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Italy-based photographer Mattia Balsamini was recently commissioned to spend a day in the newsroom of the magazine IL: Intelligence in Lifestyle. Since 2008, IL has been published by the popular Italian newspaper, II Sole 24 Ore. The magazine prides itself in providing top journalistic content with strong visuals to match. Under the leadership of art director Francesco Franchi, the magazine has become an authority in innovative design for journalism. Mattia’s photos of the newsroom will be part of a monograph about IL, published by the creative agency and publisher, Gestalten.
Gestalten has created over 500 books, each documenting and predicting crucial moments and movements in art, from design, illustration, and typography to architecture, photography, and urban art. They have also created monographs for certain acclaimed designers, and their latest is on Francesco and his work with IL. The monograph is titled The Intelligent Lifestyle Magazine.
Mattia worked with Francesco and the magazine’s photo editor, Raffaele Vertaldi, to define a style for the book’s photography. They decided to take inspiration from the work of photographer Larry Fink, as his projects were often a product of him immersing himself in a setting and making use of what was available to him. In keeping with Fink’s style, they chose to shoot in black and white, and also to create a 50’s and 60’s look with the photographs as a nod to the iconography of photojournalism in those decades.
The main intent of the shoot was to capture a day-in-the-life at the magazine newsroom, so they placed Mattia right in the mix of things so he could observe the un-staged happenings and everyday interactions that went on at IL. In order to move around freely and also maintain his artistic goals with artificial lighting, Mattia had his assistant use an off-camera flash while Mattia used his own “sort of on-camera flash.”
I like to work with artificial light when possible, to isolate or highlight actions in a scene.
Mattia says it was great for him to work in this more spontaneous way. This style is something he taps into every now and then in his personal and commissioned work, and he says it was great for this real-life representation of this fantastic company.
We were as discreet as possible, shooting a limited number of frames and only shooting when it really felt ‘right.’
The editors from both IL and Gestalten are absolutely thrilled with the photographs that will appear in The Intelligent Lifestyle Magazine.
Be sure to check out more from Mattia as mattiabalsamini.com!