31 May Interview: Antoine Buttafoghi
AntoineButtafoghi
Photographer
I trained myself in graphic design about 25 years ago, and since then I’ve been teaching image-making and related techniques at the university and in major art schools. I also teach digital photography. About 15 years ago, I felt the urge to move from…
NIPA Featured Artist
It is both my language and my refuge. A way to slow down the world and whisper to it: “Wait, I want to truly look at…
A conversation with Antoine Buttafoghi.
I trained myself in graphic design about 25 years ago, and since then I’ve been teaching image-making and related techniques at the university and in major art schools. I also teach digital photography. About 15 years ago, I felt the urge to move from…
The Interview
This NIPA feature brings together the artist’s reflections, selected works, and visual material in a long-form interview format.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and how your journey into photography began?
I trained myself in graphic design about 25 years ago, and since then I’ve been teaching image-making and related techniques at the university and in major art schools. I also teach digital photography. About 15 years ago, I felt the urge to move from Photoshop to photography itself. The transition felt completely natural. I had always dreamed of photography since childhood, but I started rather late… because I had another all-consuming passion (music). But I’m making up for lost time!
What truly moves and inspires you as an artist?
I’m moved by anything that reveals a fragile moment, a suspended instant, a balance of shapes, a harmony of colors. I look for those moments when reality is pierced by something almost sacred, something timeless. And of course, humanity itself.
How would you describe your photographic style, and how has it evolved over time?
My work is often very graphic and minimal. For a long time, I chased after the perfect form. But one must accept that the world’s disorder is sometimes the most beautiful ally — you simply have to embrace it. You have to remain open to poetic accidents, to the breath within the image.
Who or what has had the biggest influence on your artistic vision?
It’s difficult to pinpoint. I believe style is born in childhood, in the way we see and feel things. Everything else is just layers added on top — at least, that’s how it seems to me. But if I had to name photographers whose work I deeply admire, I would say: Andreas Gursky, Steve McCurry, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Vivian Maier (especially her color work), Saul Leiter, Fan Ho…
What is your relationship with your camera and equipment?
I see my camera as a traveling companion, both reliable and discreet. You need to feel a certain complicity with the camera when you hold it, because it is an extension of your gaze. In a photograph, before speaking about others, we speak about ourselves — about who we are, how we see and apprehend the world.
What’s the story behind your winning photograph?
This series was born in the heart of Sicily, in Enna, in May 2025, during the Easter celebrations. I was fortunate to experience two days of fog during the processions. The city was wrapped in a sacred veil. I felt that something deeper than a simple ritual was unfolding — an intimate struggle between flesh and mystery. My series *Nebbie* (Fog) tells the story of this suspended breath, this moment when faith, mist, and humanity merge into one.
What was the most important decision you made when creating this image?
For this series, I often chose to stay very close, almost touching the penitents, to capture that blend of effort, fervor, and surrender.
How did you use light, composition, or emotion to bring your vision to life?
The diffused light of the fog acted as a natural filter, erasing the superfluous and sculpting only the essential. I composed the images the way one constructs a breath: a few strong lines, bodies in tension, and the mist giving the gestures a timeless quality. The emotion came from the cadence of the steps, from that strange softness within penitence, and from the diffuse, eternal light. Often, at the moment of pressing the shutter, I felt as if I were inside a Renaissance painting — all I had to do was freeze the instant.
What do you hope people feel or think when they see this photo?
I hope they feel as though they’re stepping into an ancient dream. That they sense the weight of tradition and the lightness of the fog. And perhaps that they discover something of themselves within this theater of silhouettes.
What does photography mean to you on a personal level?
It is both my language and my refuge. A way to slow down the world and whisper to it: “Wait, I want to truly look at you.” It allows me to preserve fleeting emotions — the ones that vanish before they’re even understood.
What message or idea do you want your work to communicate to the world?
That even in the simplest places, in the humblest gestures, there exists a fierce beauty. And that by looking differently, one can touch something deeply human, sometimes even spiritual.
What was your first reaction when you found out you won a NIPA award?
A mix of joy and gratitude!
What are your upcoming projects or dreams for the future?
To continue exploring rituals, the invisible boundaries between the sacred and the everyday. To prepare a more immersive exhibition, where photography interacts with sound and text. And of course to keep traveling, wherever the light still has stories to tell.
What are your thoughts on NIPA, and is there any suggestion or idea you’d like to share to help us make it even better in the future?
NIPA offers a rare space: a place where the image is not simply shown but celebrated. I particularly appreciate the attention given to artists and the sensitivity of the selections.
It is both my language and my refuge. A way to slow down the world and whisper to it: “Wait, I want to truly look at…
Images from the Photographer
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