Meet Francesca | Photographer and Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Francesca and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Francesca, what makes you happy? Why?
I am happy when I photograph the street in New York City and connect with its people. I am happy when my street portraits, born out of fortuitous encounters, succeed in depicting the city as well as the human condition combining my documentary approach with my own point of view and my love for writing.
My photography is closely related to the map of New York and to an inner map that I have created by walking these streets for over 25 years. Getting to know the Big Apple has been a parallel journey to getting to know myself here. My encounter with photography is intertwined with the city, and walking and breathing in its streets. When I photograph I align with my feelings and decipher my thoughts and the world around me.
For specific events or portraits it’s also a way to connect with others, and in the course of this process the city emerges.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
In my creative process I see the importance of place and chance. Going back through my contact sheets and files I find the same street photographed over and over again. I am walking somewhere but also walking into a stage. The subjects of my photos burst onto the scene I have chosen. The encounter is unpredictable: it can be physical, literally face to face, or internal, entirely mine with my thoughts, feelings and memories. I like this randomness, the crossing of paths that brings people together. As in Borges’ story Funes el memorioso, in which the protagonist remembers everything he has done in his life, when I pick a place for an appointment, seemingly at random, behind it lies the memory of every time I walked there, every encounter and every photo I took there. When I choose a path over another, or I pick a certain place for a shooting I feel like I remember seeing it in every light, in every temperature, in every season.
A writer I photographed, Colson Whitehead, in the Colossus of New York talks about a similar feeling when one remembers the stratification of shops, encounters, moods, street corners. He argues that one becomes a New Yorker when what was there before is more real and solid to them than what is there now.
The streets make coincidence happen and sometimes offer a book or another object that I pick up, something I needed, or something I did not know I needed. The same happens for a photo.
Of course, when choosing a location for a portrait session or shooting an assignment or covering an event, you can never predict exactly if a cloud will pass overhead, who will be running in the background, what people will feel when they see each other, what color are the clothes one will wear to the rendezvous, how the fabric will reflect the sun at that moment. This process, while documenting, is also poetic and revelatory. When it works it is precious to me, it allows for a merging of energy and expression.
I don’t think I have good advice for others, but when people ask me how to become a street photographer I usually reply that the best camera is the one you have on you right now: get rid of the cover lid and add one of those Cooph straps that make sudden movements fluid. I would also tell someone younger who comes to me with questions to be generally curious, read novels, look not only at photography shows, but also paintings, movies, read poetry and lose yourself in metrics, whether it’s a terzina or a line in a rap song. Explore art and pick something that moves you, and move with it.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When a friend visits the area I take them across the Williamsburg Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge, and on the NYC Ferry along the East River.
My routine and my itineraries vary over the days, months, years and seasons, depending on my errands and commitments. When I used to shoot black and white and print my prints I lived and worked for over a decade in the East Village. Then came Brooklyn: I was in Williamsburg for over a decade so during that time a long-term project about the Williamsburg Bridge (part of the route I took every day to get home) took shape. That series became an exhibition in 2017, called Il ponte rosa, in Québec, during Zoom, the Canadian photojournalism festival. A couple years ago I moved to Bedstuy; to get to the city from there, one crosses the Manhattan Bridge which became the background and the protagonist of another series, Il ponte blu, that I presented as a show in Berlin last spring and will now be traveling to Sydney.
I have always felt the street in New York presents me with the people, the images and the colors that resonate with what I am currently going through emotionally or psychologically. On a geographical level, since I am alone most of the time, the click of the camera and the final image end up also pinning a pin on the map of my steps.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to thank each person that supports my vision and helps me make my shows come to life.
I am also grateful to the people who connect with me in a genuine spontaneous way, when they appear in front of me every day.

In this particular moment I also want to acknowledge the power of inspiration and name a group of young women who are part of one of my series. The name of this collective is ImillaSkate, and they do something very simple yet powerful: they skate in a group wearing their traditional Bolivian outfits. Right now they are working on their dream to build a skatepark in their town of Cochabamba. Their message? The importance of getting up each time you fall.
I photographed them during their discovery of one of New York City’s most iconic places: a park that, fully covered in graffiti, occupies the space between the arches and the colonnades of the Manhattan Bridge, “Il ponte blu”. This area, rich with urban art and cultural history, serves as a lively canvas for self-expression, echoing the city’s dynamic spirit.
This encounter is an example of the connections and revelations that can happen through photography and the series has been picked to be shown next month in Australia, during Head On Festival in Sydney. I am trying to find the way to get there in person in order to present my work and amplify the collective’s message of resilience.

Website: https://www.francescamagnani.com

Instagram: @magnanina https://www.instagram.com/magnanina/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesca-magnani-4b60331b/

Image Credits
All images © Francesca Magnani @magnanina
Francesca Magnani’s portrait by Steven Stann @anotherguywithacamera