Interview with Mariadora Varano | Sparking Her Passion for Photography

Hi, I'm Mariadora Varano. I was born in Sicily and grew up in Reggio Calabria. In 2000, I moved to Florence, where I lived for eight years, before relocating to Rome, where I currently reside. I began exploring photography at the age of 18 with an analog camera, influenced by the passion of some photographer friends and driven by curiosity.

I remember going with these friends to a suburban neighborhood in the city where I lived. There was an old man there who sold used cameras, and that’s where I was able to purchase my first analog camera. I bought it for just a few bucks because I had just finished high school and didn’t have much money at the time.

I studied photography on my own. I am a self-taught photographer, having learned through hands-on experience, books, and experimenting at home, where I set up a homemade darkroom to develop and print black-and-white film. I had a brief experience as a photographer in a local newspaper in Reggio.

I would have liked to attend a professional photography school in Florence, but my parents were convinced that I should study law and earn a degree in it, and that’s what I did. Unfortunately, I never loved law the way I love photography.

I definitely remember my first shot. My parents and I set off on a road trip, crossing the Madonie, a mountain range in Sicily. We traveled from Catania to Palermo, and during that journey, through villages that felt completely isolated from the world, at some point, in the absolute emptiness and silence of the early afternoon hours, I saw an elderly man walking with a hat and a cane.

The sun was powerfully casting his shadow onto the asphalt. I took the shot, developed it, and printed it myself using rudimentary techniques. I was so struck by the expressive power of the medium I had in my hands that I decided to turn that photograph into a painting. I recreated the image on a canvas using only a mixture of black and white, just like in the original shot.

In my search for the right technical tools, I have always favored and sought a balance between lightness and portability, while still achieving the best photographic results and quality. Naturally, over time I have changed many cameras since my first fully manual analog reflex, adapting to technological advancements.

Currently, I use a Sony Mirrorless Alpha 7 III. Of course, post-production tools today are just as important as mastering darkroom techniques was up to twenty years ago. Therefore, my equipment also includes post-production software like Lightroom.

I hope to achieve full artistic and personal satisfaction through the expressive medium of photography. I also hope to see my photos exhibited, published and recognized so that I can convey the emotions I feel and try to capture them in my images and shots.

I feel happy and deeply touched when I’m told that my images are poetic, creative, original, and inspiring to others. It moves me when people say that my photos are able to convey a particular emotion. This is something that a group of my closest friends, who were often the subjects of my early photography when I was still shooting mostly for fun, once inspired in me.

Since they were frequently featured in my first successful photos, someone decided to create a Facebook group called “Those with a profile picture by Mariadora Varano.”

For a long time, I was inspired by a sense of homesickness, drawn to everything related to life by the sea—the sea where I grew up and which I had to leave early on. But over time, as I’ve evolved personally, so have my photographic subjects. This is also linked to the development of my portfolio, shifting my focus from individual images to storytelling. In this sense, I am inspired by both personal stories and autobiographical experiences, as well as the stories I encounter that reflect the world around me.

It’s hard to choose just three words to describe a photographic style, but if I had to, I think I would choose the words poetic, emotional, and conceptual.

It is, of course, an immense personal satisfaction and a recognition of a lifelong passion.

This summer in Rome was particularly hot, and for personal reasons, I struggled with the heat even more than usual. In fact, the city has been getting hotter for many years. This made me think of an image I once captured and, more importantly, the moment when I took it—a time when the Eternal City was covered in a beautiful blanket of snow, creating a suspended atmosphere, almost as if it were outside of space and time.

I took this shot with my feet in the snow, in one of Rome’s most beautiful and famous squares. The photo had been buried in my archives for years, and I decided to finally bring it out and edit it for the first time.

I don't know yet, but I hope to find out.

There are many photographers who have inspired me and continue to do so. Among them, I would mention a few great masters, such as Ansel Adams for his technique and the invention of the zone system, Cartier-Bresson for his ability to capture the decisive moment, and Luigi Ghirri for his transfigured and dreamlike atmospheres.

To not give up and to keep pursuing my ideas, my style, and my personal taste, even if they don’t align with others’ preferences. Ultimately, to not abandon my own identity as a photographer in order to please the public.

I would give a young photographer, or anyone approaching photography, the same advice I was given: try to maintain a personal style. But I would also advise starting with the technical foundations. Today, with digital cameras, it’s very easy to forget about technique because the image is immediately visible and can be instantly evaluated. This leads to the risk of relying on trial and error rather than solid technical knowledge.

Fortunately, I have never been wise, and as for the key to my success, I’ll leave that for others to decide.

This is a mystery to me as well because I have a family, I have a job, and I try to juggle a thousand things without giving up on staying updated with my greatest love and passion, which is photography.