Our Natural Light Portrait teacher, Patrizia Montanari, has been spending her summer in her home country of Italy. She sent us this note along with some of the photos she’s taken:
Dear Peter,
It’s been two months since I left Texas to visit Italy after four years of absence. It has been amazing and I found myself rediscovering this colorful and folkloristic country with new eyes. My journey so far has been interesting, challenging (as I am traveling with two small children), emotional and regenerating. I have a love-hate relationship with my home land, I appreciate the way it is and the way it will never be. Mostly I enjoy all it is giving me, the smell, the taste, the history, the family and the multitude of dialects, I am absorbing it all, and save it for my return to Texas.
As you know, before my departure I spoiled my self with a new camera, a Fujifilm X100T, which it has been my best friend since I landed in Milan. It’s a fantastic tool, it’s with me all the time and the quality of the images is sublime and never disappoints me.
I have been traveling all over Italy quite a lot and got so much inspiration from places and people. I have been taking trips to the Alps, the Riviera Ligure, the hills of Tuscany, the country side of Umbria and the gorgeous Island of Sicily. I have been bouncing from loving to photograph landscape to finding gorgeous light to photograph people. Location scouting requires no effort here and most of the time I am actually crying for a model.
I am grateful for the art of photography and what I am doing to preserve these memories, I am also grateful for hashtags, #lamiaitaly will always remind me of this wonderful trip.
I hope you are loving your Texas summer,
A presto, ciao
Patrizia
You can following Patrizia’s adventure on Instagram by following @patriziamontanari.
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- Noli – Finale Ligure, Antica Republica Marinara. The perfect harmony between sea and mountains.
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- La Riserva dello Zingaro, Sicily. Fishermen houses on the coast of northern west Sicily.
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- San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily. A fisherman.
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- Borgo Fazio, Sicily. An abandoned town on top of a hill in the country side of Sicily was the perfect location for one of my photo shoots.
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- A Sicilian girl. Sicily has been conquered by many northern European country through out their history. Many Sicilians have dark skin and hair and beautiful deep blue eyes.
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- Fontanasalsa, Sicily. Father and son conserving “la salsa”, tomato sauce that will be used through out the winter.
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- Montevecchia, Bergamo. Playing with shadows and reflections.
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- Bussero, Milano. An Italian lady walking down the street at dusk.
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- Umbertide, Perugia. A view of the Medieval town from the river Tevere.
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- Lunch at Joseph and Paul’s in Umbertide, my Californian friends moved to Umbria a couple of years ago. Here we are enjoying simple and delicious food from the local farmer’s market.
