Fabrizia is one of many women who found Expatclic on the net and contacted us to express their admiration for our work, and offer to give us a hand. In her case, the help was for proofreading and translating articles into English. Fabrizia is indeed bilingual, Italian and English, because her fascinating story makes her a true blend of cultures, places and unique lifestyle choices. We decided to introduce her to you during this special month on Photography and Expatriation because Fabrizia has recently started to make a career out of photography, albeit with a particular touch. But before explaining what Fabrizia does, and how, I will tell you how she arrived where she is today, and what took her to Innsbruck, the Austrian town where she currently lives with her husband and her two daughters.
Austrian and partly Swedish is her mother, while her father comes from Cremona. Fabrizia was born and raised in Milan, and was then sent to England to study at a boarding school. After completing her higher studies in Architectural Design, she decided to return to Milan to take advantage of the artistic movement in the design world of the 80s, and worked in that field for a time. She then joined the editing team of Anna, a woman magazine, where she took care of images for the beauty section. Coming into contact with some of the greatest photographers of that time, she learnt much from their skill and passion.
Time passed and the first daughter of Fabrizia, who is now nineteen, was born, and with her the decision to quit work to devote herself full time to her work as a mom. A second daughter followed, and Milan was becoming increasingly tight for this family of artists (Fabrizia’s husband works with music). They started looking around for an alternative. Initially they took England into consideration: Fabrizia’s mother had moved to the UK after her second marriage to an Englishman, but the place did not convince them completely, and they had doubts about the quality of life for their young daughters. Austria became the strongest candidate, as a country that Fabrizia felt connected to – not only through her mother, but also because during her childhood she went to Tirol every year on vacation. She knew the culture well and it felt a bit like home to her.
Therefore, four years ago, they all moved to Innsbruck. Fabrizia was at the forefront to help the whole family to settle in and find their own pace, a full-time occupation in itself. Her limited knowledge of German also made it difficult to find work. Time passed while they all settled, and her German improved. The daughters grew up, and Fabrizia began considering the idea of taking back control of her professional life.
The passion for photography had never left her, and she made no secret of it. One day a friend invited her to take scenes photos for a movie he was filming. Fabrizia arrived on the set and realized that this was a serious and professional movie, and that the task was a big challenge for her, especially because she was afraid of not getting good results with her “family” camera. The result was very good!
Encouraged by this success, and surprised to rediscover herself so comfortable with a camera in her hand, Fabrizia decides to build a website and starts seriously looking around for work in this field. She had made friends with the owner of a bakery near her home, and since she loves her pastries, she offers to photograph them… and discovers that the owner was actually looking for a professional photographer to set up the new shop website. So comes her second professional job.
Fabrizia’s ideas are not limited to photographic production. Her website offers a great service: the restoration of old photos. The idea stems from the desire to do something with her sister, who is very gifted in photo restoration and retouching, something that binds the two sisters and somehow shortens the distance that separates them (Fabrizia’s sister lives in Genoa).
So they organize themselves to receive old photographs both physically (through snail mail), and in digital format. In the first case they scan and remodel them, often with interventions that allow a better yield in the print format, and send them back to the customer. This useful service of photo restoration is slowly catching on by word of mouth, while Fabrizia remains dedicated to her true passion: taking pictures.
She wants to focus mainly on portraits, but also expand into photojournalism and travel photographs. It ‘s too early to know how this beautiful adventure will end… Fabrizia, we wish you good luck, and we’ll be following you closely!
Claudia Landini (Claudiaexpat)
June 2012
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