Tony Federico "Italian Polaroid"

"Bianca Balti in Pink"

Shot on Polaroid i-Type 600 / 5x8 / Milano / 2004

“Bianca Balti is a top model, an Italian top model. She came to the fashion world after she was discovered at a supermarket close to Milano, where she was working as a cashier. She is one of the colleagues from that time with whom I am still in contact today. After almost 20 years and a couple of children we both had, we are still in touch.

This image was taken at the Enrico Coveri show, it was just before Bianca went on stage. The situation was hectic, everyone was getting ready right behind the curtains and lining up. Bianca was standing in a dark corner looking at her wonderful feather dress and she gently wiggled her hips to make the dress move. When you walk on a catwalk, the movements are strictly scripted; after all, it's about the clothes. So the models have to move a certain way for the clothes to follow a certain way. The same is true for us photographers, of course. It's all about the clothes - the models, no matter how beautiful they are, no matter how much we might like them as a person or how interesting we find them. We're in love with the spontaneous, authentic individuals - but it's clear, we're not here for that. We're here for the clothes! But at backstage it's a little different, here we are free for a few seconds. The clothes shortly belong to the models and the photographer is free to look beyond the fashion product… And there she was, Bianca. Standing beautifully in semi-shadow and when she saw me, she let the feathers of the dress wiggle again. She made this pose just for me and played around with this great dress and the pink feathers.

I consider it a little gift to me because she knew her pose wasn't for a magazine or a feature, but just because she wanted me to get a great shot. A rare moment in the perfectly timed choreography of Milano Fashion Week.”

“Occhi"

Shot on Polaroid i-Type 600 / 5x8 / Milano / 2010

"This picture was taken during the summer/spring edition of Milano Fashion Week. Backstage I met this woman with these beautiful eyes and was able to take a picture of her in this sovereign pose. And it's one of the few Polaroids where fashion strongly determines image composition. This collar is part of a coat by the great designer Enrico Coveri - I am still an admirer of his work.

I do think that there is a special Italian sense of aesthetics - of course, it doesn't apply to everyone, but there is a tendency. Italy was already known for the production of luxury goods in the middle ages, and today Milano is one of the important fashion capitals. Many of the most traditional brands are based in the country. Armani, Bottega Veneta, Dolce & Gabbana, Missoni, Moschino, Prada, Valentino, Versace and many others. It's interesting to ask why the fashion industry is so much associated with Italy.

I can remember my childhood when Sunday was the day to go to church. My mother immediately saw if I was well dressed. Did the socks match the colour of the trousers, the belt matches the shirt, the jacket matches the scarf? Fashion is part of our cultural DNA. Although the fashion industry is based in northern Italy, many of the creative people are from the south. For example, Domenico Dolce from Sicily or Gianni Versace, who was born in Reggio Calabria. The Italian aesthetic has developed over two thousand years from many influences and through many coincidences in history, some of these cultures have survived and been able to develop further. Gianni Versace was strongly influenced by Ancient Greece - he always underlined that. Born by chance in Italy, I am happy to be native to the homeland of fashion too.

And even though I wasn't happy in the fashion industry, fashion and the whole culture around it is something wonderful. Isn't it nice when people can think about what to wear? Yes, it is a luxury and unfortunately, it is often carried out on the backs of others - but apart from that, I think it is an achievement of our civilisation if we can also engage with the beautiful and the pleasurable."

"Salto"

Shot on Polaroid i-Type 600 / 5x8 / Milano / 2000

"I took this picture at a show of La Perla. La Perla make amazingly beautiful and expensive underwear. And they make this kind of dress, from a very light material. Maybe a nightgown, anyway very classy and fluffy, as you can see in the picture. I had laid on the floor to wait until the models came out of the door. They took off their shoes to quickly get from side to side and be ready with the new dress. This model saw me and briefly pretended to jump over me. Then she wanted to see the picture. So I had to tell her, she could look at the Polaroid as soon as it was developed, that is, when she had done the next round on the catwalk and would pass me again.

Over the years I did a lot of experiments with my Polaroids. I've used old film or I've fully stretched the contrast range - this special quality of the Polaroid stock comes out clearly in this picture.

The color of the dress was very different. That's because I used expired film. If the Polaroids are expired, you can still use them, but they're very unpredictable. Sometimes colors come out that are completely different from the original. And that's the beauty of it. And I love to wait and see the process on the paper. There is only this one image. On this picture, my fingerprint is added, it symbolizes a bit of that uniqueness.

But I was not sure if the young lady would appreciate all this.

And of course quite a lot of these images will turn out to be nothing at all. This fingerprint therefore also stands for the fact that I got nervous when I saw that the development of the picture was dragging on forever. But when she came back, the picture was fortunately ready and she liked it."

"Rouge Noir"

Shot on Polaroid i-Type 600 / 5x8 / Milano / 2005

"A Polaroid from 2005, my career was in full swing by then. I was part and parcel of the fashion industry, the machinery. When you are so deep in a certain circle, you only think in the categories of that circle. I had just come back from Paris when I took this picture. It was early in the morning, often call time was as early as 5:00. It was a Max Mara show, but I was mainly interested in the lipstick at that moment - it's the legendary 'Rouge Noir' by Chanel. The colour itself is an icon, a legend, around which many conversations centred. For example, we discussed what could be done to get hold of the desirable make-up in the UK as well - even though there were 10-month-long waiting lists. Years later, I came across the book "Le Rouge et le Noir", a classic by writer Stendhal. The book is also about what and why people are not happy in the modern world. According to Stendhal, one of the reasons is vanity."

“Eyes Wide Shut"

Shot on Polaroid i-Type 600 / 5x8 / Milano / 2003

"I took this picture in 2003, at an Emporio Armani show. Giorgio Armani is one of the most influential fashion designers ever and working for him meant that I had made it. It was the boom time of the supermodels. Models like Nadja Auermann or Claudia Schiffer became pop stars and we were the first to tell behind-the-scenes stories from their world. Me and a few colleagues we had practically invented this genre - there was a lot of money to be made with.

At that time I had just seen the film by Stanley Kubrick and it touched me deeply. I could identify with the story. I had just divorced my wife and was in a frenzy of work. I was on the road a lot, went to parties, my new girlfriend was a model. I took drugs and spent a lot of money. That's why I liked the film so much and I wanted to make images that were as metaphorical as by Kubrick.

So when I saw this girl in the backstage area of Armani, with the light on her forehead and her eyes closed, I thought of "Eyes Wide Shut", of the symbolism and the girls on the platters. She still had her own pullover on, closed her eyes and it looked like she was dreaming herself away. I thought about the pressure she must be under, at the beginning of a 10-hour day. She was not a supermodel and her days were castings, shows, make-up and a lot of waiting. The small flat she lived in during her days in Milano was most likely deducted from her salary by the agencies. To save money, many models took public transport around the city, only a very few had drivers. Besides, most models' careers were over after a few years.

So I had to think about the film, about power and how it is distributed between the "emperor" Giorgio Armani and this young girl. I had understood that the film was - among other things - about the eternal conflict between good and evil. And at some moments I had the feeling that I wasn't on the right side anymore. But at that time I was riding the wave - for the time being."

"Havana"

Shot on Polaroid i-Type 600 / 5x8 / Milano / 2005

"I photographed this model at a Max Mara show. She looked strong, with those huge earrings and that fierce look, and I started talking to her. To my surprise, she was Cuban. I know Havana, and I know it's a tough place. There weren't so many black models back then and it was definitely harder for them.

Unfortunately - at least that's how it was back then - even in the fashion scene, a distinction is made between people based on the colour of their skin. Of course, it's not always obvious to a white person - but from a distance, I can say that the models were mainly white. My impression was that the individual person working in the fashion industry is not racist - but the beauty ideal was indeed racist. So the journey this young woman has been on is impressive. From Old Havana to a Max Mara fashion show, on the other side of the world. She is a fighter and it shows. Look at those eyes. That will to succeed, that strength and pride. I'm sure she's made her way. But not everyone has found happiness in this business... Of course, it is especially difficult for the models. Not all of them came out of the business without being hurt. Fast money, young age, your own body as an asset - all that is very problematic. Fortunately, I had a special position as a backstage photographer, because I never had to pressure, on the contrary. Part of my job was to create a good atmosphere with the models, to report from backstage. My job was based on trust. And so one sees and hears a lot of sad stories. And racism or discrimination was part of it. That's why I started to have first doubts about the whole fashion world at that time."

“Red or Blue"

Shot on Polaroid i-Type 600 / 5x8 / Milano / 2009

"The picture was taken at an Enrico Coveri show. The colour combination of the eyes and the lips made me think of the film Matrix and the symbol Red Pill/Blue Pill. It's about decisions - and I felt that some big decisions were coming up in my life too. I was living in the illusion that the best life was a life of partying, sex and materialism. I thought I was the best and most important photographer in the world, I felt constantly on the fast track. I took drugs and always tried to be around people because I couldn't stand loneliness. And I became a more and more unpleasant person, more and more insensitive. I thought I was the centre of the world, indestructible, and I treated my surroundings badly. The people who loved me were no longer so important to me. I had divorced my wife and contact with my daughter became less and less frequent.

Sometimes you can only wake up from such a cycle if you fall really hard. And that's how it was with me. I had a breakdown, physically, but also mentally. So I had to make a decision. One pill meant continuing with life as a jet-set fashion photographer and probably dying relatively soon, lonely! The other pill would mean a hard full stop, but it had to be done.

Thank God there were still people around me who stood by me. My family saved me, helped me decide on the right colour. My mother, my father, my brother. They were always there for me, no matter how badly I behaved. And so I got a second chance. My daughter has forgiven me and the contact with my family and old friends is more close than ever. But not all the people I lost during that process have come back. I regret that deeply. I have decided for the rest of my life to become a better person. A better father, a better husband, a better friend and a better artist."

“Mattina"

Shot on Polaroid i-Type 600 / 5x8 / Milano / 2007

"A few hours before a Dolce&Gabbana show, very early in the morning, maybe 5 o'clock. It was too early for a drink but I was hungover from the evening before. There were only a few people on site and the big pavilions weren't really heated up yet. The catering people were just putting the coffee on and the world seemed a bit bleak to me. I was eagerly anticipating the rush and tension that would begin as soon as the makeup and wardrobe started working, when the reporters and models and designers would run through these floors. Outside it was still dark and ice-cold. The girl told me that she was freezing on the way here because she couldn't find a taxi. She told me that she was a bit overworked at the moment, she was studying engineering, I think in Lithuania. But since she was a popular model this year and could earn good money, she couldn't really take care of her studies. She could send money to her parents, but she hardly had time to visit them. She was on a plane every week, somewhere between Paris, London, New York, Copenhagen... She was tired... She told me all this and I saw her sadness on the Polaroids - but I didn't realise that she was actually describing my life too.

I was drinking and consuming more and more substances at that time, losing myself in my own reality and working more and more restlessly. That also changes you as a person, I became insensitive to my loved ones, self-centred and stressed. And at some point you're alone. And that's what happened to me. Around my 45th birthday, my world collapsed. My body too. I was addicted to drugs and burned out... But that morning I was still a few years away from that breakdown. So I took a few pictures of the aspiring, frozen engineer. We drank coffee and the backstage slowly filled up. It was the beginning of a new day in my tunnel."

“Finale"

Shot on Polaroid i-Type 600 / 5x8 / Milano / 2010

"Once again, Bianca Balti, September 2010. I remember the date perfectly because it's the last backstage Polaroid I ever took. I was done with it, I had made a decision: this would be my last Fashion Week. I met Bianca backstage at an Armani Show - she had become a colleague and friend over the years. She came up to me and looked straight into my camera and I took a few pictures - together we chose this one. Bianca was making her comeback that year, after a long baby leave. She had found her balance between working in the fashion industry and a happy personal life - and so she has remained a model to this day.

When I met Bianca that morning, I didn't tell her about my imminent leaving, but I think she sensed my mood. She seems a bit tense and the picture is not really symmetrical, not so much balanced. And certainly, it's less playful than the other pictures I'd taken of her over the years. The fact that we chose this picture tells me that Bianca knew my emotional life, that she knew I was about to leave. I want to believe that this picture is my goodbye present.

A few days later I moved to Berlin. I wanted to restart, with a new job, in a new city. A city that I knew gives people the chance to have a new beginning. A city that can withstand contradictions. That's why Berlin was very good for me. It's a city that is defined by strong contradictory energies - that's how I've always felt about it. Because of its history, life in Berlin still takes place between strong poles, between contrasts. And that suits me. Perhaps a multipolar character needs a multipolar environment to find balance."