1. Can you please introduce yourself, where are you from, how long you shoot on film?
My name is Davide Bonato, I’m an Italian management and production engineering student, but in my free time, I like to photograph whatever I happen to have in front of me. What I really like to shoot though is what some people might call street photography. I have been shooting film for almost 3 years now, but still, do shoot digital as well.
2. Why do you like to shoot on film?
I shoot film because I find the process a lot more fulfilling and tend to have less unnecessary distractions while shooting. At first I thought that not having a screen on my camera to instantly check how the picture turned out was going to drive me crazy, but to my surprise I found out the not having a screen on your camera is very freeing while shooting and allows me to think only about what’s next rather than what just happened that no matter what will not happen again as it did before. Other factors that made me venture into film photography were the look, grain, and physical aspect of it, as well as my deep interest in vintage cameras and all old mechanical instruments.
3. What’s your favorite gear to use (camera, lens, film) ?
I am still experimenting with a lot of things as I really enjoy trying different cameras, currently my favorite camera to use is my Rollei 35SE, incredible german piece of engineering at an unbelievably small but usable size with superb optical performance. In terms of film, I shoot mainly black and white, my favorite film stock right now is Kodak T-MAX 400. 4. Among your works, which one is your favorite? Why?I don’t have a very big body of work published publicly, but my favorite series of images is the series I’ve done in Sardinia last summer because I love the scenes I was able to witness. I also have a small series on Venice coming soon that I am quite excited about.
5. Exactly what it is you want to say with your photographs?
The truth is that I don’t really know, I am of the mentality that is something that comes with time and experience. So far what I focus on doing is some kind of research/portraiture of the individual interacting with the environment. I know that it is something that will change with time and probably take on new meaning.
You can follow Davide on instagram @davidebonato.ph
