“The workspace is in the center of Lucca, and our windows look out on the grass sloping straight up to the city’s famous walls.  We moved here last spring, so it is a relatively new space from our point of view. The space itself was an old metal-working factory for making iron gates.  The picture was taken in the early afternoon.”

Massimo Vitali was born in Italy in 1944. In 1964, he graduated from The London School of Printing with a degree in photography. Vitali worked as a photojournalist and a cinematographer. Beginning to work with large-format photography in the early 1990s, he began his beach series in 1995. Massimo Vitali’s work can be found in the collections of the Guggenheim in New York, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain, and the Elton John Collection.

FROM YOUR DESKS: What film from boyhood inspired you?

MASSIMO VITALI: Citizen Kane.

FYD: Do you see any of your childhood longings or boyhood holidays in your photography? Were you around people?

MV: No, I’m sorry, but my boyhood was very grim and I detested people and didn’t talk with anybody. Thinking back, my best days were spent on the beach.

FYD: Would it be strange or perhaps difficult not to see physical individuals in your photos, especially the beaches?

MV: I think that with the foreground people I have a more intimate relationship, whereas as you go further into the background, people tend to become just shapes and colors.

Thinking back, my best days were spent on the beach.

(Image One: Massimo Vitali’s Studio. Image Two: Massimo Vitali. Image Three: Butterfly Valley (#3184) 2009, chromogenic print on Diasec. Image Four: Croatia (#3902) 2010. Image Five: Scala dei Turchi 3, Sicily (#3850) 2009 c-print on Diasec. Image Six: from the film Citizen Kane. Image Seven: Monte Pellegrino Diptych (#2799/2800) 2007.)