La Ciudad de D10S | Sea Stories
Realities in Naples; dedicated to the young Neapolitan who makes effort on living a better life.
Claudio Menna introduced “La Ciudad de D10S” project in 2012, which is composed with many stories based in Naples, a beautiful city where Claudio grew up. The project expresses the moments of life through gestures, looks, and symbols; emotion expecting of a better day; and the sea representing the dream of freedom.
It is also a a start of a journey. Along with, there are stories of devotion, passion and love ; or just of a simple life. Claudio get himself involved into the people so that people under his lens became the main characters spontaneously.
One of the series is “Sea Stories”, which shows how the young Neapolitan respond to the great call of the sea. How they enjoy their time to get away from the stress and weight of serious modern daily life? A dip into the blue is a dive into the depths of their souls, of which the sea is their most faithful mirror.
Interview with Claudio Menna
How or by what did you get inspired to make this series? What’s the main idea of this series?
“La Ciudad de D10S” is a big photo story I’m reporting in the last 3 years in my city , Naples, South Italy. It is composed by some tales that narrating feelings and moods of a part of Neapolitan citizens who live in the most poor slums.
“Sea Stories” is a documentary that tells how these little and young citizens live in their city and along with their sea. I tried to tell how they escape from their houses where they live with a lot of social problems to find breeziness and serenity in the city.
“Naples , their city, became their house and a safe place where escaping from social discomforts and loneliness.”—Claudio Menna
During the shooting, did anything interesting or frustrating happened? What’s your response?
When I shot photos to make a documentary or reportage, I like to interact with my subjects because I don’t like to steal the photos with a tele zoom.
I only use super wide angle ( generally a 17 mm lens or less ), and for this reason I have to approach to them.
During this shooting, the most interesting and hilarious thing happened was that I was backsliding in the sea just because I was accosting too much in bad equilibrium on the cliffs.
How do you motivate yourself to take photos?
“I like photography because I think it’s a endless hunt, where you are motivated to find your subjects and yourself.” —Claudio Menna
When I finalize a documentary, I’m just thinking about the next . How to tell it , how to shoot, and how to live on another experience. For me, photography is an experience of life.
What do you think about Documentary Photography?
I think that a photographic documentary has to be introduced by a little speech of the photographer, without too much words. I prefer to read and hear the sensations of the people who see my works : I’d like to understand what the people think about my photos , in bad or good case. I think criticisms are more useful than appreciations because if they are constructive and without biased opinion , they can get you accrue and develop like a photographer and like a man.
About Claudio Menna
Born in Naples in 1985, Claudio graduated in Architecture at the University of Naples Federico II, and approached to photography in 2008. He devotes himself to the photographic reportage and street photography. What’s more , he organizes workshops on Street Photography in his city. Except for “La Ciudad de D10S” , he also involved in various projects of documentary photography, such as the Project 192 | one click to the victims of the train station in Madrid in March 2004.
#To know more about the photographer and his works, kindly visit : Claudio Menna’s Web or find him on Facebook.
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