Working for FMR is very demanding. Because of its reputation, this publisher always needs to create something exciting.
“We have already done everything on Parma and the Palazzo Ducale, but the sponsor for this book is our best client. Figure something out,” said Franco Maria Ricci when he commissioned me the pictures of the gardens of the Palazzo Ducale di Parma.

A really demanding job

After many years, things have not changed. For FRM, we had to shoot the facade of the Cathedral of Orvieto, one of the most famous and most photographed monuments in the world. What could we do? How could we create something never seen before? After a thorough research of the existent material, we realized that no orthogonal picture of the facade had been taken before. Few existed of the rose window or of the bas-reliefs and almost none, except for the small ones in the tour guides, of the beautiful timpano.

After starting the shoot the reason became obvious. There is not enough space for an orthogonal shooting, the rose window and the bas-reliefs had many lighting problems, and the timpano is more than 108ft high.
Even using a tripod that can reach 50ft, the shoot was difficult. The many different cable and the small space we were working in did not help.

How I worked

The general picture was taken by using the prototype of a Manofrotto motorized head, which we were testing, by pasting different shots.
The beautiful “Original sin” picture was taken with a 20ft tripod.
For many others, like the timpano, we were helped by the wonderful three-dimensional result given by the Hasselblad Zeiss Superachromat. Ixpress digital backs did the rest.

Assistente: Andrea Cracco