Today we’d like to introduce you to Francesco Secci.
Francesco, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Everything began 15 years ago when my father gave me his old camera. I was a young boy, already very focused on art, I remember I could have passed hours by myself drawing.
However, photograpy was a different process and I right away fell in love with that. In fact, it allowed me to capture reality in a fraction of a second and that is what I exactly needed!
I started wandering around my hometown, Florence, taking photos of random people in the streets; at that time I was extremely influenced by the Magnum Agency photographers such as, Elliot Erwitt, Henry Cartier Bresson and all the “photojournalistic world”. I started process my own black and white films and make my own prints, at that time I was using the dark room of an American school that was located close to my house.
Around 7 years later, while I was a student at the University of Florence and I was getting a master degree in contemporary art, I changed my interests in photography.I started photographing mostly friends in studio and experimenting with artificial lighting; my approach changed and I became more focused on the editorial and commercial aspects of photography.
I started working with local Italian magazines and local clothing brands. I rented a studio in the city center of Florence and I began to define myself as editorial portrait photographer.
One year ago I moved to L.A. because my wife is from this beautiful city. Since I moved here I strived to establish and re-shape my own business.
I am now more than ever focused on portraiture.
Has it been a smooth road?
Photography like art in general is never a smooth road. Being a successful photographer takes time, it is a “marathon”, not a “sprint”. I started this “adveture” without taking any risk and it was not a right move. It is when I started to get out of my confort zone that good things started coming to me. Probably the biggest struggle for me was dealing with agencies and photo editors. The most important thing is never give up and alsway remain humble.
When you look back, can you point to a period when you wanted to quit or a period that was really frustrating?
Yes I had bad moments in my career, as I mentioned photography like any other creative thing in life is a very tough path to undertake. I was too naive when I first started and wanted to make photography my profession , I was thinking that I could achieve the best results in a very short lenght of time. I was not ready at that time to strive longer for what I really wanted to do. I remember getting frustrated with the advice that was given to me about my work . I took the criticism as a negative point intead of an opportunity to improve my work. i’ts kind of human nature to put up a wall and feel attacked when people give you advice, but when I was willing to take down that wall and opened myself to feedback, I was able to overcome that obsticle and I truly saw my work improve.
Let’s change gears – is there any advice you’d like to give?
Well, my advise that I’d give are also good “rules” for life in general. Stay humble, work hard for what you want, be ready to listen to others and have passion. You need to be excited about your work, always shoot! Always create new material and be willing to move, be flexible.
What are you most excited about these days?
Personally, I am really excited to go on vacation next week! Sometimes, you just need to disconnect for awhile. I have friends flying in from Europe and we have a road trip all planned out. But even when I’m packing my suitcases, the first thing I’m worried about is fitting all my photo gear. Professionally, I think you should always have your own projects in mind and I am really excited about working on this specific one.
Contact Info:
- Website:www.francescosecci.com
- Phone:951-472-6313
- Email:[email protected]
- Instagram:seccif
