The Church - Paolo Massimo Testa

I met Paolo when I was still in college. I was uncertain about my future and he was already fully determined to make photography his reason for living.

A series of shots for my thesis made my entire project and, without false modesty, really nice, to the point that I started to believe in his shots and to follow him in his adventures behind the lens.

The years have passed and the passion of P per click grew more and more, to bring him to New York, where he is now following the master's degree in photography at NYFA.

All this to tell you about THE CHURCH, last but not least, our overseas' photographer project.

THE CHURCH investigates in an irreverently ironic way and with a certain bitter laugh the triptych photographer-studio-model: the study becomes a sacred place, a-temporal and isolated, where the photographer profess his religion. In this "no place" who snaps is the creator and models are people from street culture catapulted  in front of the camera, naked bodies in front of "god."

And what do you do before god, completely naked? You cover yourself with a dog, rejoice, cry, close your eyes, or do you hide. I ask P how did the idea for this project: "I looked at who I am and where I come from: studying for years in Catholic schools I've been able to touch certain realities, rigid and conservative, who have been completely overwhelmed by subsequent experiences of my life, including my stay in NYC. "

Inspiring Gurus are Ryan McGinley's nudes and Avedon and Penn b&w: the study of soft light that gives life to the body, the shadows celebrating imperfections and defects are the tools with which the stories of the characters immortalized are told, each with their own lived, each with an emotion to convey.

THE CHURCH is a story just begun but already full of good premises to be developed in the best way. Therefore, if you go from the Big Apple, do not forget to contact him and make you shoot!