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| Davi Russo, photographer and director |
"I'm usually the one asking the questions," I said at some point during our conversation at the bar. After exchanging a comment about the song that was playing and commiserating over both being a dying breed—native New Yorkers—we drank and talked about art, photography, sex and beauty ideals. We saw each other again at his exhibit and book release, "Turns" at Munch Gallery. Returning to the restaurant where we first met, it was my turn to ask the questions.
~ ~ ~
I’m Davi Russo and I work as a photographer and
director and I make pictures. I guess I like to think of myself as someone that
is a maker of things.
How long have you
been a photographer?
Well, my mother gave me photography but in like a natural
way. When I was 7 years old, she gave me my first camera – she gave me actually
2 cameras – she gave me an old Kodak 110 camera, the film looks like a little
telephone, and she gave me a Polaroid 600 series camera. My job was to kinda be
the family photographer because my father was incarcerated around that time and so my
mother realized that we’d be sending photographs to him through the mail. I
think she was very smart about understanding that if she gave me this
assigned role it was probably an ego boost for me as a young man, you know, and
it gave me something good to do. I’m sure that my father adored having those
pictures sent … so that’s how I was introduced to photography. It wasn’t like I
studied it or something like that.
