Martina Giammaria is 34 and lives in Rome. She has just quit a safe job to devote herself completely to photography, a choice that nowadays we can’t help defining brave. Besides talent, Martina has also persistence and determination in spades. And in this interview, she shows it. (Interview by Maurizio Di Iorio)
Hi Martina, when somebody asks you what is your job, what do you answer?
Hi Maurizio, it’s curious of you to ask me this, since just a few months ago I quit the job I paid the bills with and I’ve chosen not to look for anything that could take me away from photography. Therefore the answer I’m obliged to give is ‘I’m a photographer’. I have to say it’s something I’ve never confronted myself with and it entails responsibility and decisions I still struggle with. Anyway, it gives one a certain satisfaction and sense of self-confidence to be finally able to say that I AM something, and that it is not just my job.
The other day, on Facebook, I read this comment: “Is it possible that on all the female photographers’ sites there are always pictures of arses and tits? Must they photograph themselves naked in order to be defined artists?” – do have anything to say about this?
I can answer as far as my work is concerned. I’ve stopped taking pictures of myself from a while and luckily I’m not interested in being called an artist, nor I find it appropriate. This gives me great freedom, I can allow myself to follow the trends and abandon them when I feel confident enough, and I can photograph arses and tits knowing full well that they’ll get more attention than a bare landscape and they will allow me to be more recognized. When I’ll have received enough attention and I’ll be enough recognized, I’ll start to photograph bare landscapes. Aside from this, I love the female body and its being naked is something utterly honest. I am those bodies and I put myself in front of you with honesty, I give you my intimacy making my models take their clothes off.
From the beginnings of photography until today, the presence of women photographers has always been relevant and the sensitivity they expressed in portraying other women is remarkable. Your subjects too are mainly female ones; are you going to continue with it or will you try new paths?
It’s exactly what I was telling you before. The need to represent yourself takes you to the sensitivity you speak about. My subjects are mainly women not only because until now I’ve found them to be more ‘photographable’ than men, but also because those women have to portray me. When I take pictures of them, I’d like them to participate to what I have in mind and to interpret it… that’s why I’ve always worked better with friends than actual models, who are there to work and have no intention to share their private life with you. However, I can’t wait for this somewhat teenage phase of self-representation to be over, so that I can follow (also) other paths and look outside of myself.
First, I’ll start with taking pictures of men too, then animals, then objects and eventually landscapes (bare ones). Actually I do that already, but let’s say that results stay in the background… what I want to do is to find an appropriate language as soon as I can, in order to give them more dignity.
Would you choose a picture of yours and tell us what went on behind the scenes?
The photograph is the one with the girl that turns her shoulders, in tights and fur, walking in the woods. She’s Kristina, I’ve met her on Facebook and she’s a photographer. We’ve gone to one of Rome’s biggest villas, in a quiet place, where there was this sort of woods. This is the last photo I could take of her. After about two hours we were there and several changes of clothes (that she put on there, on the spot, without fuss), we started to hear weird noises between the leaves, heads and legs sticking out from the bushes, odd runners and cyclists darting near us, we realized that the whole place was crowded with peeping toms and we were in their territory since more than two hours. We had to leave at the best moment, when our team-work was starting to get perfect. However I’m absolutely satisfied of that job, it’s a perfectly accomplished example of the synergy I was talking you about earlier. Fuck the peeping toms!
Are there any subjects that you absolutely avoid to photograph?
I don’t think there’s anything I would absolutely not photograph, it depends on how you do it. Probably, in this moment, the only problematic subject would be myself.
Your equipment?
Except the big format, I’ve tried them all. Lately I feel very comfortable with a 35mm analog Reflex. It works exactly how I want it to, it’s like I’m taking pictures just with my hands. Anyway, generally I use anything capable of containing a film. Digital instead is for some fashion shoots whose realization takes place 50% in post-production. I take pride in being mentally open towards “technique”, but I’m longing for a more unique style.
Tell me about things or people – unrelated to photography – you are influenced by.
Now I feel totally affected by Terrence Malick. His movie “The New World” enraptured me.
And what about the photographers that affected you the most?
Answering this question is very hard. I watch many photographs and I discover new photographers every day, but my scarce constancy forbids me to pay attention to one of them in particular for more than five minutes. So I reckon I’m more struck by pictures rather than their authors.
Describe your ideal day.
I wake up at 6.30-7 am, I go out when there’s still nobody around and I have breakfast with a cappuccino full of cream and cocoa plus a hot honey croissant. At 9 am, I have a fashion shoot for an editorial that will be published on the best fashion magazine around. I work all day, I give orders on set and everybody does exactly what I say. Then work is over and I’m not tired and stressed at all, on the contrary, at 7 pm there’s the opening of a show I’ve been invited to and where I arrive super cool, wearing high heels. Naturally there’s a buffet full of stuff to eat and drink, everything of the best quality. I talk to a lot of people, I network for future jobs, many people compliment me and meanwhile I classily get drunk. Once my social duties are over, I go back home, I make love with my boyfriend and the evening ends with a dish of pasta in front of a Korean movie I’ll obviously watch until it’s finished, without falling asleep.
Are you working on any new projects you’d like to talk to us about?
In these last few days, I’m starting on dealing with animals – or, better, with the way in which we perceive animals. It’s still in embryo, so I don’t know what to say, for now I’ve three precise photographs in mind, but it’s probable I won’t be able to realize them, so I might easily change its course.
Which magazine would you like to work for?
Surely Grey magazine.
