massimo, the door & the road

Massimo Vitali was a complete unknown to me.  I was worried that we would have to weather another debacle like Gilles Peress (Magnum photographer from France) two years ago.  He used up 45 minutes of his allotted 2 hours with one word answers to all questions except for his final memorable quote (as if we couldn't guess) - "I let my pictures speak for me."  Your photos can talk all they want - just give me back my money.  But this time it was different.  Massimo is a talkative Italian - full of quips, insights, stories and years of experience.  He was another breath of fresh air (after Antonin) in the sometimes polluted atmosphere of 'photographers as artists'.  His beach photos contain incredible amounts of detail (thanks to his 8x10 view camera) and thousands of ongoing stories.  Sadly, the end of his talk signaled the end of my Festival, so it was out the door and on the road.