Federico Torra is a 29 year-old Italian photographer based in Milan (we previously featured him in one of our lists of 10 photographers to follow on Instagram).
Hello Federico, thank you for this interview. What are your main interests as a photographer?
Currently I’m focusing on urban landscapes, daily life, ordinary places, and architectures suspended in space and time. Sometimes I also photograph cars, which I look at as inanimate objects that are in a close and intimate relationship with the human being.
Is photography your main job, or is it something you do on the side?
Photography is taking up 45% of my life right now. It’s not my main job – I work for an art foundation.
How did you start photographing, and what have been the main influences on your photography?
I started photographing when I was in high school, but I can say that the kind of photography I was doing back then was very plain. I began using my father’s film camera. Initially, I would mainly photograph in black&white, as I thought the strong contrasts and the vintage look and feel was the best possible aesthetics.
My photography evolved a lot since then, chiefly by looking at the work of photographers such as William Eggleston, Lewis Baltz, Stephen Shore, and the Italian photographers of the 1980s who re-invented landscape photography, like Luigi Ghirri. But the most critical factor was living for a long time in the same city, Milan: it forced me to understand what I was looking at everyday.
You seem more inclined to the creation of single images rather than full bodies of work. Is this correct, and why is it so?
It is correct but it is not exactly intentional. It’s probably because my practice as a photographer is quite intermittent.
What makes a good photo for you? When are you happy with an image you took?
For me, a good photo is one that you recognize as familiar but can’t stop looking at, because something about it is unique or uncommon, at the very least, an element that is ordinary and uncanny at the same time.
Who are some of your favorite contemporary photographers?
Recently I was impressed with the works of Bas Princen, Alec Soth and Rob Hornstra.
We recently launched #FotoMobile, an open call to celebrate mobile photography. What is the best shot in your phone that you can share with us?
This is one of the pictures I took on my phone. I like it, but I’m not sure that it’s my best one.
Usually, I use my phone when I don’t have my camera with me, like when I’m walking to work for example, or to take visual notes. Sometimes I take pictures with my phone that I regret I couldn’t take with my camera. I also keep a Vsco page of mobile photos of cars.
Do you have any other passion beside photography?
If I were rich, I’d be collecting cars.
Choose your #threewordsforphotography.
Fleeting. Identity. Time.