Verona is a wonderfyll city in the Veneto region that rises around the Adige river and is best known for being the city of Romeo and Juliet, the characters of Shakespeare’s opera.
It was the first city we decided to photograph in 2019, and so a very cold January morning together with the talented ballet model Elisa Storti, we met in the Verona Porta Nuova station to make our photographs.
From the station the historic center can be reached in a few minutes with one of the many metropolitan buses or on foot in about 20 minutes walking along the beautiful Corso Porta Nuova, a long and wide avenue that leads directly to the Gates of Bra.
Once past the Gates you enter Piazza Bra, the main square of Verona, one of the largest in Europe and where the famous Arena di Verona is located, a Roman amphitheater, ancient but with the best degree of conservation, thanks to systematic restorations made since the sixteenth century during the summer the Arena di Verona hosts the famous Opera Festival with many international singers and musicians.
Among the passers-by and the curious we made some photographs and we set off again towards Via Cappello, not far from the central Piazza delle Erbe, to reach the House of Juliet, a 14th-century Gothic palace with a small museum and above all the famous balcony in stone.
The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet found some feedback in Verona, such as the emblem of the hat on the keystone of the entrance arch to the courtyard of the house and various places were recognized where the story narrated by Shakespeare would take place.
The Casa di Giulietta (House of Juliet) is one of the major attractions for tourists visiting Verona and in fact the courtyard of the house which leads to the balcony is always very crowded, also due to the presence of shops where tourists are sold souvenirs. Already from the courtyard entrance arch all the walls are entirely covered with graffiti and love cards left by the many visitors.
We still had some time to take some pictures of the Adige river and the Ponte delle Navi (Ships Bridge) from where we can see the tower of the torre della Parrocchia di San Fermo (Tower of San Fermo) in the distance.
Despite the cold (suffered more by Elisa, whom I thank for her sacrifice in the name of art) we were able to admire and photograph a beautiful city, where I will definitely return to take new photographs.
Giovanni Malandrino is a freelance professional photographer, specialized in urban dance photography. Based in Milan and Novara, for his photographs he likes to move to different cities to combine the elegance of the poses in the ballet with the wonders of our beautiful Italy.
Dance is the creation of a sculpture that is visible only for a moment (cited by Erol Ozan)
If I had to choose a sentence to represent my photographs I would have no doubt starting from this quote. This is the starting point because once the perfect moment has been created, photography can make it eternal and make it live every time we observe it.
And these moments have to be shared because the art can not remain closed in a room or a computer, but must be free to be observed by anyone who can appreciate the elegance of the shapes and colors.
Photography is a great love for me, born about twenty years ago and as many fans I started participating in numerous courses and workshops in particular of portrait, fashion, fashion.
Before finding my way, I collaborated in the creation of photographic services in the field of fashion, but I felt that something was missing, in particular a blank sheet where you could create freely without constraints and predefined schemes and then lightning stroke, when photographing the my first dance essay I felt the possibility of creating art in movement with every shot. And where to better highlight the elegance of the poses if not putting them in contrast with the road, with normal everyday life?
This is how my personal way of creating art was born, which I hope will inspire in you a great part of the emotions that I feel every time I shoot a single photograph, a bit like a painter who paints his canvas.
A special thanks to my family who has always supported me in all my bizarre photographic adventures and all the talented dancers who have worked with me and with whom we created a wonderful friendship that goes far beyond the work. In fact, looking at the photographs you would not say, but a photo session in urban dance is very challenging, often in difficult weather conditions, walking for hours in search of the right background combined with the best light, in short, almost always ends exhausted, even if happy with the result.