It's never a pleasant image: why the hottest photographer has a leg fixation | Photography

HDuring our interview, I tell Alessio Bolzoni that he is atypical: a fashion photographer without ego. He snorts with laughter. It's impossible to do the work and share it with people without a bit of ego, he says. But I try to talk to him and work with him.

Bolzoni's ego has certainly been stroked recently: he's worked on campaigns for brand of the moment Miu Miu and taken very sweaty and sexy on-court photos of Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor to promote the Luca Guadagnino's stylish tennis film, Challengers. But alongside this, the Italian-born photographer also produces works of art. An exhibition, Theres a Fine Line Between Love and Hate, You See, opens this month at the VO Curations gallery in London.

Bolzoni's work in fashion, with its awkward poses and contrasting settings, could be described as quirky and arty, while still making the clothes look very good. On the other hand, in his works he deepens his noble statements and references, to Sigmund Freud, Slavoj iek and many others. Take the Accumulo diptych series, which combines found images and newspaper photos of people cropped to show only their legs. My focus, he said, was people walking. Then I realized that the part that interested me was the legs. It was magical to find details that perfectly matched the position of the foot or the same shadow.

The title of the work refers to a broader theme for Bolzoni: the images that bombard us today. It's crazy, overwhelming. A bunch of images every day. Although he of course contributes to this explosion, his works increasingly incorporate found images. Ebay, another series, features collages made from photographs of a family from the 1950s found on the online marketplace.

Photography is really stuck to reality, he says, which is very fascinating, but also very limited. We must push this limit. He cites Roni Horn and Anne Collier as influences and likes to take visual notes on his iPhone of things that catch his eye. The last photo he took was a slightly surreal image taken on a sunny London street. At first glance, the object inside looks like a sculpture or a giant piece of discarded gum, but it's actually a messed up white T-shirt.

Playing with perception fits into Bolzon's interest in the uncanny, an idea that seems more relevant than ever in a digital world where things are often not what they seem. “It’s something I really enjoy playing with,” he says. It's never a pleasant image. I want you to feel something. I want you to engage and respond.

He takes a sip of his tea, served in a silver teapot in this rarefied Marylebone hotel. Now based in London, after living in Paris, the 44-year-old wears a fashion photographer's uniform of an artfully ruffled shirt and chunky sneakers (Rankin wears something similar, as does Juergen Teller , although his sneakers are paired with neon shorts). . This shows how, even with his artistic work, he remains immersed in fashion: he was delighted to work with influential Miu Miu stylist Lotta Volkova, and describes Guadagnino as a brother. Is fashion glamorous? When you shoot in the street, sweat at 40 degrees, no. He laughs and adds: But it's rather amusing. You meet fantastic people.

Bolzoni is from Crema, near Milan. He first became interested in photography as a teenager. He was educated by his art teacher and 24-hour store owner. His interest in found images also began early with a metal box his grandmother had, filled with family photographs. Using his darkroom, he reprinted them from the negatives, framing them for a Christmas gift.

Bolzoni's career took off in the 2010s, when he began working with brands like Kris Van Assche and Phillip Lim, making him a relatively late bloomer when he had just entered his 30s in an industry obsessed with youth. Leaving Italy was crucial. I had limits there, he said. The art scene is very poor. Berlusconi's bad decades destroyed what was wonderful in Italy, from the post-war period until the 60s and 70s. By the 80s, everything was lost.

He returned to Milan at the start of the pandemic. The stay led to one of Bolzoni's favorite projects of 2018, Abuse, which consists of portraits of people striking contorted poses, their concealed faces drawing more attention. He persuaded billboard owners to feature these photographs rather than advertisements. It was an idea I had when I was at school, he said. Driving through the city and seeing these bodies coming out of buildings was very emotional. You catch one and wonder: What is that? But I didn't put my name on it. There is no explanation. You take what you want from them.

The same goes for all his works. There are no solutions, there are no positions, he said. Bolzoni's concern not to take sides also applies to the fashion world. When I ask him which brands he would like to work with next, he replies: “I haven't received any response on that. You have to be very political, give a lot of appreciation to the people who call you, ask to work with you. I never take it for granted.