Exclusively Fashion Magazine: Can you tell me what made you decide to become a fashion photographer?

Roberta Nitsos: Since I was really young I used to photograph all my boyfriends and flirts. I was always obsessed with faces and features. I remember myself analyzing every single detail of a boy’s or girl’s face, body, clothes, style, sensuality and movement.

Through fashion I can construct my own world. I mainly shoot in studio and that gives me the opportunity to make stills of my dreams… Little worlds painted with color of Old Master paintings…

EFM: Have you always loved photography?

RN: Always. I have old photographs of myself carrying a little pocket Kodak camera. My father used to film all our family trips and I was fascinated by it.

EFM: How long have you been a fashion photographer?

RN: I think I have always been an aesthetics photographer, if you can call it that, but I’ve been working as a professional for 8 years.

EFM: Can you enlighten me on what a typical day is like for you?

RN: Well you mean a summer or winter day cause that is really different…. I am Mediterranean so I always choose to stay in a hot country during the summer, especially Greece.. Lying in the sun near the deep blue sea and listening to the crickets…feeling passionate… collecting  images for the days to come…

Whereas on a cold day of the winter I love seeing exhibitions, theatre performances, watch “world cinema” movies. I always travel once a year to a new country to absorb the culture and the people...Most favorite inspiration comes from the Orient..

EFM: What magazines have you worked on?

RN: I worked for Zoo magazine, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Commons and Sense, Style Family and Tunes, Attitude, Dazed and Confused, Sunday Telegraph, Romantik. For the past three years I have been doing art and fashion videos for various exhibitions in London, Paris and Athens. Videos for Showstudio.com, Dazed Digital.com, Opium Exhibition for YSL and various festivals.

EFM: You describe your work as looking “nostalgically towards classical art”.  Can you emphasize?

RN: I have a Swiss Italian mother and a Greek father. I think that says it all… How could I possibly escape from Classicism? The mix of Classicism with the avant-garde of London scene gave to my work valuable insights.

My work revalues what ideal beauty is nowadays concentrating in the mystery surrounding this idyllic beauty in a theatrical backdrop reminiscent of that Era.  I need a sitter, a character face in order to work.  A sight of a religious androgynous face nourishes and comforts me. I also worship – the nude. Inspired from sculptures of Rodin and Camille Claudel I have choreographed scenes and gave transit into different shapes to give the illusion of immortal moving sculptures for some of my art videos.

EFM: Do you think that fashion and art goes hand in hand; if so, can you elaborate?

RN:  I think that fashion is stealing from art and art is stealing from fashion. They are a constant source of inspiration for each other, triggering one another’s curiosity and exchanging visual experiences in order to extend their mastery. I don’t really follow fashion magazines or trends. All my personal inspiration comes from various forms of art that I tend to follow rigorously.

EFM: Do you find it hard to find work as a photographer?

RN: I am not a public relation person. Therefore I spend more time in concentrating in my photography and getting inspired rather than looking for new work. Otherwise I feel like dispersing myself in pieces…

EFM: Do you have a favorite photographer; if so who and why?

RN: I love various fashion photographers such as Paolo Roversi, Mario Sorrenti, Martina Hoogland Ivanov.  I feel that we share the same dream and sense the world with the same colors…

EFM: Do you have a favorite painter; if so, who and why?

RN: I can only mention one I love but he is not the only one.  I admire Caravaggio for his audacious choice of subject models who diverge so sharply from convention, his realistic almost imaginative lighting that illuminates the senses, his red cloth floating above naked boys draped with an indescribably beautiful piece of white fabric.  He strikes my heart..

EFM: What do you enjoying doing in your spare time?

RN: Planning my travels and getting new inspirations for my work.

EFM: What inspires you?

RN: My solitude, nature, culture, art, love.

EFM: Have you ever come across a model that was difficult to work with?

RN: Oh yes!! Many times.. People are difficult either when they are very interesting or when they are completely uninteresting… Interesting faces always surpass any difficulties.

EFM: What advice can you give to aspiring fashion photographers?

RN: “Don’t think you are fashion photographers!"

www.robertanitsos.com