Wouldn’t you like to spend some time on a beautiful island? “La isla bonita” of the Caribbean Sea is the symbol of paradise for everyone. But an island can also be hell, like Alcatraz, in the bay of San Francisco. Despite its beautiful Californian location, Alcatraz is sadly famous for its high-security prison, which, from 1934 to 1963, housed the worst criminals in the U.S.A., like Al Capone himself, and lesser criminals who had already caused trouble at other prisons or tried to escape. The strict rules and merciless treatment of the jailers made life there hard for prisoners, but the worst thing was probably its tight security which denied any hope to escape. During its 29-year history, there is no evidence of any successful escape attempt: it really was America’s best escape-proof stronghold.

The only exception might have happened in 1962, with two brothers, John and Clarence Anglin, and Frank Morris as its protagonists. The Anglin brothers were two of thirteen children of a farmer family and had always been very close to each other: they grew up together, impressing everyone by swimming the frozen waters of Lake Michigan as children; then they robbed banks together, went to jail together, escaped the Atlanta penitentiary together and were sent to Alcatraz together. Frank Morris, orphaned at the age of 11, started his prison life very early, after being arrested for drugs possession and armed robbery. IQ testing stated that he was among the top 2% of the population in intelligence. He was definitely the head of the escape plan.

After all, only a brilliant idea and a lucky strike could have hoped to succeed in what was a desperate attempt against bleak odds. Leaded by Morris’s bright mind, the three Alcatraz inmates worked at night for months in their adjacent cells, widening the ventilation duct openings with saw blades, spoons and other tools they found or stole around the prison; they concealed the holes with cardboard and paint and the noise with Morris’s accordion playing. The widened holes leaded to an unguarded room in which they set up a small workshop; there they assembled stolen and donated raincoats from other inmates into makeshift life-preservers and into a rubber raft, stitched and sealed with the nearby steam pipes; they improvised paddles from scrap wood.

The three accomplices concealed their absence and the escape itself by sculpting papier-mâché dummy heads and putting them into their beds. On the night of June 11, 1962, they started their adventure. They reached a blind spot in the prison’s network of searchlights and there they inflated the raft with a concertina from an inmate. At around 10 pm they left the island on their makeshift raft and headed towards Angel Islands, where they hoped to land and seek freedom. Their absence wasn’t discovered until the next morning, thanks to the dummy heads they had placed in their beds.

A spectacular attempt, wasn’t it? But was it enough to stain the perfect evasion-less records of Alcatraz? Investigation on the case started right afterwards and lasted very long, but without being able to provide any clear evidence. No car nor cloth thefts were reported on Angel Island following the escape; no human remains nor any other physical evidence of the men were ever found. The FBI concluded that, even if possible, the escape was very unlikely, due to the frigid temperature of the water and the strong currents in the bay.

A family friend, Fred Brizzi, who grew up with the Anglin brothers, claimed to have recognised them in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1975. He also produced a photo of the two brothers in front of the farm where they supposedly lived in Rio.

Were two brothers and their bright friend able to escape legendary Alcatraz? We don’t know. But what’s clear is how, oddly, we tend to sympathise with these criminals. Shouldn’t we hope the FBI is right and they drowned? Shouldn’t we hope that Alcatraz granted all the criminals in its history their well-deserved punishment?

We should, indeed. Yet, we struggle to do so. Maybe it’s because we see some redeeming qualities in them, like Morris’s hard youth and outstanding intelligence and John and Clarence’s brotherly love. Or perhaps it’s because they weren’t the worst type of criminals after all, they were sent to Alcatraz because they escaped other facilities. They were just bank robbers, they stole from the rich to give to… themselves, like half Robin Hoods. Or maybe it’s the ingenuity of their plan and their epic escape from an impregnable prison what makes us turn a blind eye to them.

And you? Do you hope this great escape was successful?

Out of Alcatraz — by a spoon? was originally published in Territorial on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

One of the positive side effects that low cost flights brought to Europe is certainly the exponential growth of electronic music festivals. Some of these events has grown from some thousands to some hundred thousands attendees in just few years, evolving a scene which is present since already more than twenty years: the rave.

Attending a rave party requires more preparation than what you think, both physically and mentally but also logistically. Veterans like me will remember those past experiences, when a mistake revealed itself as a useful lesson for the next times. Everything requires a certain level of planning, from the check in/check out time to the proper outfit to wear, from what to eat before the event to what to drink and ingest during the event. I don’t pretend to teach you how to become a “perfect raver” with this article, I’m just sharing a recent experience, from someone that can easily be the one dancing next to you, offering “contaminated” water on the dancefloor.

I had the pleasure to live one of these mystical experiences just few weekends ago, attending Time Warp 2017 in Mannheim, Germany. What is Time Warp? Just the biggest techno festival you will find in Europe. There are certainly others even bigger, but you will hardly find another event with such a lineup of great techno artists. Why attending? Quoting the CEO of Atari back in the days: “Computer games don’t affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.” I’m just a victim of this messed up and fast-paced society. Plus, I just bought a new car so I wanted to test it on German’s freeways, opening the gas to 230km/h.

With an early arrival in the center of Europe on Saturday morning, after a rich meal of sauerkraut and sausages, a bucketful of beer and a postmeridian nap, me and my raving partner decided to face the promised 19 hours of festival (of which we could attend just 12 because me, hereinafter called “the dickhead”, reserved an updating course in management right for the Monday after, starting 9am, without even thinking I would have been away for the weekend).

Some tips for the newbies:

- Wear comfy shoes, comfy pants and comfy tees. Don’t bring too much at the venue, even though lockers are always present in these major events. Lockers are useful areas for many reasons, can be used as meeting points for large groups or even chill out lounges to cool-down between one dj set and another;

- Bring enough cash with you. Usually large events take cards too, but if not you don’t want to go crazy looking for an ATM in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere;

- Don’t bring stuff with you, the risk to getting caught is high, plus you will surely find someone inside that is there for the specific reason of providing whatever you are looking for; less time lost in police searching at the entrance gates, more adventure in building new friendship during the event;

- Choose the right raving partner, it is possibly the most important thing. Find someone which has your same likes and preferences, someone not too edgy, that doesn’t make you run back and forth all night, someone that can stay at your pace or someone you like to follow. I prefer groups of three: few essential people, you can stay together or do your own, without worrying the others get lost alone;

- Don’t go full-on right from the first hours, 15+ hours of event are challenging to keep up if you want to enjoy all of them from beginning to the end;

- Drink a shit-load of water.

That being said, let’s move to the event. Held in Mannheim fairgrounds, it is quietly accessible with public transportations and cars. In order to avoid drunk-driving violations, we opted to share a cab from the hotel with another couple of guys. Dropped right in front of the entrance, we greet the guys and we approach the gates. Although the entry point was a bit too unmanaged, with just 4 gates and a mass of squeezed people merging like a funnel towards them, it took no more than 15 minutes to pass the security. We went straight to purchase token for drinks, raided the merchandising stand, pushed everything in the lockers, then our adventure moved to the next phase: stages discovery.

The two main rooms were one next to the other, both very long and narrow, with minimal decorations but heavy lights scenography and massive sound systems. The entrance to these floors was oddly controlled by security and metal railings. I was picturing already in my head the crowd of people squeezed to get in, later that same night. My raving partner gave me a pearl of wisdom right there: “Be a salmon. Everyone is going down with the stream? We go upstream!” That was the best tip in the whole weekend. Anyway, as it wasn’t too crowded yet, we went in for a drink. Chris Liebing and Rødhåd playing, stage 1 and 2 respectively. Not to take anything away from the good ol’ Chris, but the Berlin based guy on stage 2 was dropping heavy bombs that captured us. Got the drinks, we then got lost in music and in anthropological research.

Official report says the event was sold out with 20,000 people. Saying that an event went sold out is more a political and economic choice rather than a proved fact, but looking at the size of all the stages and counting the never-ending human traffic that we faced basically all night, we can say the report is fairly honest. Age range was very wide, which is a pleasure for veterans like me. It helps to avoid the statement “I’m too old for this.” Fashion-wise, we weren’t too much impressed. We were expecting way more colorful and bizzarre dress ups, but a monotony of jeans with lapels and H&M t-shirts killed our buzz with a “meh, whatever. We’re cooler.”

Growing hot from sweat vapors, we left the main stages and adventured in the minor stages. Stage 3 was dedicated to huge names like Villalobos, Loco Dice, Luciano or Hawtin, so we preferred not to get involved in there as we heard them already many times and were not in our streams at the moment. We went more “underground” visiting Stage 4, which offered a way lower sound system in terms of volume, but a great performance from The Martinez Brothers kept us there dancing our asses off. A less greater performance from countrymen Tales of Us, maybe due to the poor sound system, made us move to the next room.

Facing an insane mass of people trying to get in Stage 5 to attend Monika Kruse performance, our motto came up: be a salmon. Therefore we headed towards Stage 6 in which we were greeted by an amazing Nick Curly on the decks. In this room we had a great encounter with a countryman from Naples, migrated in Germany some years ago. After an initial approach praising our style, attracted from an unquestionable southern-european party animal savoir-faire, he debuted with a sentence like “are you operative guys?” that made us realize the following nine hours would have been confused and emotionally altered for us. Who are we to avoid this from happening? No one. So, once operative, we threw ourselves in the techno jungle again.

Passing in front of the main stages, I realized my fears were right, as three hundred people were trying to squeeze one by one between a 40cm entrance. That convinced us even more to keep acting like salmons, so we headed to Stage 5 to listen Karotte playing. Hands down, the best set of all night. I couldn’t leave the floor until he was done. He made all the 1200 km drove in two days, worth.

From then on, confusion. I vaguely remember lots of vodka lemon, watching the sunrise from the locker room in a chill out moment, meeting some other friendly foreign party people, some inopportune phone calls in the early morning, trying to make some friends jealous of not being there, and a supreme Adam Beyer playing on Stage 1, when we decided to leave and get back to rest.

Was I repented to leave earlier than the closing? Yes but not. I definitely heard what I was there for, but surely next year I’ll take Monday off.

Be a Salmon. was originally published in Territorial on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

On TV and other media we see war images, reportages and crude pictures on a daily basis. But who are the ones behind the camera?

Gabriele Micalizzi, besides being the winner of Masters of Photography 2016, broadcasted on Sky Art Channels, spent most of his professional life ducking bullets, sweating inside a bullet proof jacket and hiding behind rests of destroyed walls, waiting for the right time to stand and shoot the perfect picture.

Since he was 15 he always been doing graffiti, on everything. There was a really solid movement in the 90’s connected to this art. When you paint on a train, then you have to take a picture, because who knows if you will ever see it again. Therefore, the need of photography.

During high school he discovered the dark room, with that soviet submarine mood, in which pure alchemy processes were giving birth to his memories. The institution in which he was attending high school was kind of particular, ISA of Monza, a sort of practical art academy with a lot of laboratories. He was a quite rough kid, and thanks to his teacher Flavio Pressato, he was printing photos instead of staying around making trouble, or following other less interesting classes.

Nearby the dark room there was the library, in which he found many war photographers catalogues. Seeing all those far exotic places, all those extreme and charged-up situations, made him breath and imagine the adventure. Since then, he decided this was his path to follow, and dedicated all his time and energy to find the way to get closer to this world.

After high school diploma he joined New press, Milan based photographic agency. Moped, camera and a strong willing of adventure. Let’s say a young Weegee who spent his days between car crashes, homicides and boring press conferences.

He began travelling around the world, between Australia and Indonesia. Back in Italy, he began collaborating with Magnum, in this lost town in the Emilian countryside. In there, he met other young photographers, and together they gave birth to a collective called Cesura.

From “first line” to “prime time”. Quoting the recently passed away Gene Wylder: “nice hopping”. We know each other since quite some time already, both collaborating in as much “Hardcore” situations as yours, I would say.

Sensitivity isn’t something you can choose yourself, like Jep said in “La Grande Bellezza”. I always been an art enthusiast, interested in painting as well. I always drawn a lot, looking for inspiration in the great masters. Being a spontaneous person, photography always been my media of choice. I grow up in the suburbs, living in public housing, playing soccer in the courtyard. To resume, I was a sensitive kid grown up in a hostile environment. What I am doing now is exactly the development of this thought.

I tell stories of people who live in uncomfortable situations. My first war experience came in 2009 in Afghanistan, where I was with the Italian army, then the French one. I was expecting a sort of “Apocalypse Now” experience, but it was really different. Thanks to this I’ve learned many lessons. I remember my teacher at the time once said: “good job, you went to play with tin soldiers”, sarcastically of course.

My second trip was the most educational for me, in my opinion. It was the red shirt insurrection in Bangkok. That was the first time in which a grenade exploded nearby. An injured guy fell on me, but I had the strength to take the picture anyway. In that moment I realized I was made for those kind of situations. Moreover, in that trip I had the pleasure to work together with James Nactwey. An unforgettable experience.

The great turning point came with the Arab insurrections, where I began to follow this abnormal wave of revolutions in the Middle East. Since then I began to collaborate with magazines from all over the world.

To be an event photographer might come from passion, but to be a war photographer must have implied some serious thoughts behind this decision.

I do not define myself as a war photographer. I’m hungry of non-war related stories. I mainly work in conflict zones, that’s true, but that’s not the reason. Everything began reading those catalogues in the high school library, I was fascinated from those pictures resembling such a faraway reality. I was looking to those faces with strong, real and deep emotions.

Approaching to war is always strange, a mix of emotion with the unknown, the mystery and danger. You build a corrupted vision in your mind thanks to all the movie you have seen. Then, reality is another thing.

Surely the first step is to understand if you are made for it or not, and if you are able to manage your emotions. I’ve been working with many photographers on the war field, but you make your own experience by yourself. You learn how to behave, the logistics, you build your own contacts.

The person who teached me the most is Luc Delhaye. I call him the Clint Eastwood of photojournalism. I had the pleasure to work with him in Libya. He’s one of those that has seen many things in his life, and surely doesn’t get easily impressed. He told me how to understand the sound of shots in their way in and way out, how to find your bearings in the desert looking at kilometers, and how to respect and take care of my gear.

One day we’ve been shot with an RPG and we throw ourselves in the sand. Luckily there was no impact and the microcharge inside the RPG blew off inside of it. I was quite shocked by that event. Then I turn, and I see Luc smoking a cigar like on a beach of Saint Tropez. Those were three intense weeks, there were people shooting at us constantly (because you can never have enough with him), then we were discussing about photography in the evening, in the hotel occupied by rebels. No electricity, pitch black, only the moon reflecting on the sea, smoking cigarettes and drinking lemonade as a substitute of whisky. Anyway, it’s rare to work with someone when you are out there. Unless the situation requires it, it’s always better to stay by yourself.

I’m not a soldier, I’m just a witness of our time.

The camera is the only thing between you and reality. Sometimes is a shield to protect yourself, sometimes is an emotion amplifier. When I look to an intense situation through the lens, all the rest become quiet. All your attention goes in that frame where something is happening, and you break it up piece by piece in your head. Then silence, like time would freeze or slow down. You see different layers of depth, background extrudes from the subjects, a sort of augmented reality per say. Sometimes instead, when you take a photo of something cruel, like in Gaza where I was taking a picture of a pile of dead massacred children, you disconnect, the way you look becomes objective, you decontextualize the scene, it’s just a mass of shapes and colours, without emotions, without judgement. It’s a self-preservation instinct I guess, at least this is what happens to me.

Especially in warzones, you become part of this theater of conflict. You have your role, you are a character of the play with your own script. You can’t do this job forever, you have to quit sooner or later, as it drains your mental and physical energies out. But, as Ettore Mo said: “when you take the train of disgrace, isn’t easy to get out”. Passion has a main role in this, and if you are interested in geopolitics and social dramas, you can’t quit it easily. People that collaborate with you in these areas, from fixers to drivers, becomes friends, you meet their families, and you never forget them.

Must be tough to get used to bullets flying over your helmet.

You’ll never get used to live constantly under bombing, but time helps to get used to many things. After a while, the sound of explosions become familiar to you, and artillery shots becomes part of the environmental sounds that surrounds you. But it gets risky when all this becomes normal, as risk and fear are the only compasses that helps you to not push yourself over too much.

Death is another big character in this play. You see death everywhere, because this is what war is made of. There are many scenes that shocked me, and still I can close my eyes and see them clearly. Some situations glue inside of you and you will never take them away. I’ve seen many dead or mutilated children. Consider I’m a father too, so it’s immediate to empathize. Seeing their families crying and burying them makes you think deeply about how useless conflicts are.

You will never be able to forget war victims.

Standing in front of a mother crying her dead children and snap a picture of here isn’t easy, as is not easy to not feel cynic, but still is the reason why you are there. As much as you are tolerated in such scene of madness, you are the one who needs to report this madness to the world.

Anyway the real challenge, besides being part of those situations and maintain clarity, is when you come back home. When you come back in the so-called reality. It’s here where I feel inappropriate, amess. Where problems and interest of the common people seem to be futile and far from me.

Gabriele Micalizzi: From “front line” to “prime time” — Part 1 was originally published in Territorial on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

London is a huge place. Knowing what’s going on in terms of nightlife could be a real mission. Thousands of events, thousands of venues. If you are into “niche” events it could be even more challenging to find the right one for you. I grew up within the rave party scene in Europe. I’ve always attended free parties, people would squat a place and make amazing events out of it, sometimes lasting for several days. “Free party for free people” was the motto. There wasn’t live music though, only electronic dj sets together with the awareness of the fact that the party could have been shut down in a matter of minutes. It was risky and it was the only way I thought parties should be. Then I got to London and I grew up tired of the rave party scene in here. Entrance fees, shitty music, loads of dodgy douches. I travelled quite a lot and started hanging into live music gigs.

I got addicted to the energy a live band could create. I also understood which kind of music I would have never grew tired of: gipsy, punk, rockabilly, ska with all the millions shadings these genres bring with them. I got back to London and discovered Rumpus. Rumpus is a great example of what my friends and I could enjoy: a powerful and raucous extravaganza packed with live bands, djs, fancy dresses, comedy, performance and glitter. Even though is always super busy, the interaction between people is safe and fun and everything run wild and smooth, creating something that made thousands of followers.

Rumpus became quickly an established part of London playfully underground music/performance scene. There are venues that promote this kind of nights and vibe like Fountayne Rd. warehouses, New river studios, Styx, the Hive, but not regularly. Diskollective is a new night out that reflects my vision of fun. It is hosted at T Chances, one of the few places in London that promotes an alternative live music scene and where the sense of community is strong and powerful. There are bands playing, a dj, a stand-up comedian taking care of “The world’s worst face painting company” and games.

People can collaborate by doing what they enjoy for the joy of doing it, from live paintings to jewels making. Every time there’s a different theme and props are built out of rubbish and recycled materials. People are encouraged to dress up and to play with the props surrounding them. I believe these kind of events are more a belief than a party. Belief in fun as a powerful human glue, in letting yourself go, in being for one night whoever you want, dressed up, not dressed up, undressed. Belief in getting people together and get them to play, interact and hopefully find a bit of that cheeky kid we all are.

Rave New World was originally published in Territorial on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Bitwalking is out with a new video: “Bitwalking, the new global currency”.

The video was shot in Barcelona, starring drummer Haggai Fershtman from the legendary garage band Monotonix and Russian model Nansi Dib. The powerful hypnotic music curtesy of Robert Del Naja (3D) from Massive Attack gives to the video a disturbing yet vibrant effect, inspiring the viewer into the Bitwalking world.

Bitwalking, the new global currency was originally published in Territorial on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This time of the year it’s hard not to catch red fever! Actually I am currently in the process of turning our whole home page red for Christmas. You can imagine my delight when a new series called ‘Red fever’ by our girl, Nastia Cloutier-Ignatiev turns up in my inbox! What a great place to start! Obvi I fucking love this!

Here is what Nastia told us about her stunning new red hot series…

“If you look at the first lines of my Instagram you can immediately see that it’s pretty red. The past few months have been very relevant for me. I learned a lot about myself which lead me to discover my style. Red came to me as an inspiring colour, it represents empowering to me & this is what I am trying to show trough my photographs.

Red is not vulnerable, red is hot, badass & strong, & this is what I want my models to look like in my images.”

‘Red fever’ was originally published in Territorial on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

‘Perfect match’ is an awesome denim fashion story out of Milan shot by Federico D’amico & styled by Amanda Rovaris.

“I just told the models to have fun. They are so carefree & they loved the mood. The series reflects who they are perfectly.”

‘Perfect match’ was originally published in Territorial on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Sometimes all of us get those weird dreams in which you say “wtf?!” when you wake up. A mix of real life experiences and fantastic characters that we wonder how our brains were able to create. Seems like Andrew Kezzyn has the ability to frame all this in a picture. And he spend quite a lot of time to make that shareable with the world around him.

In each of his works, Andrew has an opinion to share, his point of view. His interpretation on the weirder parts of our existence, or against whatever our brains has been filled with since we born.

Or maybe, this is just my own conjecture.

Let’s see what he has to say.

It’s always a pleasure to chat with a colleague. Only difference is that I make moving images, while you focus on the still frames.

I was born in Leningrad, USSR, in the city and country you won’t find on the world map today. There only were several options for kids’ clubs in the area where I lived, and they were drawing, freestyle wrestling, football and photography. I failed in the first three but managed to stay for a longer time in a photography club. Photography was a very common hobby for Soviet people, my grandfather took pictures and then developed films and printed them in the bathroom, which was temporarily converted into a darkroom. So I can say that I have been doing photography for nearly 30 years. When you stick to a still image for such a long time, you gradually start thinking that having made your image move you will be able to say much more and express a lot more significant things.

That is why I of course tried to work with moving images as many photographers eventually do. And I found out one thing. Yes, with moving images you can express much more but you usually have nothing more to say. What is inside can be easily framed in a single picture. I quickly lose interest and don’t like getting deeper or further. Just like a camera shutter. Click-cluck. I can even draw a graph of my perception of the reality and my own life. So I didn’t make a mistake that many other photographers turning themselves into directors. I tired and I stopped for a while. Perhaps to take a longer run-up.

We met first time at MIA Photo Fair 2016 in Milan but we hadn’t too much of a talk.

Yes, it was my first time in Italy at MIA 2016. I like it there in Milan. A lot of beautiful people, especially men, the best coffee ever, the top class ogranisation of the fair.

It was the first big fair I went to myself and I was very surprised with the choice of photographs. 90 per cent of them were only about composition, some of them were about light, very few of them were about costumes and none of them were about the set. When I saw 2-to-3-metre pictures of textures and cleverly composed combinations of two matching colours, I said to myself, ‘You’re fucked, man, you’re not going to sell anything here’. But the Italian viewers turned out to be very open and perceptive public with a good sense of humour. They liked my pictures. And we had a very nice Italian girl, Chiara, who worked as a volunteer at our booth, I called her Topolino, and she even cried when we were saying goodbye to each other. So it was a very good experience. I would like to come back, perhaps in a year.

I froze in front of your prints as I recognize a lot of myself in it. Absurdity, provocation, judgement, sarcasm…

Well, absurdity. Let’s start with it. I think it is the right word but perhaps for Europeans and for me who had lived most of his life in Russia the level of absurdity differs, and what seems absurd to you might not be absurd to me as this might be a usual way of life. Provocation. I have several provocative pictures to shoot but they are still in my head and waiting to be produced. Now I don’t have enough financing or may be courage to finish them. The rest of my pictures can be called provocative as long as they provoke the viewer to stop and think for a while or they provoke them smile or laugh. In that way yes, I can say they are provocative. Is there judgement? Yes, there is, as a sort of reflection exercise over the events, absurd at times, over myself and over my own past experience. Over some things I have or haven’t done. One of the examples of that is How You Like Me Now? (picture below). A judgement, a contemplation over my own life turned into a picture. What about sarcasm? I don’t’ like it, this word is too angry for me. I’m not an angry person. Irony, yes.

Sarcasm, no. Tragicomedy is the genre I have in mind and am heading to. I’m not trying to insult anyone apart from maybe religious orthodox churchmen who are waving their flags at every corner and saying all that bullshit. I despise them although I’m a believer myself. What is a formula of my inspiration?

First of all, here we’re lost in translation because in Russian ‘inspiration’ is a very posh word. Only geniuses of the past could have an inspiration, you know. Caravaggio, for example. I’m not used to saying it regarding to myself. Anyway, I’m now on a crossroad. I stopped being inspired by simple things like music, films or books and start getting inspired from inside. My inspiration is the sort of life material I have gone through in a certain place at a certain time.

Since the first time I saw your work I thought about La Chapelle.

When it comes to staged or tableau photography, the process itself of taking a picture is rather technical and boring. The most important and interesting thing is pre-production, which is the real process of making a staged photo. It should be all-encompassing and it shouldn’t be too long at the same time. If you take too much time to finish it, you will forget the emotions and perceptions you have when you only start feeling for the picture.

Pre-production process should be as long as it is enough for your characters to start living. Slow for a while, and you won’t be able to control anything. There is a scene in the Amelie film by my favourite director Jean-Pierre Jeuner with an old man who has been reproducing paintings all his life, and he has already figured out all the character of a painting but he can’t figure out the face of a girl. He has been waiting for too long, and now he doesn’t know who she is. And he will never know. As for La Chapelle, I spend much less time thinking about him than about Erwin Olaf but more than about Annie Leibovitz. But yes, actually I like crazy people with big budgets.

One of my writer colleagues just went to a Tiger Lillies Concert in London and did find out about a collaboration between you guys.

The story of my acquaintance with the Tiger Lillies is a chain of co-incidences which began more than twelve years ago when I met my at that time future wife. And I’m sure it isn’t finished yet. Our work with them is my pleasure and my sadness simultaneously. It’s like challenge thrown by me to myself, a sort of exam. It’s been four years since we started working together, and every year I have to take a better picture while the previous one shouldn’t become worse after the next one, and each picture should be different. And I’m still waiting for the day when I finally get an ‘A’ from Martyn and he will take one of my pictures as a CD cover.

Any comments on Masters of Photography reality show on SkyTV?

I haven’t seen the show and know nothing about it. The idea seemed to me a bit strange at first. When you mentioned your friend Gabriele and I looked through his website, I thought how could a photographer of such a high level take part in a reality show where he is given tasks to do and someone is going to look at his works and say what is good or bad in them. I thought that Gabriele could easily give tasks himself and teach anyone how to take good pictures. His win is absolutely well-deserved.

As an artist I can say I live hard as much as I work hard.

Oh, it’s so complicated now. All my life is a preparation for the next picture. I tried to separate work and home and failed. Even when we go out with the family, we keep talking about photography, future projects and other things. When I have a beer in a pub, I draw a sketch or prepare a shoot writing emails and messages. We used to get together a lot with friends, now I don’t have time for that. I only have time to discuss a frame, the way to change or improve it, where to take it, who to show and so on.

I hope I can be part of your work in the future, I rather stay behind the camera, but for you I would get naked in no time.

If I could speak other languages well, I would gladly share my work process all the time. I like showing the way I work. I’m much more keen on everything which comes before the shoot itself, as soon as the picture is ready, I instantly loose interest. I used to like showing off and being in other people’s photographs but now I understand what you say about staying behind the camera. The other day I suddenly felt an invisible barrier which didn’t let me go from behind the camera to the other side. And naked men are always good for a picture, much better than naked women so welcome!

Mother Russia is fascinating me since ever, but I never had the pleasure to visit.

At the moment my country is the people I work with: actors, make-up artists, stylists, technicians. I used to depend a lot on places but it is the thing of the past now. I have made my way from a certain location to a stage setting, which I often construct myself. Since recently my country has also become a significant obstacle because of many people’s inadequate reaction to the things I do, that’s why I have moved to Berlin. I have already organized a couple of shoots in Berlin and that was another proof for me that I don’t depend anymore on the place where I work.

I only depend very much on financing. And here comes first as you said mother Russia, because staged photography is expensive there but it is five times more expensive here, in Europe. As for reflections of my country in my works… I don’t know really. It’s hard to say because I’m neither here nor there, perhaps I will see later. When I look at Olaf’s pictures, I can perfectly understand them as they speak a universal language. I don’t think my picture are that Russian, I think they’re more of an international type.

It was a real pleasure, Andrew. I really hope to have a larger conversation together soon than just “hi man, what’s up”.

Now I have a commission from a Dutch gallery, or to be more precise a curatorial project, and I am working on a series of pictures for them. It’s hard work and demands a lot of patience as I’m used to working on my own. Then we’re organizing two exhibitions in Germany, in Dusseldorf and Essen. What is further is rather vague; I don’t know what’s going to happen. Something will come up I’m sure.

Andrew Kezzyn: interview with the tooth fairy was originally published in Territorial on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Two of the most respectable underground scenes, kicking asses in urban tone, from the nerves and arteries of concrete jungle of two of the most big cities in the world, London and L.A. East London grime scene and L.A.’s Compton scene are producing the most real down to earth hip hop. Artists such as Skepta and Kendrick Lamar, in respect, are the spearhead of burning expression in the global hip hop rap scene.

There is a known tension that lies between the authentic creation of an artist which suddenly gain success, and by that becoming a profitable product, risking its originality stamp. Hip hop, originated in the streets, representing the urban harsh deprived life, when becoming commercialized probably weakens the impact of its real and authentic expression. Therefore it is worth bring up the Grime style back to back with hip hop creation from Compton L.A., namely Skepta and Kendrick Lamar, to observe the return to deep roots ghetto hip hop.

On his documented tour in north america, Skepta, the representer of up to date stardom Grime artist, let a few groupies on his tour bus after a successful show in Boston. Everybody is having fun, then one of the groupie mistakingly confuses the letters in Skepta’s name to “Spekta”. blushing out of embarrassment, she is doomed by Skepta to get off board. If we take a closer look on that small slip of the tongue, we will find a nice play of words that expose the main difference between the UK and the american hip hop scene.

While skepticism was the powerful tool of the U.K. thinking tradition through the past few centuries, the american pragmatism is well known for its efficiency and functioning self centered activity. Those forms of life well differ represented in the translation of Skepta to “Spekta”, from skepticism act towards the big brother and the music and fashion industry of the Grime artist to the spectacle of the most greatest rap of today american hip hop artists. Skepta in north america becomes a spectacle.

When asked about the most influential and interesting scene in hip hop today, Snoop Doggy Dog sends “Noisey” journalist (name) to check out the Compton scene. Compton, a rough neighborhood in L.A. has raised up hip hop artists such as N.W.A, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Coolio and Kendrick Lamar.

Lamar shares similar features with the grime scene principles. On this next video, one can see how the artistic creative activity of Lamar is based on the same principles that the east London Grime scene is being build out of. what jumps out as a way of living: stay simple, say what you mean and mean what you say, deliver it strait, wear no flashy jewelry, be committed to the community that brought you up, know yourself, keep it real and maintain full contact with your roots.

“Is grime dead documentary” questions directly Grime music reliability for its origins. if we go back to the spectacle way of the american style, that have been acused to shallow hip hop

While touring the US, Skepta is obsessed with the twofold approach the stardom way of living in the local pop market arises for him. he rejects the “selfie” need to take picture with him, like
Here are some links for great documentaries on grime scene:

Grime vs.Compton hip hop scenes was originally published in Territorial on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Snowfall, frozen and arctic are never the first thoughts for a drone flight, but this zany new campaign for DJI, directed by Territorial, pulls out all the stops.

The campaign was filmed in Rovaniemi, Lapland, the official home town of Santa Claus.

Produced by Santa Ibiza, helmed by Flatlight Films, the film, set in enormous white surroundings, features plenty of american western components in a surrealistic contraposition between the past, the cowboy, and the ultimate technology, the Phantom 4. From a wandering cowboy immersed into a white scenery, throughout an engaging Reindeer Race, the spot bring us into a visual and inspiring voyage.

Formula Poro spot. was originally published in Territorial on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.