An interview with Claudia Rocchini

I had the honour of being awarded first prize for my photography at a national competition from Agras Pet Food who are the owners of the brand Schesir, among others. The winner was given the unique opportunity to stand in front of the camera with their favourite cat.

I also work as a volunteer. During the Covid pandemic, I brought to life the Facebook webpage ‘Aiutiamole ad Aiutarli’ for everyone who has worked tirelessly taking care of stray cats in cat shelters and have now lost their job because of the pandemic and are no longer able to afford cat food. The idea is simple and effective: no fundraising, just calls to provide these cat helpers directly with food. In just one month, it was a huge success to be able to organise food for five cat shelters.

I photograph on a black background because it accentuates the structure and texture of cat fur. The black background gives the impression that the animal is floating in an empty room, a method used by numerous photographers. I wanted to create my own unique personal style. That’s why I decided on a background that is black and at the same time shiny, which creates an atmospheric mirror effect that can be accentuated or reduced depending on what kind of atmosphere I am looking for. I named this style ‘Reflex Cats’ because of the pun with the word ‘reflex’ for reflection and single lens reflex camera.

Just like a good SLR camera and a high-end lens, an EIZO monitor is something I had wanted for a long time. When I started my career, I was not able to afford such high investment costs and had to focus on buying the necessary photography equipment first. As my professional career progressed and I received more contracts for art printing, my desire for a more powerful monitor grew due to a lot of lost time in the printing process; I was almost always forced to be physically present in at the printer, in order to control the required colour fidelity. Nevertheless, I pushed back the purchase again and again with the false notion that it was less of a necessity and more of a luxury.

However, the following event pushed me to finally buy one. A number of years ago, I was working for a magazine that dealt with historical photography, to which I sent my photos. However, the colours on the paper were not the way I had envisioned them. I was certain that my colour management workflow was correct and so I asked for their printer’s colour profile, believing that the problem had to be on their side. The photo editor, who was also a graphic designer, called me and said, “The problem is not with the printer. You’re not seeing all the colours on your photos. And when you can’t see them, you are not aware that they exist, let alone able to handle them properly. The only thing I can suggest is that you invest in a wide-gamut EIZO monitor.”

That’s how I learned my lesson, or to put it more simply, how I understood what I had done wrong. When I started to open files with the new monitor that had been worked on with the old one, to put it lightly, I was shocked by the inconsistencies.