Street photography is like a diamond: a single object with many facets, each reflecting the light in its own, unique way. Fabrizio Quagliuso (a.k.a. fabuchan) has earned the right to call himself a street photographer because the street is his studio; but the facet of the art form he practises transcends reportage and takes the viewer to a place that is both universal and timeless. His vision and talent enable him to photograph the commonplace and show it to us in a way we have never seen before; but this is not transformation for the sake of transformation; it is an exploration of the very essence of the subject. When you see his image of a young woman in a plaid skirt and matching scarf standing on a railway platform in Tokyo, shot from behind, you become that young woman and suddenly you realise that you understand everything that she understands; you feel everything that she feels right at that moment. Such is the power of his image.
Street photography depicts fragments of day-to-day urban life with its drama, its irony, its incongruity and its power. The street photographer spends his time observing, listening to the street and chasing those moments that may seem, at first glance, so ordinary that most of us would overlook them; yet somehow they each encapsulate a fundamental truth about the way we live our lives and interact with our world. Without the work of street photographers like Fabrizio, many of these truths would go unobserved and therefore, untold.
Fabrizio believes that the world around us is full of wonders and surprises. But as a photographer, he does more than simply catalogue these moments. He weaves them together into a worldview. There is homogeneity in Fabrizio’s work that makes it instantly recognisable but his style is more than a question of technique. At a deeper level, his style is an expression of how he feels about his subject, translated into an image that conveys that feeling to the viewer. fabuchan has the gift of being able to invest each of his images with something of himself; and this is what defines his style. His work is not just a portrayal of what he has observed; it is an expression of what that observation has made him feel. And when you view his body of work, you are not just seeing a keenly observed compilation of memorable moments; you are also seeing a portrait of the inner man who calls himself fabuchan.
by Keith Munro | photo by Catfordst32
For a short biography and other information, please see the bio & info page.
