Tom Balog // Contributor
Gianmarco Iuele’s photos evoke a sense of calm, as if you’ve been invited by an old friend for a walk through town. Warm colours, curious characters and serene scenes are woven together through his photos, which were taken while wandering the streets of Italy, Croatia and the Pacific Northwest. A second-year CapU communications student, he also holds a Cinematography certificate.
Iuele is low-key. Not in the sense that he doesn’t have much going on, or doesn’t do things. Rather, he glides through the halls of CapU calm and collected, observing the happenings while not calling attention to himself. Kinda like when a poker player has a substantial hand and knows things should work out.
He doesn’t consider himself a photographer but rather someone who likes to take photos. Equipped with his grandfather’s (then father’s, now his) 35mm camera patched up with hockey tape to stop light leaks, his photos are subtly humorous and contradictory. A nun is shown staring through the breasts of a billboard model, a senior gazing out into space with a look of despair or boredom is captured. His work reveals the poetry of everyday moments that might otherwise go unnoticed. There’s a warmth to the colour pallet of his photos that welcomes you in gazing further into each photograph. If his film camera isn’t around, he’ll use what he has closest to him—cell phone or otherwise. “I just like to capture moments, I don’t like to think too much with what I am shooting with,” he said.
As a kid, Iuele was given an old camcorder and started messing around and looking at the world through the lens. Taking photographs can be invasive without asking for permission, but often when we do so, the magic of the moment is lost. “The world throws you an ally-oop, and you just have to finish it,” Iuele contemplated. “Sometimes you hit the rim, sometimes you score. Impulsive, unrehearsed and instinctual—it’s like working with an unpredictable artist.”
Follow Gianmarco Iuele on Instagram @giannimarx