Bruno Militelli — Inside the magic of macro photography
Bruno Militelli has distinguished himself from traditional macro photography genre by creating scientific experiments with his objects. His genesis collection was a hit on the NFT photography platform Sloika.xyz. The psychedelic patterns that look a lot like distant life forms from other galaxies are actually movements of water and soap captured against light. After establishing his own unique approach to macro photography Bruno seeks to explore various elements of nature creating abstract images that feed the imagination.
Let’s get to know the artist and see how these magical images are born.
— Bruno, how and when did your journey into macro photography begin?
Before I got interested into macro photography about four years ago, I was exploring many other photography genres. There was a time when I really enjoyed doing night photography with long exposures, landscape photography has always fascinated me too, but as soon as I got my hands on my first dedicated macro lens, I realised that there were so many opportunities to create incredible images just through the observations of the smallest details of nature.
My passion for macro photography has grown naturally out of the desire to see nature up close. There are such incredible patterns and details that are difficult to see with the naked eye. And they exist in many natural elements like the veins from a dry leaf, feathers, crystals that I bought on a store or maybe a shell I found on the beach. Over time, I realised that my macro lens is a modern instrument capable of transporting me to a new and unexplored world.
As I developed my skills and mastered the main techniques I started to see plenty of new possibilities. I realised that this single perspective could give me a new way to feed my creativity and let me proceed with my desire to create abstract images.
— We all have probably experienced the desire to get a close-up picture of a small flower or capture the eyes of an insect using our handy phone cameras. What is the idea behind macro photography in your view? what are your intentions?
The classic macro photography style is too obvious. I really want to do something exceptional. I love to play with the art concept of abstraction, putting the viewer in a position to speculate on what they are seeing, bring other levels of understanding.
My goal most of the time is to create an image that has no obvious connection with the real world or with the object photographed, and is hardly recognised by the viewer.
— Going through the collections on the Sloika’s platform your images of unusual shapes and vivid colors certainly catches the eye and incites curiosity. Tell us a little bit more about the soap bubbles collections: how did you come up with the idea? And what it took you to get these images so desirable by the NFT collectors?
Photographing soap bubbles was certainly not my idea, there are many artists who enjoy photographing them. In fact, it is a very common subject in macro photography. If you look on the internet you will find several tutorials that teach you how to capture these patterns that appear on the surface of the soap bubbles.
I believe that the big difference in my work, and where I managed to distinguish myself, was the technique which I improved over time. It allows me to capture this scientific phenomenon in great detail and sharpness, highlighting it’s vivid colors and surreal formations.
My goal was to get as close as possible to them to show the incredible patterns that were hidden there, but to reach this result it took me months of work perfecting the technique, many hours in my studio and certainly a lot of persistence.
It was not overnight that I found the ideal way to capture soap bubbles so that everyone could appreciate this beauty. To achieve what I wanted I had to do a lot of testing. I tried many mixtures of liquids and lighting setups until I got the images that I was totally satisfied with to drop as one-of-a-kind collections for the world of NFT photography.
— It was really exciting to see the “behind the scenes” video. The setup and the process seems like a well sought-after vision. What is your own step by step process from an idea to the final result of a photograph?
Everything happens very naturally, there is always some initial stimulus that makes me think of an idea to be explored in macro photography. Anything can serve as an inspiration, from some object I find in nature to my Instagram feed and works of other artists. I’m constantly in an observer’s mode.
From there I start researching the process and the elements: how and where I can get the elements, how can I treat them to create the images that are in my head.
As the vast majority of my work is carried out in the studio, my creative process depends a lot on the equipment, lighting, tools and other utensils that I have at my disposal. It took several years to assemble the setup in the studio and now when I have an idea I can execute it more easily.
It’s funny when someone from the outside discovers the amount of small utensils I keep, which apparently has no function. They end up thinking I’m a little crazy, like a frustrated science teacher, but everything at some point can serve to create something unique.
— Your images seems to be so aesthetic, very clean and sharp in detail. What are the challenges in getting such a result in macro photography?
Macro can be a very satisfying genre of photography. It can open a new world of almost countless creative possibilities, but for me the biggest challenge in macro photography is focusing. It is actually the obstacle that can put off amateurs and often the experienced photographers as well. It is a genre that requires a lot of patience and willingness to learn specific techniques.
The two main issues that can become a problem when focusing on a macro subject is the short depth of field and magnification. Because you are shooting a highly magnified image, nailing focus can be really hard, especially if you are hand-holding the camera. In this case, a slight movement backwards or forwards from the subject will easily turn it out of focus.
— You have more series of different and unexpected objects in your portfolio — crystals, plants, feathers with water droplets, to name a few. What is the next object you would like to explore in macro view?
I have so many ideas. I’ve been working on some photography series for a few years now, but I intend to show something totally unique in my presence in the NFT photography space, with a more graphic, modern and conceptual identity within macro photography that I believe will resonate more with collectors.
I’m currently enjoying working with several scientific experiments. I started to explore the crystallization of chemicals, polarization of light and even magnetism.
Furthermore, I am also working on a collection whose main object is a circuit board from older electrical and electronic equipment. I’m collecting these boards from people I know because everyone has old equipment at home that is no longer useful. I take this opportunity to find out what’s underneath these carcasses and how I can use them to create futuristic images through my macro perspective.
The cool thing is that after the recognition of my work among collectors of my first two collections I started to take these crazy ideas off the paper. Now I am able to present a unique work to my new public on the web3.
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Thank you for taking time to share the BTS process. It was nice to chat with you and very interesting to know your personal approach to the macro photography.
To see more of Bruno Militelli’s art visit Sloika.xyz , his website and do not forget to follow him on Twitter.
Our Collection:
ForeverLands Vault has acquired 2 works from the Iridescence collection and 2 from the Space Invaders collection by Bruno Militelli. You can see the whole ForeverLands Vault collection on OpenSea at https://opensea.io/foreverlands.
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