Photographer Federico Vecchio recently drove a Porsche on the race track for the first time. The 26-year-old Italian also goes full throttle in his work – and not only shows us his most beautiful shots, but also reveals in an interview what makes for good planning and what mindset has to do with his success.
Perfectly balanced tones, clean looks and a lot of sense for the surroundings of a car – that’s what we see, when we look at your shots, Federico. But how would you describe your own style?
Thank you! I’m not sure ther’s an exact word to describe my style, I would say that I tend to include multiple elements in the shots to frame the subject and add context to the scene. I love playing with reflections, textures and weird color combos. I also spend way too much time working on the colors and fine tuning the various tones! (laughs) Keeping a warm vibe overall is the way I usually go for but it really depends on the kind of shoot. Photography is the tool that allows me to share a my take on a story with the public, I love it!
What is particularly important to you when you take pictures?
A stunning location can compensate for a not ideal subject whereas the opposite is much harder, so doing some location scouting is key! If you want to get into commercial work, the most important things when taking pictures for a living are communication with the client and careful planning. There is nothing worse than having an unsatisfied customer at the end of the day and these are the aspects that you have to take care of to avoid problems.
“I tend to include multiple elements in the shots to frame the subject and add context to the scene. I love playing with reflections, textures and weird color combos.” – Federico Vecchio
And what does that tell us about the person behind the camera, Federico Vecchio
I’m a very open minded person, I like meeting new people and living exciting experiences. It’s not unusual for me to jump on a plane on very short notice for a project so I have to be extremely flexible, I travel a lot both for work and for pleasure and It’s always amazing to experience different cultures and visit different places. I’m very focused on my goals and I’m always trying to better myself in any way possible, every day is fully committed to finding new adventures, there are millions of opportunities out there and you just have to keep on looking for them. Never settle! I love what I do and I’m really grateful for being able to do this for a living.
What else is typical for you?
I try spending as much time as I can outdoors with my girlfriend Giorgia and her dog Teddy, the perfect work/life balance is quite hard to achieve when you work on your own business – and love doing it – so i’m still trying to get the hang of it but I think I’m on the right path!
A production you will never forget? And why?
I had the chance of shooting a social media campaign for a car manufacturer over three days in the hills of Tuscany and it was great. Hand picking my team was definitely a game changer, it was a blast! We had though conditions but careful planning and a huge team effort made it all work flawlessly.
When was the last time you did something for the first time? And what was it?
Tough question, I must say that I’ve recently had the chance of driving a Porsche on track at full blast and it was so fun, first time doing it and it felt like a dream coming true!
Sounds incedibly fine, but if your life were a song, what would the title be?
I like to listen to many different songs so it’s quite hard to choose one but if I had to do it would probably be “ The Sun – Parov Stelar”. No matter what I listen to, I always end up coming back to this one!
What should no one know about you?
Well, it’s a secret! (laughs)
And what should everyone have done once in their life?
I would say that pausing what you are doing and seeing how much you have achieved in your life has to be done at least once in your life. Often we are so focused on our mistakes that we forget to celebrate our achievements and take them for granted.
What event in your life has shaped you the most so far?
I vividly remember going to see F1 in Monza with my father when I was a kid, I was the typical Italian child with the Ferrari hat and the Ferrari flag and that experience is the one that made me fall in love with cars.
What actually drives you? Professionally, but also otherwise in life?
I would love to grow as much as I can as an artist, nowadays personal fulfillment is what really drives me professionally, when I go to sleep at night I like to think back at my day and I just want to feel like I did everything I could to make it worth it. I have goals I want to achieve and I’m going to try my best to do it. In life in general I appreciate freedom way more than I could ever explain, the fact that I am my own boss and can both work remotely and also arrange my calendar to fit family time is something that no amount of money can buy. I love spending time with my girlfriend and being flexible is something I won’t ever give up!
Last but not least: What is the best advice you have ever received?
A great friend of mine has always believed in the law of attraction and I must say, I now do as well. If you are positively thinking and you put your energy into it, you have a much higher chance of success in whatever you are doing.
This is something i firmly believe and even if there is no scientific evidence to support it, it really made a difference in my life.
Read all about it in rampstyle #25, entitled “Keep It Simple and Smart”.
We tend to experience our world as not only somewhat complicated, but also extremely complex. And while complicated systems offer themselves to our understanding through clearly defined connections of individual elements, this unfortunately does not apply to complex systems. Here, everything is unpredictable. And there we are, more or less merrily in the middle of it all. Which is why we love minimalist solutions. In short, the KISS principle applies: “Keep it simple and smart.” An entire issue devoted to the matter. So we simply asked Bryan Adams if he wouldn’t like to photograph singer-songwriter James Bay exclusively for us as part of our interview with him. (He did.) We also have a great story about Tom Ford, interviews with George Clooney and the designer Sir Paul Smith, and we spoke with the director Quentin Tarantino and with author Christian Ankowitsch, who wrote a book titled “The Art of Finding Simple Solutions”. The conversation turned out to be more complicated than expected. But just as entertaining as we imagined.
Text by Marko Knab for ramp
Photos by Federico Vecchio
