by my subjects, of course.

RMP: Tell me about your casting process. How do you find your models and get them to expose what many people would consider an imperfect form for the camera?
Mario: Well, I usually shoot people I know a little bit at least. Those tend to be the shots that work out the best. I also like to catch people off-guard. Like, if I’m going to visit a friend for coffee, I might show up with my Mamiya and insist on a photo or two. I like it when people don’t prepare too much for a photo.

RMP: How important is doing personal work to you?
Mario: Well, since I’m not doing photography as a career, it’s a toss up. It’s nice to do paying jobs that pay bills, but on the other hand… I dunno. 50/50 seems to be a good split.

RMP: How do you approach creating images for personal work?
Mario: I make sure its an idea that I can carry on for a while and stick to. I don’t want to be doing something that will look outdated for my portfolio in two years.

RMP: Do you feel that you are a part of that commercial machine in any way? Or that you have a responsibility to show people more of a “reality”?
Mario: If people wanted reality, they wouldn’t enjoy photographs. On the other hand, for certain types of photos, documentary, portraits, there is a certain sense of ethics that you need. I do digital retouching for a photographer here in town, and I’ve gotten pretty good at it, but you don’t want to change how a person looks. Fashion is different, of course. I usually try to be transparent about my image making and let people know what I’ve done. When I shoot film, the most that I’ll retouch is spots from dust, or scratches on the negative or whatever.

RMP: Is there a special message that you’d like your audience to take away after viewing your work?
Mario: I’d prefer for someone to come to their own conclusions, I think.

RMP: Have you ever worked in advertising or editorial photography?
Mario: Nope. Though, I have assisted for advertising photogs.

RMP: It’s clear there is a lot of intellectual thought and reasoning behind your work. Did you come up with the general idea for these bodies of work first, or did you start executing the imagery and then start to intellectualize about it afterwards?
Mario: [laughter] That is the chicken or the egg, isn’t? Well, for starters, I’m glad some people feel that way about my work. I would say that mostly everything is intuitive when I’m in the field. But selecting what images get “seen” is a big part of photography. In fashion, you’ll shoot 3,000 shots in one day. But choosing that one to represent everything… that’s the hard part. When I had my show of Japanese landscapes, I had shot 4,000 images of Japan and I had to choose 10 images to represent all of the shots. That’s the hard part.

RMP: Piggybacking on the idea that your work takes a lot of thought. Do all of your images take several months, or are some rather instantaneous?
RMP: Both. Sometimes it can be like jotting a phrase down that you keep thinking about over and over, just to get it out of your head. Other times it can take years. There is this spot on the road that I go over when I ride my bike to work that has an impression of a branch from when the asphalt was still hot. I have thought about taking a picture of it every day for the last three years and still haven’t. I guess I’m waiting for something but I’m not sure what.

RMP: Do you have an image or series that you are most proud of?
Mario: Well, some of my images of Gunkanjima were published in JPG Magazine (seen below). Those, and ones that I didn’t think would come out so well. Like the whale shark feeding (seen above). Man, even though it was digital, I didn’t realize how awesome that shot would be till I got home and saw it on the computer.

RMP: Do you think that photography needs to have a strong conceptual background in order to legitimately be considered artwork?
Mario: Yes and No. The subjects you are shooting aren’t aware of your concept when you are shooting it. On the other hand, people like for you to put a frame on things. I think that some photographers can work very intuitively and get away without needing to rationalize why they did things. Other artists’ work may only be interesting because of its concept or the series that it presents. Juxtaposition can make a ho-hum photo really stand out. Other people think that just because they took a picture of something that it is automatically “art”, which really bugs me, but maybe they’re right? I know that doesn’t answer your question, but I honestly don’t know if there is a definitive answer to that question.

RMP: Are there other commercial photographers who inspire you?
Mario: Constantly. There are hundreds of thousands of really amazing photographers out there. Perhaps I’m in the wrong field.

BONUS QUESTION:
RMP: Describe your fascination with origami and if that plays a role at all in your creative processes, whether in regards to photography or other creative mediums?
Mario: I like to dabble in everything. The phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none” really resonates with me. I’m still trying to find a way to integrate all my passions into one consolidated output whatever that might be. I’ll let you know when I get there…

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