Images courtesy of Lady Tarin
Lady Tarin is a photographer from Italy—from Romagna, to be precise. She has shot for numerous fashion magazines, like PIG and GQ Italy, and is currently working on a project that bridges fashion, photography, femininity and sexuality. Photography is her passion and life, a continuous inspiration. People, meanwhile, are something special that make it even better.
Silvia Bergomi: When did you start your photography career and why?
Lady Tarin: I began to consider photography as an expressive medium while I was studying at the Fine Arts Academy. There was a dark room, and one day I started to develop and print black-and-white film; I totally lost track of time. Since then, it has become a passion that I need in my life.
Silvia: What is the most emotional story you’ve shot?
Lady Tarin: It’s not a particular story, but a project I’m working on in collaboration with Aldo Buscalferri, the Art Director of GQ Italy. It is called Naked City, and I got really involved on an emotional level. They’re “girls next door” that I photograph in their homes, nude, with film and Polaroids. It is about the intimate and erotic. I like the idea of photographing the body as a physical medium. It was born because I continued to notice the lack of sensuality in many pictures of naked women. In reality, women are often sensuous and not vulgar—exactly the opposite. So I began to portray them with undergarments they wear normally, using their home and their objects as a framework to describe their personality.
Silvia: What do you hate in the fashion system and why?
Lady Tarin: Conformism…because it was the last thing I expected to find. It is a fascinating social dynamic because I always like people when I take them individually.
Silvia: What does inspire you?
Lady Tarin: The great directors: Buñuel, Hitchcock, Rossellini, Carnè … Among the photographers, Helmut Newton, Nan Goldin, Diane Arbus, the drawings of Hans Bellmer. I take great inspiration from people around me.
Silvia: Where is the best place to work?
Lady Tarin: Anywhere, provided with a camera.
Silvia: What happens during a normal day in you life?
Lady Tarin: I don’t have any normal days.
Silvia: What do you think about Italy, your country, right now?
Lady Tarin: Well, we are not witnessing a new Renaissance.
Silvia: What is a piece of advice that you would give those reading this interview?
Lady Tarin: To accept dreams. [Ennino] Flaiano said that he who does not accept dreams masturbates himself with reality.
Silvia: A recipe?
Lady Tarin: Piadina Romagnola without lard, only oil, flour, salt and a pinch of baking soda. Mix everything, spread on a baking tray and bake.
Silvia: What makes you happy?
Lady Tarin: Taking photos.
Silvia: What irritates you most of all?
Lady Tarin: Unnecessarily aggressiveness.
Silvia: Share with us a wonderful memory.
Lady Tarin: The energy and vitality that characterized the NSFS Festival for the 10th anniversary of the Tate Modern [in London]. And to see the the first pictures of the Naked City project published in a special issue of Le Dictateur.
Silvia: What is the last thing you do before you go to sleep?
Lady Tarin: Read. Now I’m reading a book in which David Sylvester interviews Francis Bacon. I love interviews with great authors. Hitchcock and Hitchcock by Truffaut is like a bible to me…
