To give you a little bit idea of who Vittorio Rossi is just take your time and read his biography which will shed some light later on why I shot his portraits the way I ended up shooting.
" Vittorio Rossi is a playwright, actor, director and screenwriter born in Montréal, Canada. He grew up in the district of Ville Emard. He graduated from Concordia University in 1985 with a B.F.A. specializing in theatre performance. Rossi has earned the respect of the national theatre community with his award winning plays. Mr. Rossi stormed the Montréal theatre scene with two consecutive Best New Play Awards at the Quebec Drama Festival with Little Blood Brother in 1986 and Backstreets in 1987. His plays have been produced in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, New York City, Boston, Syracuse and The Stratford Festival in Ontario.
In 1987 Rossi became Playwright-in-Residence at Montréal’s prestigious Centaur Theatre, during which time he wrote his first full length play, The Chain, which opened Centaur’s 20th anniversary season in October 1988. The show was then produced at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Other plays include: Scarpone, In Pursuit Of A Cow, The Last Adam, (winner of the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Drama in 1996), Love and Other Games, Filumena (Translation), Paradise By The River. His latest work may be his most ambitious work to date, a collection of three plays inspired by the life of his late father entitled A Carpenter’s Trilogy. The three plays include Hellfire Pass (winner of the MECCA Award for Best New Text in 2006), Carmela’s Table (winner of the MECCA Award for Best New Text in 2007), and The Carpenter.
Rossi was Writer-in-Residence at Concordia University in 1990-91 where he also taught playwriting. He is also the recipient of the 1994 Premio Award given by CIBPA (Canadian Italian Business Professionals Association) in the field of Creativity for bringing honour and distinction to the Italian-Canadian community with his body of work. In 2003 Mr. Rossi taught screenwriting at the University of Sherbrooke.
As an actor, Rossi appeared as a regular as Dino Marrone on Urban Angel and as Detective Tom Celano in the award-winning French-language television series Omertá. His film credits include performances in the CBS Emmy Award-winning Day One, and the critically acclaimed feature Malarek. Rossi was also a co-star in Le Sphinx and played the lead in the film Canvas starring opposite Gary Busey and John Rhys-Davies. His most recent work was co-starring in the feature film The Timekeeper. He has written several screenplays and has directed a film version of Little Blood Brother. His plays are published by TalonBooks."
So that day I had in front of me a prolific, intense yet a friendly, demanding yet kind actor to photograph. After our session, I offered him a glass of port and some small munches. He sat down next to me and watched me edit his photos. We talked and laughed as I continued doing my job as a photographer which was the second part of my job, editing the photos,. Which I think by the way is among the second most important part of the job.
Today I would like to share with you some of the results. Voila, Mr Rossi as the actor, as the playwright, the man behind his legendary persona in print.
And this what his comments were about my work:
"Hera is more than a photographer, she is an artist. She knows how to capture the essence of your personality. Her lighting is like a piece of sculpture fitted around your face and body.
She is capable of making you come alive in ways you did not think were possible."
Thank you Vito...
The shot above was chosen as the official head shot for the recent play St Leonard Chronicles at Centaur Theater of Montreal.
Studio Hera Bell, Montreal portrait photographer, Montreal Boudoir Photographer, Montreal glamour photographer, Montréal Hera Bell, Black nude model Montreal fashion photographer
