PIER NICOLA BRUNO INTERVIEW
Interview · Fashion photography · From the Ninu Nina archive, 2011
Pier Nicola Bruno A geology student who found a camera, learned fashion in Milan, and moved to New York because it was the hardest city he could think of.
Italian photographer Pier Nicola Bruno moved to New York this past September to keep chasing his passion and build on an already established career in fashion photography.
He found photography at 20, while studying geology at university in Florence. Soon after, he left for Milan to study artistic photography at the Riccardo Bauer institute, and began collaborating on fashion editorials for publishers including Condé Nast and Mondadori.
Inspired by the greats, Man Ray, Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, he immersed himself in the industry, shooting campaigns and magazine stories in Paris, London and Milan. Then he wanted a challenge. New York, he says, is one of the toughest cities in the world, a place where you are always learning something new. That was exactly the dose he needed to fuel his energy and creativity.
Most memorable shoot so far?
Coco Rocha, for Viktor magazine.
What would be a dream shoot?
Numéro.
Fashion icons?
Lady Gaga, Kate Moss, Daphne Guinness.
Favorite websites, blogs and publications?
- Le Book
- Style.com
- Fashionising
- The Sartorialist
Numéro, Love, Pop, V, Interview.
His reading list, as of 2011.
His work now
Two recent posts from his Instagram, @piernicolabruno.
Since 2011
Born in Voghera in 1979 and raised in Cortona, in southern Tuscany, Pier Nicola first studied geology in Florence, then left to work on film sets at Rome's Cinecittà studios, which is where photography found him. After courses in Arezzo and Perugia he moved to Milan in 2003, graduated from the Bauer institute a year later, and went straight into fashion.
New York became a second base: since 2011 he has worked between the United States and Europe. Alongside the fashion work he has kept a personal practice going, and for the past decade it has circled one idea, the difference between a place and a non-place. You can see it in the photograph above: a model in couture, alone in an empty concrete room that could be anywhere.
- Behind BarsMilan Triennale
- Shining PuddlesSolo exhibition, University of Georgia, Athens
- Loss of SenseBlog on Arthur Rimbaud, Castle of Rivara, Turin
- Which Venice? / Quale Venezia?Group show, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice
- PassagesArezzo&Fotografia International Biennial of Photography
Quick answers
Who is Pier Nicola Bruno?
An Italian fashion photographer, born in Voghera in 1979 and raised in Cortona, Tuscany. He studied photography at the Riccardo Bauer institute in Milan, began working in fashion in 2004, and moved to New York in 2011, working between the US and Europe.
Who inspires him?
Man Ray, Richard Avedon and Irving Penn. His fashion icons are Lady Gaga, Kate Moss and Daphne Guinness.
What is his personal work about?
For the past decade, the idea of place and non-place, shown at the Milan Triennale, the University of Georgia, the Castle of Rivara, the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice and the Arezzo&Fotografia biennial.
