The Curiosity of Strangers : The Street Photography of Francesco Gioia

The Curiosity of Strangers : The Street Photography of Francesco Gioia.

Why are we so fascinated by the mood, rush and tear of the city, the wild, the innocent and the E Street shuffle (to pay quick and fleeting homage to Bruce Springsteen).

Surrounded by people, aren’t we just a little curious about who they are, where they are heading, what they do for a living? We play games on underground trains. The smartly-dressed man with the colourful tie, we decide, is an accountant or a lawyer, when he is actually a retail worker in the men’s department of a well-known store. The girl in the pretty dress, we think, is a model, when she actually works at McDonalds (her uniform hidden in her rucksack).

The city and its streets are the existential hub of the whole human universe for most of us. Artificial environments created by us…for us.

“Although my first approach to photography was when I was still living in Florence,” Street photographer Francesco Gioia tells Street Photography dot Com. “It was only when I arrived in London that things started to get serious. I fell in love with its crazy rhythm, and the energy I saw on the streets seduced and swallowed me up. I felt the need to capture what I saw.”

His work endorses this. Not only does the city streets, in his capable hands, have vigour and panache, they also have events, incidents, happenings.

Copyright ⓒ Francesco Gioia

Two young women, apparently, falling against a dark car? Are they lovers, perhaps, or has one simply fallen over and the other is now on her knees attempting to help her? The two women are surrounded by cameras, while the driver of the car looks at them completely bemused.

“I love when a photograph leaves you with more questions than answers,” Francesco says playfully. “I took this during the Extinction Rebellion protest in London. The scene tells you exactly what is going on. More or less. I took something like 40 to 50 photos of that scene because it kept evolving. I was also there to support the protesters.”

Mr Gioia is not only creating art, he is also part of the artistic endeavour given his association with the activists. Part of a very existential human installation of activism and…art?

Born in Florence, Francesco Gioia was initially employed with a photojournalism agency.

“I curated a very rich historical archive of over three million images,” He said of his work in Italy. “Taken from 1944 to the early 1980s by the founder Giulio Torrini, who captured half a century of Florence’s history. It was an honour for me to work in that place. That’s also where I learned the basics of photography. After that, in 2015, I moved to London where I currently live.”

Inspired by people like the Czech-French photographer Joseph Koudelka, the Belgian Harry Gruyaert and the New York born Gary Winogrand, Gioia found himself prowling the streets of London where he was able to capture great shots like the Extinction Rebellion ladies above.

It shows a sharp imaginative streak to his photography, he could have, after all, simply shot head on or crowd scenes from the XR protest.

“Discovering street photography,” He revealed. “Has been like opening up to unknown perspectives from which to look at life. It allows me to go through life abandoning myself to the seduction of the mystery with the comfort of knowing that it can be assimilated by reason.”

Copyright ⓒ Francesco Gioia

A lady stares out from the passenger’s side of a very posh car. She looks distant, as if wallowing in some reverie but she has also spied, and in turn looks curiously at the photographer poised to capture her soul. ‘Who is he? Why does he want to take a photograph of me?’

“This photograph was taken after a long day out shooting with my girlfriend,” Francesco recalled. “We were heading back to Green Park station when I noticed this amazing vintage car at the traffic lights. Next to the driver, this lady looked like she was immersed in her own thoughts and I took some pictures of her. Simple photograph and also dangerous. I was almost hit by a car after taking this. Remember, safety first!”

And, we go deeper as we search for that key that opens the gateway to great street photography.

“When I shoot in the street the world presents itself to my eyes as a gigantic spectacle,” Gioia says wistfully, reminding me of Joshua Jackson’s wonderful observation of the city being a giant movie set. “ Free and wonderful, a kind of boundless breathing amoeba, where everything lives, including me. This enormous flow of life and energy leads me to notice different things each time.”

Interesting that Francesco, once again has this existential outlook on his work. But he also quickly adds:

“I can’t tell you what I am looking for when I am out there. The streets, the people and the different circumstances teach me what I am curious about.”

Copyright ⓒ Francesco Gioia

A well dressed man in dark glasses and otherwise normal ‘looking’ fellow, looks straight ahead as Gioia snaps him. But notice how he gives the street photographer the finger.

“Oh yeah,” Francesco remembers. “The standard street photographer greeting! This photograph was taken outside Oxford Circus Station during a very beautiful day in September 2019. I remember I saw this man walking down the street and took a picture of him but didn’t really make too much of it at first. It was only later that day when reviewing the photos that I noticed the finger. If he only knew he made the photo better…”

Francesco Gioia is a fascinating street photographer, he thinks harder about his art than. About what he does and what he hopes to achieve. In a way that feeds my own curiosity and I feel at ease with him.

His philosophy is simple and built around his emotions as he wades camera deep in the great ocean of humanity – oh, I know that sounds like an awful cliché but I think it is needed here.

“It’s like plunging into the darkness every single time,” He says of when he takes his camera out to search for photographic opportunities. “I feel more protected from all that… and I am more at ease in uncertain, faded situations and I think it’s because of this natural attitude of mine that sometimes the unusual or the extravagant, are waiting for me around the corner.

“That walking in the street, that wandering aimlessly, with things, colours, people, shadows, lights and faces that parade silently beyond the windows [of] shops, has always had the power to place me in an indefinable point of myself, where moments, sensations and presentiments arise spontaneously.”

I take my time to reflect on this and ponder my own theory that in searching for the next chance to take/make a photograph, we, as street photographers, are really out there searching for ourselves?

Copyright ⓒ Francesco Gioia

“It was a very cold, late afternoon in central London,” Francesco started up again. “I was crossing the street and it suddenly started raining. This lady in front of me quickly covered her head with a newspaper she was carrying and I only had few seconds to react to the situation. The street was so crowded that a moment later she had disappeared.”

Now that, for me, is poetic. A street photography narrative from one of its masters.

TO SEE MORE VISIT Francesco gioia  & On Instagram

Francesco Gioia mainly uses a Fujifilm X100F and X-Pro3. He adds that he loves using the 23mm and the 35mm on the X-Pro3 as the Fujifilm X100F has a fixed lens. He also loves shooting film with a Nikon F3 with 35mm and 50mm, and also uses an Olympus XA2.