There isn’t a lot about you on the internet! who is Andrea Baioni? where are you from?
First of all thank you for this opportunity! I know there’s not a lot about me online, that’s my bad I guess.
I’m a 24 years old fashion photographer based in Milan, Italy.
Apart from that, I’m a law student at the University of Verona, even though that’s become more of a hobby
now that photography has become a full-time job.
How did you get into photography?
Up until five years ago I didn’t really know how to operate a complex camera, I took my share of pictures
with point and shoots and whatnot but I didn’t even know how to handle films.
Then, during my first year of University I had the chance to travel to Sydney, Australia for three months and
I brought along an old 120mm twin-lens Yashica camera and started taking random shots of the city.
Even if it wasn’t serious photography, it sparked my interest, and pretty much exactly two years ago I went
to New York City to attend a masterclass in fashion photography at the International Center of Photography.
What have been your most memorable collaborations? and why?
My most memorable collaboration was probably the editorial I shot for the first issue of Haunted Mag.
It was a tad bit more than a year ago and I had just started doing test shoots, when I was asked for
an 8 pages editorial for print – and that was pretty big for me, since I had been looking at all those
wonderful editorials in the magazines like Antidote, Love, Numéro, etc. but I never actually did one
myself. The pressure I felt for that particular editorial was really intense, and after I shot it the wait
for it to be published was even worse since I kept looking at the finished images and I had the feeling
that it wasn’t the best I could have done, or that the other editorials in the magazine would have been
better, or whatever you start thinking when you keep looking at your pictures too much too long.
I think that this experience helped me growing a bit.
Another thing that is not really a collaboration but I really enjoy doing every year is volunteering for the
newsroom at Festivaletteratura, a literary festival in my hometown Mantua. It’s a 5-days full-immersion
newsroom experience with lots of events to cover and tight deadlines, it’s fun and I feel like it helped me
become more accustomed to managing time and deadlines.
What is your average day like?
I’ve found out that there’s not really an average day in this profession, it really just depends on the time of
the year and the projects you have.
If it’s a post-production day I usually wake up at 9.30 AM and edit pictures all day, but when I need to shoot
something I need to be at the studio at 8.30 or 9.00 AM. Sometimes, like two weeks ago, I need to be in Rome
for a couple of runway shows so I need to hop on a train at 6.30 AM, come back by 10.30 PM and stay up
untill 4 AM and catch a flight to Paris.
Anyway I alway try to keep myself up to date on editorials, campaigns and the fashion industry, so part of the day
is dedicated to keep watch of my rss feeds.
I try to find some time to read some books too, or watch movies and tv series. Right now I’m trying to read Infinite Jest,
even though I’m more of a short-stories kind of guy.
What are your other passions?
As I said I love reading, mainly short stories or dystopian novels.
I like Flemish and Dutch painters, mostly van Dyck, Rubens and Rembrandt, and portraiture in general.
I really enjoy history and looking up small facts and trivia, it’s a completely useless thing but I find it funny.
And as someone on the internet once said, I enjoy long romantic walks to the fridge too.
What or who are your fashion inspirations?
When I started shooting fashion, and even before that, I had an ideal trinity of photographers in mind, which
consisted of Richard Avedon, Tim Walker and Nick Knight. Mr. Avedon was – and even now I think is – this
god-like figure that no photographer can quite reach; Mr. Walker and Mr. Knight were on the other hand antithetical,
Mr. Walker being a perfect photographer using his creativity while keeping in mind the physical limitations of
what’s real, and Mr. Knight being creativity unleashed by the power of technology.
Now that I know about more photographers and their work, my ideal trinity remains, but I find inspirations in
other photographers too, such as Paolo Roversi and Peter Lindbergh.
What is your next goal?
Landing an ad campaign, I think. I’d be really happy to do that. I obviously enjoy and love shooting editorials
and personal projects, but I’d really like to try a campaign as it’d be something new and exciting.
Apart from that, I just want to become a better photographer. There’s a long way to go yet, and in a couple of
years time I want to be able to look back and see that my pictures got gradually better, that there’s an evolution.
I’m always afraid of staying idle, when the end result should be perfection.