We recently connected with Alessandro Sarno and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Alessandro thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I discovered photography late in life. For the first years I kept shooting and shooting without knowing what to do with the photos I was taking. Everything started to change after I had a conversation with an old friend of mine. She told me to focus and set a goal of sales for the year. I did, it was $3,000. But still had no idea how to reach that amount, small but big at the same time. This was, I recon 5 years ago. I started to be more focused and use my sales skill, learnt from past professional experiences. I started to sell prints to decorate homes and publish coffee table books with my photos of the Bahamas. If I look back of what I achieved it feels almost like a miracle, but it’s not; it’s consistency and focus with a splash of luck!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Alessandro Sarno is a photographer born and raised in Italy. Twelve years ago he made his first trip to The Bahamas, and it was a trip that changed his life. Mesmerized by the incredible blue waters, he was compelled to buy his first camera. What started out as a short vacation transformed into a deep love for both photography and for the The Bahamas, where he still feels most inspired to capture everyday moments of life. Sarno has published six coffee table books portraying life in the islands: Cat Island— Diamonds and Rust, Exumas—The Kingdom of Blue, Eleuthera— The Garden of Freedom, Junkanoo–The Spirit of a People, Catch Da Cat, and Blue and Beyond. Sarno’s work has been featured in many group shows in The Bahamas and the United States, including Art Ft. Lauderdale’s January 2020 Art Fair on the Water. A special exhibit of Sarno’s Bahamian portraits is on at The Betsy Hotel in Miami Beach this Fall. Sarno’s photography focuses on the details and crossroads of daily life:community gatherings, worship services, wildlife, vistas of solitude, rhythms of connection, a forgotten corner, an unexpected treasure, small details illuminating humanity’s vastness. His personal notes and thoughts on exploring and finding the people and places that make for a more memorable and deeper visitor experience (beyond the usual routes) are found in his unique curated photographic books: The Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park and in Eleuthera, White Bull on the Highway. His passion for travel and being in the moment opens Sarno up to fully experiencing the places and people he meets along the way. “I believe that once a scene or portrait is captured and framed into a photograph, it is elevated to a higher dimension, to a limbo between reality and imagination. It becomes visual poetry, where words are replaced by shapes, spaces, colors, lines, light, and shadows.” Enjoying the distinctive energy of each new person or landscape he encounters, Sarno considers photography his ongoing travel companion. His artistic name, “The Lonesome Photographer” draws inspiration from the classic road-less-traveled book, Lonesome Traveler, by novelist and poet, Jack Kerouac.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
FREEDOM. I feel and I am free each time I express myself through my photos. The best feeling ever.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I take inspiration from everything I see around me. Even things that seem to have no relation at all with my creative mean. But the book that changed my life was “The Decisive Moment” by Henri Cartier-Bresson. I have seen an exhibition about that book in New York, and it completely opened my eyes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shop.thelonesomephotographer.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thelonesomephotographer/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandroesarno/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9qysv0myk2OhaEP9gQbdkQ
- Other: https://www.thelonesomephotographer.com/