Tatiana Minelli is a self-taught photographer who lives in Gualdo Tadino in the province of Perugia. She started taking her first photos about ten years ago, in which she portrayed everything that passed under her eyes. From that moment she started to develop her own photographic style, until today. The result is portraits that express so much about her and her experience, shots so beautiful and full of meaning that they look like paintings. Tatiana makes characteristic traits – which we often define as strengths or weaknesses – of a person, her own strength and makes them the hallmark of each shot.

So we decided to have a chat with her and let her tell us a little bit about herself and her world.

How did you start photographing?

I started out with a small compact camera about ten years ago. I would go around and shoot everything that passed in front of me. I’d lock myself up in the gym and take pictures of the girls attending the hip hop class or I’d take my best friend as my subject and do some portraits of her. At the time I used really outdated software even for post-production.

How did you develop your style?

It’s been a while since other people started recognizing my photos, so it means that I have a pretty defined style now, but I certainly can’t even tell how I got there. I’m not very good at post-production so my photos are not too retouched, also because I wouldn’t have the patience. For example, I would hardly retouch a dark circle unless the subject makes a specific request to me, in that case, I am forced to go to meet him and to comply with his requests. On the contrary, many times I go to look for subjects with physical defects, big ears, strange teeth, etc… I realized that I have a predilection for the color red, you can see from my photos, I love very warm colors compared to cold.

What or who inspires you?

I’m completely self-taught, I’m not inspired by anyone, I just look at the photos of the photographers I like, like Fabio Interra for example, for whom I also posed a couple of years ago.
There are many photographers who study the style that goes in a certain period and build on it all their photographic experience, changing it as the evolution of time and mode. I, on the other hand, am a very instinctive, jet photographer and I choose subjects and places, often without thinking about it too much. For me photography is therapeutic. In my opinion, you can see who uses it to put inside himself and his past and who does it only for pure aesthetics. I like those who can create their own style without having to please others. I often get inspired by objects that I see passing through my house, a bottle, a vase, which I take and insert directly into my photos. I used lace found in my grandmother’s old house, fruit, vegetables, flowers, the leaves of the trees to play with light and shade. A bit ‘all in all. I often have fun with my boyfriend, who feeds my choices, helping me to look for objects. For example, he’s my “lighting assistant”, he’s the one who helps me take most of the photos, place the objects and models.

What are the messages you try to convey through your photos?

I used to do a lot of fashion photography, I was looking for agencies and models, but I realized that I couldn’t express what I had inside and, above all, I didn’t have fun. When I saw that photo I didn’t really feel like mine. I decide to shoot because I feel the need and I have to convey a state of mind, the more I am instinctive the more the result is what I want.

How do you plan for the future?

I had an operation to reduce my stomach and an abdominoplasty one and I let you imagine my previous experiences with other people. I started to dedicate myself to projects, like the one I had dedicated myself to last year, which went on show in Rome, was called “I’m not your beauty standard”, in which my parents, me and a photographer posed. A project that really liked. Everything you don’t see in everyday life, things that people often try to hide, I put in photos, so you have to deal with it. My next one will be dedicated to verbal bullying, in which I am trying to involve everyone and which I would love to bring to schools to raise awareness among children. Let’s see what will come out of here in a few months. So yes, this is what I am dedicating myself to and will devote myself to in the future.

Text by Elisa Scotti