Creator Spotlight

5.20.22

Striking, playful and bold are only a few of the adjectives one could use to describe the work of 19 year-old Photographer Mattia Amoroso. Mattia’s unpretentious beginnings taking pictures of cakes in his father’s bakery have spiraled into a passion for capturing beautiful moments with an aim to tell interesting stories about his subjects.

In this feature we speak about the challenges he’s faced as a creator, how he get’s into a creative spirit and his advice for other young creators.

MA: My name is Mattia Amoroso. I am an 18 year old Italian-American photographer located in San Diego, CA. Photography has always been a passion of mine, I have been taking pictures since I was in 6th grade but started taking it seriously in the last year. My passion extends beyond just the photos themselves;I love creating and making up stories through my photo. People and fashion are my favorite things to capture. My goal is to shoot professionally for brands, more specifically for fashion and footwear brands.

MA: My very first introduction to photography was at my father’s bakery. I was in 6th grade at the time and I would always go in to help. One day I got there and he had bought a camera to take pictures of his desserts and left it in his office. I ended up finding it and playing around with it, running around taking photos of everything I saw. I absolutely loved it. The adrenaline of capturing a moment in time and being able to look back at what I had shot was the best feeling ever. A feeling I would end up chasing many years after this day. After that day, that camera became mine. It came everywhere with me and even when I didn’t have it, I would still take photos with my iPod. Since then I haven’t stopped exploring the world of photography.

MA: Stories inspire my work a lot. When I am thinking of concepts, props, and outfits, I am thinking of how those details will help visualize the story I have in mind. I want to be able to feel and see the story through the photos I take. 35mm film also inspires my work. I used to shoot with film and when I moved back to digital I blended the two mediums by bringing some film components over. Although my style is constantly changing, these are the constants that inspire my work.

MA: I don’t think I can choose. I believe the process and the product are one thing. They are cohesive and you can’t separate the two. The process makes up the product and the product is made up by the process. I value every part of my photography, whether it's finding a location, making up a concept, collecting props, editing, and completing a photo. I believe that valuing one more than the other separates the art in a way that I cannot do.

MA: One of my biggest challenges I've faced has been doubting myself and my work. Ever so often I look at what I’m doing or making and I don’t think it's enough. That I should be doing better, should be doing more. It definitely weighs on me because I am devoting so much of my love and time into this passion and to think that what I am doing isn’t enough isn’t the best feeling.

AW: How have you aimed to overcome this self doubt?

I used to be a really shy kid. I wouldn’t talk to people, but I would always be observing them. The lack of communication and knowledge of a person’s story due to me being too timid to ask, opened up my mind to make up stories about them instead. Although I now love to get to know people, I still observe silently. When I observe, I make up stories in my head and later base pictures off of them. It used to primarily be people, but it now has become objects, I look at an object and develop a story about it. This opens the creative side of my mind like nothing else. I create images in my head based off these stories and get so excited to make them a reality through my pictures.

MA: I used to be a really shy kid. I wouldn’t talk to people, but I would always be observing then. The lack of communication and knowledge of a person’s story due to me being too timid to ask, opened up my mind to make up stories about them instead. Although I now love to get to know people, I still observe silently. When I observe, I make up stories in my head and later base pictures off of them. It used to primarily be people, but it now has become objects, I look at an object and develop a story about it. This opens the creative side of my mind like nothing else. I create images in my head based off these stories and get so excited to make them a reality through my pictures.

MA: Cian Moore and Connor Cunningham are both amazing, crazy creative photographers. The fact that they were able to make it while having more “out of the box” photos and concepts that brands use inspires me to not be too general with my ideas.

MA: Zitti e Buoni & Torna a Casa by Maneskin, Mount Everest by Labrinth, and News at 9 by Peter Mcpoland have all been on repeat recently. All of these songs inspire me in different ways. I listen to them while editing or before a shoot. The effect music can have on a person is just crazy to me. The fact that I can be completely not in the mood to edit and then listen to one of these songs and then I am ready to go at it on my computer blows my mind.

MA: Advice that I would give young creatives is also advice that I am still giving myself. It is to not compare yourself to others. Everyone is on their own path, has their own style, their own goals. Comparing yourself to others is wasting time that you can be focusing on bettering your own work. Another piece of advice is learn what your final goal is and do everything in your power to achieve it. If you’re really working hard and putting all of your efforts into something there is no way that all that hard work won’t get you where you want to be.