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Cristoforo Perrone
@cristoforoperrone
Landscape photographer based in Spain
My life as a traveler started lucky enough at a very young age. My father has always been passionate about traveling. Twice a year he would organize a 1 month-long trip to places such as Laos, India, South Africa, Bolivia, etc. and take both me and my sister with him. Being able to witness so many diverse cultures at such a young age has opened my eyes to the many hidden beauties of this world. During these trips, I would be the one taking care of capturing those moments.
"Year over year, my photography skills would gradually improve and this has converted into both my passion and profession."
Truth be told, photography to me is much more than a career, it’s a lifestyle. While I was living in South America I started to have a better understanding of how creators could earn money with platforms such as Instagram, FB, and Youtube. One day, I stumbled upon Brandon Li’s Youtube channel and I was mind blown by his lifestyle and work.
"At this point, I understood that there were various ways of making an income online and that people were working full-time doing a nomadic style of life by creating digital content for brands, companies and tourism boards."
It was something I saw myself doing as well, and that’s where I put my energy in order to achieve exactly that. Nowadays, being a freelancer provides me the flexibility of not having a fixed routine and this further gives me the liberty to have longer trips to more remote destinations. Throughout the year, I have the chance to travel various times, which in return allows me to create content. It has not been easy though. I’d say that the first real problem of becoming a travel photographer was finding the financial resources to purchase proper camera gear and to pay for my travels all on my own.
"Because of that, for a few years, I worked as a delivery pizza boy and waiter saving money to buy a professional camera."
The day that I finally bought my first serious camera, I promised myself that from that day I would concentrate on finding a way to make a consistent income from content creation, working for myself and traveling whenever I would be able to. This may sound like a dream life, but it also has many downsides. However, this works well for me and I have gotten used to having such an uncommon way of living.
"Out of all the countries I have ever been to, Mongolia was the one that stood out to me the most."
I was lucky enough to travel to the country twice in the last couple of years, which has consistently shaped me both as a person and as a photographer. I visited Mongolia the first time with the intention to live the fascinating nomadic life of the eagle hunters in person and to have a first glance of their fascinating culture. This lead me to falling in love with this country and its various ethnic groups. In October 2019, I was able to travel back to Mongolia for the second time to document more in detail the unique cultures of the Eagle Hunters and the Reindeer People.
"The expedition started with us roaming the mountains of the Taiga forest, in the north part of Mongolia, close to the Russian border."
Our ambitious goal was to find at least one of the thirty remaining families of reindeer people left in this area. After crossing around 25 km of mountains and forest by horse, we finally managed to track down a family with a large herd of reindeers that had set their camp on the top of a mountain. After arranging our tents, we enjoyed our dinner and fell asleep to the sound of the reindeers grunting in the distance, something I will never forget. After one week living among them, we headed towards the western part of Mongolia to reunite with a family of eagle hunters which I had a chance to meet on my first trip to the country. My intention this time was to spend 10 days observing how they live. This allowed me to follow them closely while they hunted for foxes and small wolves in the steep Mongolian mountains and to document the fascinating art of hunting with Golden Eagles. Being able to witness these two diverse cultures at first hand has truly awakened in me emotions that I had never felt before.
"To obtain understanding of different ways of living is the most remarkable thing about visiting a variety of places all over the world. It has allowed me to achieve a higher level of consciousness and given me a profound appreciation for the diverse cultures, people, and places this world has to offer!"
"Not only seeing people and their unique culture and lifestyle have inspired me, I’ve also been left speechless by the most incredible landscapes. Namibia, for instance, was out of this world."
The entire story started in the country’s capital, Windhoek, where I rented a 4×4 that had camping gear on its roof. The idea behind this choice would be to have the convenience of having a place to sleep and a kitchen wherever I wanted, which was especially important considering the extended travel distances between places. This also provided me the freedom to camp and spend the night close to most of the locations I had planned photographing at first light.
"I must admit that this was not the most comfortable way of traveling, but it allowed me to experience the breathtaking landscapes of Namibia in a completely different way than what I was used to."
"What impressed me the most about this incredible country is the contrast between the golden orange sand of the Namib desert and the intense, endless blue of the cloudless sky."
During my four weeks exploring the country, I was able to witness some of the most unreal landscapes I had ever imagined seeing. Sossusvlei, in particular, left me in awe. This is the entrance to the infinite dunes of the Namib desert and by far the most popular locations of Namibia. There I had the chance to accomplish a dream I always had, which was to do an open-door helicopter flight that allowed me to capture the mind blowing beauty of the desert from a different perspective. Another unbelievable experience I had during this trip was doing a sunrise hot air balloon flight over the desert. It’s truly a special event to observe the first rays of sun slowly caressing the dunes on the horizon.
"I feel extremely blessed to have been able to live all this."
"Maybe the most difficult of it all is to convey these deep and intense emotions through photography."
I wish I could make other feel the way I felt at the moment of taking the shot, but I know that it’s never going to be the same. Therefore I hope that, besides transmitting my emotions to some extent, I can inspire others to look for those intense experiences themselves. The first thing I ask myself when editing an image is: “What is the message I want to send?”. Secondly, the most important for me when editing is doing my best to guide the eye of the viewer to focus on what – for me – is important in the image. After this, I concentrate on the general mood and tones of the image. At last, I work on the details of the image in Photoshop where I have more tools to polish the shot.
"With each experience, each photo and each edit, I learn and grow."
The experience that allowed me to grow the most both personally and professionally was when I decided to move to Barcelona to pursue a 1-year filmmaking course at a local university, where I met many creative minds. There I started creating a network of like-minded individuals that pushed me towards the position in which I find myself today.
"Already at a young age, I learnt from my father that if there’s something important in life, it is to have a dream and pursue that dream. He did. And I did too. I am still doing it."
Once your dream is to become a travel photographer, I believe that, first and foremost, it is essential to understand your niche, know what your goals are and what you want to achieve. Secondly, I’d say, is researching the people who are doing what you want to do. Try to understand how they earn money and run their business. Learn and observe from those who have more experience in the industry; I am doing the same and the more experience you get yourself, you’ll see that others start learning from you as well. This is an amazing feeling; we can all help each other and keep learning at our own pace. My biggest tip to turn your passion into a career is to create a strong online presence, with streamlined content and portfolio. This will allow you to pitch to brands and clients and from there start growing your business organically. In order to create your portfolio you shouldn’t charge for your services. However, this will enable you to get better and with time you can start making money.
"Have a dream and enjoy the process of working toward accomplishing that dream. The ones we are looking up to, have done the same."
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