We asked the photographer and video maker a few questions Nils Astrologer. We met a very talented man who had a passion for photography from an early age. His is an interesting path in which the passion for the art of photography intersects with sport, friendship, music and also with his biology studies ...
When and how did you discover your passion for photography and video?
Good question! Since I was a child I have always been fascinated by the functioning of mechanical objects, among them my father's film camera. At the time it was a forbidden item for my clumsy clutches. It happened that sometimes I sneaked it to play with it. I held the back of the camera open close to my face, uploaded and took a photo without a roll of film. In a fraction of a second the curtain opened and the light passed through it. I was amazed how in that instant the light could be enough to produce an image. Before I could really start using it the thieves came home and took it away but the passion for those kinds of tools had taken root in my subconscious.
During high school sports such as inline skating, surfing and snowboarding brought me back to photography and video. By now it was all digital and perhaps less fascinating, but to document the trips with my friends a small camera in hand and a computer were more than enough to produce our photo and video reports.
The French waves and the mountains were the scene of our productions. YouTube was not yet an established reality and often the videos did not even upload them on the internet but were burned on DVD for home screenings at the end of the trip. I continued like this for a few years until university, I had chosen Biology. In the second year I left with no plans for Australia to improve my surfing and gain experience. When I returned to Italy at the age of 24, I no longer knew what to do. My surfing buddies got me involved in a disco night music project, we called it "surfdisco”, Electronic music often accompanied by projections of self-produced surf videos. The same videos and photos were fundamental for the promotion of the events, so I did my apprenticeship working on the promo videos and every now and then I met people at parties who commissioned me small jobs. It went like this for three years until my friends and I got separated, one escaped to Australia and the other to Indonesia. I stayed and drone technology arrived. The novelty caught me immediately and in 2014 I bought the first drone. With that I did some filming on Roma, my brother Oliver also with a passion for videos had meanwhile opened a Vimeo channel on travel. We joined forces and our video was a great success. From there we never stopped.
What inspires your creativity as a photographer and videographer?
I would say that my creativity does not develop into wanting to shoot the perfect shot or video, but it is just the natural result of mine desire to expand the boundaries in life experiences.
Photos, videos and the use of drones are tools through which I can tell the emotions that life gives me. All this of course in my ideal of a perfect scenario. Often work needs do not always go hand in hand with this mantra.
What is your favorite photo / video and why?
Right now the video of Trevi square made with the drone during the lockdown in Rome. I was in the center, thanks to the assignment of an online newspaper I was filming the empty streets of Rome with my camera. I had also applied to use the drone and I had two with me, the cinema one and another with a super light “experimental” camera installed to make the drone practically weightless (170g). Arrived in Piazza Trevi with my colleagues, I found the workers who were cleaning the fountain, we had a narrow window of time for permits and this unexpected delay made us delay, so I first used the cinema drone to have the maximum video quality and capture the so unusual situation of the empty square at noon. Capturing the necessary images, we decided to take advantage of the little time left to take a more dynamic shooting with the micro drone.
When I reviewed the video some details related to strange reflections of light on the lens disturbed me about the quality of the result, leading me to believe that the video was not even worthy of being published. Driven by positive comments from my friends I posted the video anyway about my channels. The video exploded and ended up being shared again everywhere. A little over a year later, the more I see it, the more I realize how meaningful that video is for me. It is the imperfect result of my exploration of new borders, it represents a historical moment never seen before. I lived those months almost denying myself what was happening and only now do I realize that I was in the right place at the right time.
Does Nils Astrologer have a secret dream?
I liked biology, studying animals fascinated me. But at the time I didn't have the head to study certain subjects. It would be nice if my current job somehow brought me closer to the animal world. In life so many things that I have desired have come only following the flow of events. Maybe one day a director will call me to help him and I will find myself where that interrupted path of biology has not led me.
