Biography

Giovanni – or Gim as he likes to be called – was born near Rovigo (Italy) in 1966 and discovered his passion for photography at the age of 4  when he borrowed his dad’s camera and started shooting his first pictures. As a teenager he developed his other two passions: hiking in the mountains and travelling around the world. Regardless of where he was, the camera was always his faithful companion, either when shooting the red maple leaves in Canada at the age of 17 or when climbing in the Dolomites few years later; and once at home from his adventures, he would always be the one who captured the holiday memories often giving and sometimes even “selling” photos to his friends, who never bothered to even carry the camera when they were with him, as they were confident that “Gim is going to take photos for everybody”.
Gim begain photo-shooting with a Voigtlander range finder, and then added a Minox GT to his equipment -very easy to carry around especially up in the mountains. Gim then stepped into the SLR world by purchasing a Contax RTS with Zeiss lenses (50 mm, 28 mm and 200 mm), one of the finest camera available at the time; a Metz flash gun and a polarising filter completed his equipment.

Gim at Bryce Canyon (USA)

Gim at Bryce Canyon (USA)

At the age of 20 Gim worked during the summer for a large photo-lab (and did so for three years) where he learned how to develop film, print black & white and color prints, as well as familiarize himself with studio photography. This was a considerable milestone in his photographic adventure, as he learnt the secrets of the darkroom and of the photo presentation/preparation.
“Seeing and shooting” a good photo is certainly a fundamental skill for any good photographer, but this art is fully effective only if it is followed by accurate post-processing and by a proper photo presentation (paper selection, framing, etc.). But I guess this is not a big secret and famous photographers like Ansel Adams have become famous also -if not “especially” -for their darkroom skills.

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it” -  Ansel Adams

“The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance”  -  Ansel Adam

At 25, Gim graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bologna, and got a Masters Degree from Yale University two years later. Since then he has worked in various companies such as Electrolux, Ferrari & Maserati and ThyssenKrupp, developing his professional career in the Marketing & Sales area, he is now General Manager in a company manufacturing mechanical components in Modena – http://it.lin kedin.com/in/micheletto. During these years, work and family (Gim is married and has three kids) have kept him busy, nevertheless he has continued to take photos on his various business trips around the world, combining his job with his passion for photography and for exploration.

At the beginning of the new millenium, when the digital era started; Gim started photographing more and more and since then, it’s been a crescendo. The first digital camera was a Canon Powershot G2, then a Canon Powershot G5, then a Canon Powershot Pro and finally, in 2007 the time had come to move to a DSLR and Gim bought a Canon 40D. A year later a Canon 50D, a Canon 5D, and recently a Canon 5D Mark III. In his day to day shooting, he also uses a Ricoh Caplio GX100, which fits easily in his work briefcase. He also uses a Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod, various filters, Canon flashguns, several Lee filters (ND, Polarizer, graduated filters, etc.), 2 Lowepro backpacks and few Canon lenses of the L series.

Gim at the Lake District (England)

Gim at the Lake District (England)

In 2008 after more than 35 years of being a self-taught photogtapher and while he was living in the UK on a 4 year assignment, Gim decided that it was time to embark on some ptofessional photography courses in order to enhance and learn new skills, especially those in line with “digital” post-processing, which was a completely new art, if not in principle, at least in practice: no more messing around with paper masking, dodging and burning in the darkroom but Photoshop and Lightroom with a PC.

Lately, he has started to “rationalize” his photography and his skills, trying to give it a bigger meaning and importance in his life. Gim is not ready to go “Pro” yet – his other career is still too important and demanding – but he is definitely trying to bring photography to the next level. So now he is not just taking photos for the pleasure of it, but he has also started to promote and to sell his work. He has joined Flickr, organized a number of exhibitions, participates in photos contests as well as taken on a few small assignments (weddings, photo sessions for companies, etc.) and this website is part of that same project.

What about the future? Who knows, keep visiting Gim’s website and you’ll find out… and by the way, thank you for visiting the website.