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Telling Identity Through Photography — And Why Analog Film Makes It Possible

Date: March 25, 2025

Identity is not a fixed shape.
It shifts, expands, retracts, hides, reveals, and transforms. A photograph, when it is honest, does not try to define identity — it tries to honor it. Over the years, working with major fashion brands, shooting editorials, lookbooks, redazionali, and developing my personal artistic projects, I’ve learned that the deepest portraits come from a place of listening rather than control.

And if there is one medium that encourages this listening, it is analog photography.

Film slows everything down.
It removes the noise.
It forces presence.
It invites the subject to inhabit themselves fully — not a version of themselves they’ve rehearsed for the camera.

For me — Niccolò Barone — analog photography has become a way to explore identity in its most vulnerable and powerful form.

Hasselblad 500 c/m - Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f 1:2.8 - Kodak Tmax 400 film Processed in Xtol (1:1 @ 24°) standard
Scan from reversed neg - © Niccolò Barone - All rights reserved

Identity Is Not What We See — It’s What We Recognize

The first thing I understood, very early in my career, is that identity is not something you “capture”.
It is something that appears on its own terms.

Working for established fashion brands taught me discipline, precision, and the sensitivity required to photograph people under pressure and in structured environments. Yet it was through my personal analog work — exhibited in shows such as “No Man’s Territory” (Fotografia Europea / Circuito OFF) and through long-term artistic research — that I began to understand identity as something that lives in transitions:

a breath
a gesture
a hesitation
a quiet moment between poses

Digital photography demands clarity.
Analog photography reveals complexity.

Identity doesn’t show up in perfection.
It shows up in the unguarded.

Why Analog Photography Reveals What Digital Often Hides

The strength of analog film lies in its limitations — limitations that, paradoxically, open the door to truth.

1. Time Slows Down

When I shoot with my Pentax 67II, my older Pentax 6×7, or a 4×5 large-format camera, everything becomes deliberate.
Nothing is rushed. The subject feels that slowness too.

This is where identity appears.
Not in the directed pose, but in the way a person settles after the pose.
Not in the first expression, but in the second, quieter one that follows.

2. No Instant Feedback

Without a digital preview, the subject is not distracted by self-judgment.
They stop performing.
They begin to be.

This is essential in the editorial and fashion world, where people are often conditioned to maintain a certain image. Film breaks that conditioning. It creates intimacy.

3. Imperfection Makes Space for Humanity

Grain, soft focus, velature, slight movements — all these “flaws” give the image a texture that feels closer to memory than documentation.

Identity is not sharp.
Identity is textured.

Identity in Fashion Photography: A Tension Between Self and Representation

Fashion photography has always lived in a tension between:

what the brand wants to say
and who the person truly is

Shooting for major brands — both in Italy and abroad — I’ve learned that even inside commercial structures, there are moments where identity emerges unexpectedly. A model, between shots, relaxes her shoulders. A hand falls naturally. A gaze softens. A breath becomes visible.

I hold onto those moments.
Often, they become the most meaningful photographs in the entire collection.

In editorials, identity becomes narrative.
In lookbooks, identity becomes clarity and coherence.
In redazionali, identity becomes the emotional structure behind the styling.
In my personal analog research, identity becomes vulnerability and exploration.

Across all these fields, the constant is the same:
identity reveals itself when the person feels seen, not managed.

Analog helps me create that condition.

Artistic Research and the Search for Inner Truth

My passion for art — from Renaissance painting to contemporary photography — has shaped the way I interpret identity in my work. I’m not interested in surfaces. I’m interested in interiority.

When I exhibited series such as Fragile Soul or the intimate work from No Man’s Territory, many viewers commented that the subjects felt “present”, “luminous”, “unprotected and strong at the same time”.
That duality is the heart of identity.

Analog film carries that duality effortlessly:

highlights that glow
shadows that breathe
imperfections that communicate
tones that feel like skin, not pixels

Large format, in particular, becomes a psychological mirror.
The subject cannot escape themselves — and neither can I.

Pentax 67II - SMC Takumar 105mm - Portra 400 pushed to 800 iso - film Processed in C-41 standard
Scan from neg - © Niccolò Barone - All rights reserved

My Process: A Dialogue, Not a Capture

Whether photographing fashion, glamour, editorial, or personal work, my process is always based on a simple principle:

Identity emerges when the photographer stops trying to control and begins to witness.

On set, this means:

working slowly
letting silence shape the session
allowing the model or subject to explore the space
noticing the micro-expressions that reveal emotional truth
treating the camera as a collaborator, not a weapon

My years in the fashion world taught me precision.
My years in the art world taught me vulnerability.
Film allows me to combine both.

Why Identity Matters More Today Than Ever

We live in a time of visual saturation — infinite images, infinite faces, infinite masks.
Identity becomes diluted.
Everything begins to look the same.

Analog photography, in contrast, creates singularity.

Each frame becomes a unique event:
a gesture that cannot be repeated
a piece of light that belonged only to that instant
a truth that appears once and disappears again

This is what gives analog photography its power in contemporary fashion and portraiture.
It resists the flattening of identity.
It brings back depth.
It honors complexity.

dgt shot

Conclusion: Identity as Encounter

In the end, telling identity through photography — especially analog photography — is not about defining someone.
It is about meeting them.

Every roll of film I shoot, every editorial, every lookbook, every exhibition, every personal project is part of this long conversation between the visible and the invisible.

Analog photography is not just my tool.
It is my way of recognizing — and honoring — the immense, fragile, powerful complexity of who we are.

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