Fulvio Bugani – Leica Oskar Barnark Award Finalist

One of Leica’s M10 International Ambassador, Fulvio Bugani has recently made his round of South East Asia Workshops. During his stopover in Kuala Lumpur recently, we has a chance to catch up with him here at Leica Store in Avenue K in the city.

When we asked him to describe which type of photographer he is, Fulvio responded and says he is a “photographer”, not to be described as a specific type of photographer, just a photographer that shoots all sorts of situations.

According to him, it is about yourself expressing through photography. His passion for photography started at a young age when his grandparents showed him the old family photos that have a lot of emotions in it, and up to today, his photography works still has a lot of emotional elements in it.

When Fulvio was 21 years old, he started to collaborate with two photo studios to enter the right path in this photo career. Then in 1999, Fulvio took the leap to establish his own studio, Photo Image. In 2003, he focuses his attention on reportage and documentary photography and collaborate with many NGOs in African countries. 

Asked if he has a specific shooting style, Fulvio said he change his style from time to time. Currently, he likes to shoot mature photos with a lot of details in it. For an example, apart from the main subject, every part in his picture, such as the foreground, mid ground and the background will have a lot of details and stories of its own in it. For short, it’s complexity. Even when shooting portrait, it got to have a lot of details in it too.

With the Leica experience, Fulvio started off with the Leica Q that has a fixed focal lens. For his shooting style, the Leica Q suits him. It’s small, not intimidating to carry around when shooting in sensitive locations. With the introduction of the Leica M10, Fulvio has fallen in love immediately all over again. The Leica M10 has great processing power and improved ISO to start off with. It gives him good colour with powerful raw processing power. As for the improved ISO, Fulvio now managed to shoot in dimmer back lanes and indoor where light doesn’t cooperate, he can still find his focus fast and gives good colour. The dials was neatly placed for accessing important setting and functions within a couple of moves.

When asked about his favourite lens, Fulvio says he only carry one lens wherever he goes, his favourite 28mm Summilux F1.4, that’s all he uses. It has a good focal length for everything, from landscape to street to portraits. This lens has the perfect focal length to have all the details to fit into it and he is able to find his “vision” with this lens to capture his complexity.

In many of his assignments, Fulvio said one of his most memorable moments was in Kenya when he presented a print to his subject and she cried. According to him, it was a remote village and he photographed some of their portraits, and three years later, he returned to the village to look for them with prints when he was having new assignments there. They cried because a foreigner come knocking their doors after three years to deliver their pictures.

For aspiring photographers, especially Leica users, Fulvio said one need to study, a lot of study of how a picture can be captured. Study your vision to create your masterpiece, it’s not easy, just keep doing it and one day you will be getter and better.

Visit Fulvio’s site at www.fulviobugani.com for his recent awards and works.

Enjoy some of his works with his favourite Leica 28mm lens.