By Adele Haraughty and Jane Fochler

Photo by Simone Ballerini

This past Thursday, October 19th at Corridoio Fiorentino, the student gallery of the Department of Photography at Florence University of the Arts, opened the FACES exhibition featuring portrait photographs taken by Simone Ballerini.

Simone Ballerini is a commercial lifestyle photographer based in Florence, Italy. He began photographing using the most basic natural/available light, then he wanted to represent his subject in a more professional, artistic way so he began learning everything he could about recognizing great light and the use of flash. Simone Ballerini has always been drawn to portraits, “Since my first snapshots I started noticing that a person, a face would always be the reason why I raised the camera to my eye and that I couldn’t take a decent landscape picture if my life depended on it.”

During the event, Simone Ballerini explained the meaning behind his photographs. Each photograph represents a personal portrait of someone who was brought into his life for a reason, which includes present and past relationships, and people in his life that he has shared great stories with. Ballerini explains that portraits have always been his first love, ever since that moment, he knew that shooting portraits was what he was meant to do.

Ballerini said that his most memorable portrait from this photography exhibition was the photo of his Grandmother with the apple on her head. She passed away last year and was always willing to help him with his photography whether it be to try new lighting or poses.

The FACES exhibition included a variety of portraits with a personal meaning behind each photo.

Simone Ballerini showed his passion for photography through each individual portrait.