Q&A

Antonia is an Italian documentary photographer based in Hamburg. This series of work is an exploration into one of the city's sex cabarets, and provides an intimate insight into some of the characters of this hidden world.

Do you think that the city you are based in influences your work?
I don t think this influences my pictures as I see my character quite different from here.

Can you tell us a bit about where these photos were taken and what concept you were trying to explore?
The photos are taken on the "Grosse Freiheit" a side street from the Reeperbahn, the known red light district and party mile in Hamburg.
Here things are changing, and most of the little and old brothels and theaters have to close to give space to modern discotheques, clubs and cocktail bars. The times of the big money made by sex business is over. It is the last sex cabaret in Germany where you can see live sex on the stage. I wanted to show the vanishing, a strange hidden world which is in between. Modern time has no more space for it, and they've become more a tourist attraction than a sex business. By using a large format camera where I can tilt and shift I wanted to get a feeling of dream, a thing in between. Ancient times nowadays.

Your work is largely concerned with documentary portraiture. What is it about this area of photography that excites you?
I love to enter different lives and to explore their way of surviving. I need to meet the people personally and I often work with large and medium format cameras. These cameras are slow and they are present, allowing the time to rest in front of them. For this the outcome are mostly portraits; faces which are telling of life, emotions, troubles.

What's your background in photography? Did you study or are you self taught?
I started experimenting with photography when I was living in Barcelona, until I decided to join a basic photography class in Rome where I was discovering the large format camera. After three years I came to Hamburg to work and in the last year I was attending a course at the Danish School of Journalism in Aarhus, specialising in photojournalism and visual story telling.

What photographers influence your work?
I can identify very well at the pictures of Fazal Sheik , Pietr Hugo, Rob Hornstra, among others.

What kit do you use to make your images?
I use some medium format cameras, a Horseman 6x9, I like to use the Pentax or a little Fuji 6x 4,5. When I have the possibility I use a large format camera like the Linhof Technika. For jobs I am working digitally with the Canon 5 D.

Have you had any work featured in exhibitions or publications?
In 2005 I had an exhibition in 11 countries in the Mediterranean area, because of winning the contest "Crossig Glances". In 2009 I participated in the Foto8 summer show in London. I was published in magazines and newspapers in Italy, Germany and the Ukraine.

Where do you hope that your photographic career will ultimately take you?
I want to develop my personal work as well commissioned themes. I want to have the possibility to travel, and to document sensitive stories on human aspects which brake with the imagination, considered as publications and expositions.

And finally; late nights or early mornings?
Turn the nights into mornings so I can have both!