«The Polaroid I would like to take? The one to the Pope dressed as Drumohr”

He chose the Drumohr boutique as the location for the exhibition Portraits in which he exhibited some of his famous shots to Hollywood celebrities (including Johnny Depp, Catherine Zeta Jones, Javier Bardem and Salma Hayek) and beyond, taken with his ever-present Polaroid following a mosaic technique. He is Maurizio Galimberti.

What is photography for you?

«It’s certainly life for me. I live off that because I wanted it. It’s a dream that came true. I can say it’s the life of a dream.”

A life between past and future given the photos he takes with a Polaroid.

“Absolutely yes. Using Polaroid my photography almost seems like something ancient, from the past. Then, however, it turns out that Polaroid is very contemporary and is a language that, perhaps also thanks to my work done over the years, has survived and represents new life. Young people who were born and lived in the digital age, at a certain point, discovered that there was something analogue and incredible like the Polaroid and started using it. It is a timeless medium. I always repeat that, in its imprecision and imperfection, instant photography is something magical. Andy Warhol was also in love with the Polaroid: I was lucky enough to photograph Chuck Lawson and he told me that Warhol loved the Polaroid more than his boyfriends.”

How did the idea of ​​dissecting the image created with different Polaroid shots come about?

«When I was little I was in an orphanage in Como and I saw the world through the barred windows. These gigantic grates formed a viewing point divided into 12 small squares. Then, when I went to live at home with the Galimberti family who adopted me, my dad took me to the construction site with him. There too I saw the world through the frames of the scaffolding. I believe that the breakdown comes from there, from that grate of the orphanage and from those scaffoldings on the construction site. I began to feel the magic of the mosaic. Thanks to Cesare Cassina, a great guru in the world of Italian design and beyond, I approached the Bauhaus mosaics by connecting them to those of Piazza Armerina in Sicily, to the Byzantine ones and those of Ravenna. From there I came up with the idea of ​​the mosaic even though it is much more difficult to photograph a mosaic than to take a normal shot. I was certainly born as a “one shot” photographer, but the mosaic has become my stylistic signature and I’m happy about it because today finding a personal one is not easy.”

Is there a lot of homologation in the photographic panorama?

«A lot. The works are all the same, perfect and aseptic. There are photos full of academia that, after a while, make me feel anxious: they are shots that manage themselves in their perfection. I love imperfect photography. Do you think that if there is a stain in a shot, I leave it because that is how it has to be to avoid being globalized and standardized. Especially today with artificial intelligence we must defend the error that arises from craftsmanship.”

Speaking of “imperfections”, you have photographed many stars: which one was the most capricious?

«Definitely Ligabue».

Why?

«She wanted to shoot in a closet and she wanted very particular make-up products».

Let’s come to today. Galimberti and Drumohr: how did this meeting come about?

«From a great friendship: the Ciocca family from Brescia were my first collectors in the 90s. I have seen Luigi’s sons, Michele and Filippo, since they were little. When they asked me to exhibit there I immediately accepted. It’s a bit of a return to the origins, to the Ciocca house, this time not sharing a sumptuous lunch with Luigi, but to Michele and Filippo’s “home” among these quality garments.”

Are there any Drumohr leaders you would like to photograph? And worn by whom?

«If I may say so, I would like to photograph the Pope wearing the “biscuit”, the sweater with the iconic Drumohr print. I have always seen it worn by Agnelli who was a secular pope, I would like to see it worn by a real Pope.”

The response was immediate Michele Ciocca, President of Drumohr: «It’s an idea I didn’t know about, it seems excellent to me. We could make one with the papal colors, so cream and yellow.” And when asked if there is any item from the new collection that she would like to be immortalized by Galimberti’s Polaroid, she replies: «The latest project we have signed concerns the Rainbow series of our “biscuit”: it is a limited series for only 150 people. It would be fun to have a Polaroid of Maurizio made on that.” As for the future, Ciocca has no doubts: «Fifteen years ago when we started, this project was a knitwear company. Today, however, it is a total look for men and women. We will continue to pursue this path keeping in mind the indications of our consumer which are very precise: an iconic, Scottish, colorful and slightly dandy collection”.

PATRIZIA PERTUSO