LIFE AND DEATH, PHOTOGRAPHY AND POETRY. A MAJOR BROOKLYN PUBLISHER HAS RECENTLY PUBLISHED A BOOK STARRING ROGER BALLEN AND GABRIELE TINTI. HERE IS THE DOUBLE INTERVIEW IN THE ITALIAN VERSION.
Can you tell me something about your childhood?
Gabriele Tinti : I live where I grew up. In a small seaside town in central Italy.
I spent my childhood closed at home and at school, with the nuns. I often got sick and suffered from sleepwalking. My parents had to chase me at night to avoid problems.
Roger Ballen : My first book is called Boyhood and is the result of a five-year overland trip from Cairo to Cape Town and from Istanbul to New Guinea. For me the childhood or the “Boyhood” was between 5 and 10 years and the experiences lived then have been highlighted by this project. It is difficult to separate my childhood from the memories and experiences brought together in this publication.
What is the first image you remember having an impact on you?
Gabriele Tinti : The bloodstain left on the street, under the house, after the fatal accident that happened to a neighbor of mine. I was very young. That stubborn presence testified to his absence. It took them days to wash it. I observed them at work: in doing so they extended it more and more, each time giving it a new form.
Roger Ballen : My mother worked at Magnum in the 1960s and during that time made friends with the likes of Cartier-Bresson , Elliot Erwitt and others. My house was full of their photographs and their books. I have very vivid memories of these images and it is difficult to choose the one that first impacted me.
Read the full interview here.