This surreal image is obviously inspired by Rene' Magritte, an artist
whose works I adore.
It has some relationships with psyche, is highly dreamlike and provide
a vision of what could happen in a dream or maybe a nightmare.
We cannot see the face of the man with the umbrella, is it me? Or is it
you, the viewer? Is this my dream or yours?
The title of this work: "The weight of the dilemma" is not what it
seems. What is it the dilemma for the man with the umbrella? Or is it
a dilemma of the artist? Or for the viewer, that cannot decide what
represent this image?
Born in Milan, Italy, I am self taught in photography, but I have always lived among visual art thanks to my father profession (graphic designer). I am a freelance stock photographer, working mainly for the book cover market. My pictures are licensed by some of the most renowned libraries: Trevillion images, Arcangel images, Plainpicture.
I love to explore and make experiments with photography, using digital as well as analog cameras.
With digital, I have always liked to manipulate images with Photoshop to create something that is close to my imagination, using techniques for photo composite, photo-manipulations and collages. I use the camera and the software to create my own world, my own reality.
As for the more classical photography: nature, architecture, macro (abstract) and still-life are my favorite subjects. Anyway, my best moments are when I can wander around with a camera and shoot in classical street photography style. It still marvel me how full of surprises and interesting is the world around us.
I now live in Czech republic with my wife Jitka.
Awards Commended in the Still life section of Photographer of the year 2009.
Editor's choice in Camerapixo issue hot shots 05, recently published.
My photos are used on more than 350 book covers all around the world,
see sample here: http://valentinosani.zenfolio.com/book_covers
