Paolo Roversi (photographer)

Paolo Roversi (C.E.1947 – living), Italian photographer and photojournalist.

«Between photographer and model a love is always born» «Kate's waltz in front of her camera for her 40th birthday»
 * Guinevere van Seenus, who I have been photographing for more than 20 years, was one of the most important muses. She is delicate but determined, masculine but feminine, a hymn to creativity, imagination and dreams.
 * [For a fashion photo to work, what must it have?] It must be a double portrait: of a woman wearing a dress and of a dress worn by a woman.
 * [Let's talk about women, you have worked with the most beautiful top models in the world. From Kate Moss to Naomi Campbell, from Inès de la Fressange to Kirsten Owen. To whom did she leave a piece of her heart?] To all. A platonic love always arises between photographer and model. With Inès de la Fressange there was an immediate feeling. I took the first nude photo of her for Vogue. And it was Inès who inspired me the whole series that followed (later collected in the book Nudi, ed).
 * [What is the nude, for you?] It is the purest and most elegant way of taking a portrait of someone. I'm not looking for imaginative anatomies or eroticism.
 * [From the 80s to today, what has changed?] Today the world is changing at a frightening speed. Especially fashion, a river that flows bringing with it always fresh water from different sources. Almost everything has changed since the 1980s. Body language, habits, ways of working, subjects, faces, clothes, hairstyles, make up. If we leaf through an Amica of that period, everything seems anachronistic. How did we dress and put on makeup like that? Social media has also revolutionized communication.
 * [Do you miss contact with photographic paper and the scent of printing?] I miss the 20×25 Polaroids: they were my "palette". It's difficult to get attached to a digital camera. It hasn't happened to me yet.
 * In the portrait that I consider official, she Kate Middleton is also a bit of Angelica from The Leopard by Visconti.
 * [About Kate Middleton] she is a nice, welcoming woman who puts you at ease, respectful of everyone's work. She exudes joy in life. Open, generous, bright, I think she can bring a lot of hope to England and the whole world.
 * [In reference to the 250 photographs taken of Duchess Kate Middleton for the official portraits of her 40th birthday] I did the first screening, about ten of her favourites, then we arrived at 3 of my favorites and one of hers, the official photo is the one we both prefer. However, Kate was less decisive than me in her final choice. The designer Sarah Burton (she designed Kate's wedding dress) chose her dresses: only one was red, the others neutral. For the official portrait she wore the organza one, almost like a classical dancer. In the end I wanted to take some moving photos, so with that wonderful full skirt I made it dance in front of my lens, a kind of accelerated waltz mixed with a pinch of rock'n'roll.