In mid November of 2025 an exhibition of Sardinian (Italy) artist Maria Lai opened to the public at Magazzino Italian Art, located in Cold Spring, NY. Never before I heard of this artist prior to this exhibition, but as soon as I heard about this upcoming exhibition I started looking online for photo reproductions of her work, and I loved it. Once I saw her art on the walls at the museum, I then knew I wanted to do a project inspired by it. What I liked the most was this series of pieces in which she seems to be recreating book pages, but instead of printed letters she uses thread to sew the letters, which are actually just scribbles (Libri Cuciti or Stitched Books). The idea is visually beautiful and poetic. In the exhibition presentation, it is stated that “in the 1970s, Lai transitioned from traditional mediums to thread and stitched canvases, with her Telai (Looms) taking center stage. Inspired by Sardinian weaving traditions, these three-dimensional works elevate the loom into a cultural and artistic symbol”. In another series of work Maria employs ropes and strings attached to wooden frames or structures, creating beautiful panels that have an architectural or theatrical (scenic) quality. A large scale (physical and social) project she made in the early 1980’s. In this project “Lai created the event Legarsi alla montagna (Bound to the Mountain) in Ulassai, over three days. Blue ribbons totalling 27 km (17 mi) linked the houses in the village to each other and to the summit of Mount Gedili which overlooks the village. Residents connected their houses to their neighbours', sometimes with a bow or a loaf of bread to signify particular friendship, or tied taut to represent tensions between households. The project was recorded in a documentary named Maria Lai legare e collegare (Tie and connect).[3] The use of blue ribbon alludes to a local tale of a child whose life was saved when she ran out of a cave to chase a floating blue ribbon just before the cave collapsed in a landslip”. This last story of the girl in the cave seems to be some kind of local mythology. A more possible inspiration for Maria Lai seems to be Italo Calvino’s “Le città invisibili” (Invisible Cities), written ten years before Maria Lai’s performance. It was based on these three elements of Maria’s work (the sewn books, the string panels and the blue ribbon) that I designed the scenery for this photo shoot. The other element that I needed for the session was a model, a person to represent the artist. My friend Laetitia Ganem-Salcedo not only shared similar physical attributes with the artist, but was also very familiar with her work since she visited the exhibition at Magazzino on four different occasions! It was Laetitia who told me all about Maria Lai’s inspiration for her Libri Cuciti, a beautiful story I leave for you to discover. Laetitia was totally aware and mesmerized with the work of Maria Lai; so who better than her to occupy her space in these photos? Something I knew is that I didn’t want the subject to have a face, just to be perceived mostly as a cast shadow. Just hands and bare feet visible. Something else I knew about this project was that all the scenic elements would be backlit during the photo session. I used up to five off camera flashes to lit the scenery, and a hint of ambient (natural) light. The other thing I knew is that I wanted to desaturate all the color channels in these photos, with the exception of the blue. I wanted the blue ribbon to show! The photo session for these photos was difficult. Setting up the scenery and assembling the lights takes time! But the worst was avoiding glare from the lights that were placed in the opposite direction to the camera lens. After just an hour into the session, I was ready to wrap up! But we actually ended in the two hour time frame which is my default time for a photoshoot. I cannot thank my friend and videographer/photographer Natasha Scully enough for her unconditional help and support, not only during this photo session but also on a good number of previous photo sessions I have done in the past! Natasha: THANK YOU!!! It is pretty obvious that this project is dedicated to Maria Lai, but I also wish to make it obvious that I dedicate it as well to Natasha, without whom it wouldn’t be impossible! While I was writing these notes, I had a phone conversation with Laetitia and exchanged some impressions about yesterday’s session and the selected photos for this album. There are things I didn’t do that I would like to do, and since we still have the scenery, the model and the desire to do more (and perhaps better), we will do a recap photo session in the near future. So this is not a finished album! For the next one, I’ll be sketching the shots I want to capture. I would like to be more precise and specific. This is just Part One of my Omaggio a Maria Lai! Fino ad allora!

“Madame Mangerose” is my second collaboration with model Morgan Schroff. I came up with the idea of this fictional character who would be somewhat elegantly dressed and drinking some fine wine while at the same time would be sitting in this beautiful but dilapidated couch in a barn. And she would be eating red roses! As in other previous photo sessions, the scenery design is part of the work I do. I wanted Morgan to be in tears so I brought a full onion to the session which I asked her to cut into little pieces. This was supposed to make her look as if she was crying, but the trick didn’t bring the expected results since this one was a sweet onion! A fun fact is that we played Maria Callas on the speaker during the entire session. The photo shoot took place on a public location in Beacon, NY, on April 27th, 2025. Huge THANKS to Natasha Scully and Prince Gabe Mvore for her help and support during this session! Without them it would have been impossible! We used the opportunity to share some tips on decision making regarding the light position, etc. Natasha even got the opportunity to take some shots with her own camera at the end, using the same model, lighting and props that I used on the session. And I met Morgan thanks to Natasha, on another photoshoot that she arranged. Prince Gabe took some videos with her cellphone and edited afterwards. The video will be included at the end of this album.

A photoshoot with Prince Gabe Mvore on April 17th, 2025. Thanks so much to videographer and photographer (and dear friend!) Natasha Scully for pushing to do this session! Natasha took care of the camera and I took care of the fire rings during this photo shoot. We both decided on the patterns while Prince was deciding on her postures. Each of us (Natasha and I) will be using the raw captures to do our own edits. So this is a true shared collaboration! And we will do more, for sure!

Photo session with Nicole Suwabe and her dog Lumi on March 30th, 2025. As with the other albums in this creative portraiture section of my website, I am responsible for the scenic design and fabrication (as well as lighting and photography, of course!). These golden rings I made using a hot wire cutter board and insulation foam. Painted with water based gold and copper paint. Thanks to Ken Suwabe for his help repositioning the key light during the session.

Photo session on March of 2025 with Morgan Schroff. Thanks to my friend videographer and photographer Natasha Scully for inviting Morgan to do this session! Long Dock Park, Beacon, NY.

March 10th, 2025. Today I took the first steps on a project that I’m hoping to keep going for a while. The idea is very simple: I will be photographing scenes (either natural or architectural spaces) in which the space would be multiplied by the use of a reflective mirror, sometimes more than one. The mirror would be mounted on an easel, and the mirror frame would give the impression of a window into another space within the space. Most of the time there will be a subject (person) seen on the reflected image. Because most of the time I’m walking alone as I’m out photographing, that subject will be myself seen taking photos of the landscape (or whatever physical context I'm at the moment).

Photo session with Bella Mattera. February 12th, 2025. For the name for this album I juxtaposed two Spanish words: "paisaje" and "pasajes" (landscapes and passages, repectively). As in most of my creative portraiture albums, scenery is an essential component of the project and something I design and fabricate as part of the creative process. The written phrases clipped to the tree branch are fragments from a Genesis song lyrics, written by Tony Bank. The song name is "Heat-haze".Thank you so much to Bella and to her husband Chris for the collaboration and the help during this session! Thanks so much to my wife Marie_Louise for lending me the living-room for few days to accommodate for this setup and for the help (always needed!) during the session!

Huge THANKS to Ken Suwabe for his collaboration on this photo shoot! And big Thanks to his wife Nicole for her help and insights!

Photo session with our family friend Viviana Amarelli. January 15, 2025. Thank you so much Viviana for accepting to be part of this experience! Thank you to my wifeMarie-Louise for all the time and effort she made to make this session possible! Thank you to my friends Richie and Dasi for the African mask! I painted the backdrop for this project hoping to have a highly ornamental setting. This painted backdrop measures 8 x 10 feet. To make it even more cheerful we added bubbles, visible on some of the shots.

Photo session with Desiree Akyurek on December 22nd, 2024. In the late weeks of the summer of 2024 I was working on a TV production as a scenery painter; it was there that I first saw Desiree who was working in the prop department. And the moment I saw her I thought she would be a great subject for a photo session. One fine day she came into our shop bringing with her some props to be aged, and as I was listening to her explanation I noticed some really beautiful tattoos in her hands and forearms, and like in an epiphany I pictured her in my head standing in front of some elegant architectural elements all painted black, reminiscent of the work of the Ukrainian-American artist Louise Nevelson. That same day I approached her and asked her if she would be willing to do a creative portrait session, and I explained to her the vision I just had. The answer was positive! I also asked Desiree about her tattoos and their cultural provenance, more particularly to the iconography of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, her father's hometown. She explained that they were based on decorative designs of Turkish origin with which she identifies given her family heritage, more specifically with the decorative style of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, were her father is from. The weeks that followed I spent collecting scrap molding from the sets that were under construction and also visiting the thrift store in search of little figures that I could use on the three panels I wanted to build (foam balls; two little ceramic angels; necklaces, a little figure of Bastet, the Egyptian god; two low-relieve tiles with grapes motive; an ornate mirror and a letter “D”; a chandelier). It was the incredible coincidence of the finding of the “D” letter and the fact that Desiree’s initial is a “D” that I decided on the spot that this album would bear this letter as a title. Four weeks after we first spoke the scenery was ready and all it was left to do was to wait for Desiree to have an open slot in her busy schedule and for me to move the couch and other furniture out of my living room and setup the three panels which were to be mounted on three 4’x8’ flats, set the five strobe lights I used on the session and do test shots until I was pleased with the look. For this last I also created an adjustment preset on Adobe Lightroom so as the photos were arriving on the hard drive they would show on the computer monitor with these adjustments. I really want to thank Desiree for her commitment to this project. She drove two long hours north from Brooklyn to Beacon in order to take these photos! Many thanks also to Joe Kupillas, Rob Woolsey and Eric Leinwand for their support.

This album is in progress.

Photo session with Linda Speziale. Beacon, NY. April 2021. When Linda Speziale told me that she would be happy to stand in front of the camera for a photo session, I was thrilled. But I knew I needed to find (or create) a context for her. I envisioned quite quickly the ambient and lighting I would like to photograph her on: a room full of objects, like an attic filled with old items or an antique store with low ambient light and some brighter spots. But we didn't have access to either spaces, so we decided to create something on this line. Looking at some old carved figures I have in my house I envisioned a large scale chessboard with these figures acting as chess pieces. It was then that I decided to build the large table with a chessboard top, and age it to make it look like an antique and be in tune with the old carved figures. I envisioned Linda outfitted in a somewhat luxurious style in contrast with the context she would be in: an old barn with an old and odd chess board set. This session was very much inspired by the fabulous “The Queen Gambit” TV series. I met Linda five years ago when I did a set design for "HSM Pinafore" for the Depot Theater in Garrison. Linda was the music director for the play. And then we worked together again on "The Music Man". This time we got together for another art experience, which I would call "Appendix to The Queen Gambit". I want to thank Natasha Scully and William Speziale for their help.

Photo session with actor (and bow and arrow practitioner) William Speziale. February 28th, 2021.

This is the third collaboration with actor William Speziale. The two previous collaborations (“Man with a Book” and “Archer”) took place in February of 2021. And the next collaboration will involve swords and long exposure on the camera. Thanks again to Will for contributing on this new fun and colorful adventure. May 10, 2023. Beacon, NY.

“Knock out!”, from a photo session on June 11, 2022 with Stella Rose @officially.stellarose. Thanks to HUDSY tv’s (@hudsytv) Content Creator and videographer Natasha Scully for introducing me to Stella. Natasha worked on one of HUDSY’s documentary series about Stella (link below). I highly recommend you watch this documentary! On my first conversations with Stella (late May 2022) we agreed on developing some ideas for a photo session. We kept exchanging text messages over the following days and three weeks later we were doing this first session. Stella got some inspiration from one of my photo albums on my website but added that she could picture herself with red boxing gloves, thinking of that iconic photograph of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. To this I added that I could picture her on this empty barn space punching this boxing bag. We got the props (gloves and punching bag) and agreed on a date. I used three lenses on these photos: a fish eye, a 24 mm and a 75-200 mm. One key light and two rim lights. “A Bit About Stella Rose (from Stella’s online portfolio): “More Than a Professional Model. Stella Rose is defying the odds when it comes to breaking down walls regarding beauty and limitation. From surviving a rare syndrome from birth causing her amputation to finding and accepting her trans identity, Stella Rose is a natural-born fighter with a story to tell. She strives to inspire others by being her most authentic self and redefining what it means to be beautiful by showing being different is a gift. She finds that the best way to reach out and touch people is by being in front of a camera modeling/acting and creating art showing that nobody is stopped by their appearance or limitations”. Here is a link to Stella Rose Portfolio:

Beacon, NY, March 21st, 2021.

Photo session November 28th, 2020. Beacon, NY.

Photo session Saturday, August 27, 2021. I wanted to do a very simple set up for this session, and I knew in advance that this would be B&W photos, with a graphic quality. I basically wanted to focus most of the attention on Issa, so I limited the props to these two elements: a black ball and a scrap piece of wood that I found by the river, and I painted black.

The idea for this album came to me while I was working on a TV production and a foam scrap scenery was about to be thrown away. There were the negative pieces from architectural elements that were used on the set. As soon as I saw the scrap pieces I knew I wanted to use them and how I wanted to light them (light coming from behind in order to enhance their tri-dimensionality). So I took the home (a total of thirty pieces) and set them up in my living room. My goal was to get as many different looks as possible out of these same elements by doing color variations and disposition of these elements. I also wanted to have different models and vary the look of the set according to the models. And for the last session I had the pleasure to have a couple, two Beacon based artists Ori Alon and Rachel Ray. We spent over two hours on this session. Here is a link to both Ori and Rachel art sites: http://www.supportivebureaucracy.org https://www.facebook.com/RachelRay78 I hope you enjoy the album! Big thanks to all the models!

Photo session with Ryan Sullivan, owner of “Sullivan & Main” hair salon in Beacon, NY. Thanks to Natasha Scully and Yan Wang for their invaluable help on this session. The session took place in our small living room space, and I made use of a rear withe screen and a scenic element on the foreground. Link to "Sullivan & Main" Instagram page below.

Photo session with our friend Marc S. April 2021.

Photo session with graphic artist Elisa "E" Lopez. April 2022. The name of this album comes from Elisa's Instagram account @shyangrydorkycool

A little photo session with my daughter in our living room. February 2021.

A photo session with photographer, philosopher and hiker Yan Wang and the young visual artist Mengde Shi. Thank you so much to photographer/videographer Natasha Scully for her help on this project! Beacon, NY, May 2021.

A photo session with actor William Speziale. Beacon, February 15th, 2021.

December of 2020. Beacon, NY.

With no one to stand in front of the camera, the only option left is to press the shutter and run. Three speed lights on stroboscopic mode with green, blue and red color gels.

I'm not a big fan of spending hours in Adobe Photoshop tweaking photos. I’m interested in doing as much as possible in camera and doing any photo editing in Adobe Lightroom. These are composite images that require a good amount of editing in Photoshop. Most of these six photos are made off of three shots combined into one. I enjoy walking in the local trails around the town I live in (Beacon, NY) and I envisioned this idea of looking out of the window from the woods and into the woods. I did a quick edit just to sketch my idea. January of 2022.

Playing with ripped off cardboard, smoke and some leisure time.

These images emerged one of those days in which you are looking for something to shoot but you don’t know what and how. Then you start playing with light trailing by having a constant light with a color gel and a couple of strobes (no gels on these) and you set your camera to a two second exposure. Then you start jumping in front of the camera to see what you get, and you like it, but it feels like you need a prop. Then you go down to the basement and grab an ax!

February 27th, 2021.

A photo session with Dr. Shapley, who back in the days used to be a dancer! The setting is a historical brick factory located at Denis Point, in Beacon. I walk under these exposed beams daily, as part of my leisure walk along the trails. For a time I’ve been thinking of doing something in this setting, and the idea of having a dancer floating up in the air on this beautiful scenery kept crawling on me. I knew of a dancer in my neighborhood, and through a common friend I reached out to him. But he turned down the idea; after all he is now a doctor and not a dancer. Few days later we met on the site and shot (and jumped!). I really want to thank Lee Shapley for collaborating on this little project! I also want to thank his wife and son Janine Twining and Jack Twining for their help! The behind the scenes photos were taken by Jenine. Thanks!