Cristiano Morroy
A great friend with a great eye, who also knows where to find the best cappuccino and the best pasta in New York.
Cristiano Morroy was born in Turin but grew up in the south of Italy, in Otranto, the most easterly town in the country, looking out across the sea towards Greece. He grew up interested in photography, but his father never lent him his camera.
So he came to New York to study jazz instead. Then he met the photographer Roberto D'Este, who gave him an internship, and the camera won. He began assisting full time and went on to work for Mario Testino, Nathaniel Goldberg and Mario Sorrenti before shooting under his own name.
His pictures have a classical spine, Penn and Newton are in there, but they're restless too: high contrast, wet hair, hands on hips, bodies as graphic shapes against bare walls.
Otranto, where Italy's sunrise starts
On the Salento peninsula, the Punta Palascia lighthouse marks the easternmost point of the Italian mainland. The country's first sunrise lands here.
- The cathedralConsecrated in 1088, with a vast 12th-century floor mosaic of the Tree of Life, and a chapel holding the relics of the Martyrs of Otranto, killed during the Ottoman siege of 1480.
- The castleThe Aragonese castle was rebuilt after that siege to hold off the Ottomans. It shares its name with Horace Walpole's 1764 Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto, though Walpole never visited.
- The coloursAn emerald lake in an abandoned bauxite quarry set against red earth, and the clear water of Baia dei Turchi.
- Up the coastThe Grotta della Poesia, a natural swimming hole famous for cliff jumping.
- The small oneSan Pietro, a tiny Byzantine church with medieval frescoes.
In his words
Your greatest inspirations or influences?
The Beat Generation: the literary movement that grew from the 1940s circle of Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.
The most interesting response you've heard to your work?
It's not for me to answer that. You'll have to ask them.
A dream project to shoot?
I'm working on a project at the moment that explores nudity, and how our physical appearance affects our relationship with society.
How do you see your photography evolving?
I think photography is facing a revolution, and we're in a moment of transition. More than ever we communicate through images instead of words, and naturally that has changed our industry. It's the same kind of revolution we went through when everyone learned to read and write.
The perfect example of this change is Instagram: everybody can read and write, but not everyone can write a book. My work has to evolve to keep up with these changes without losing its artistic integrity.
"Everybody can read and write, but not everyone can write a book."
Cristiano Morroy on Instagram and photography
Favourite websites or publications?
If you could pick one muse, who would it be?
Monica Vitti.
Your most memorable shoot so far, and why?
Stuart Weitzman. It was a great opportunity to work with such an incredibly talented team.
Anything else you'd like to share?
Feel the Bern!
Editor's note: this conversation took place during the 2016 US presidential primaries.
More photographers from our archive
Who is Cristiano Morroy?
A New York-based fashion photographer, born in Turin and raised in Otranto in southern Italy. He came to New York to study jazz, began in photography through an internship with Roberto D'Este, and assisted Mario Testino, Nathaniel Goldberg and Mario Sorrenti.
Who inspires him?
Irving Penn, Helmut Newton and Sebastião Salgado; Marcel Duchamp and Italian Futurism; Italian Neorealism and the Beat Generation. His muse would be Monica Vitti.
Where is Otranto?
On the Salento peninsula in Puglia, at the heel of Italy. Nearby Punta Palascia is the easternmost point of the Italian mainland, where Italy sees its first sunrise.
Photography: Cristiano Morroy. Interview: Leila Antakly.
