After receiving a scholarship to attend the workshop of Constantine Manos and Stella Johnson of Magnum Agency many things changed (or not?).

I met wonderful people, most unknown, some known (Stone Phillips of NBC and his wonderful family) all united under a greek sun, the beautiful city of Chania in Crete, delicious food, gallons of alcohol, many rolls of film and of course our teachers and mentors.

The truth is the workshop was a documentary one. I was lucky that Stella realized the different nature of my work and let me free to choose my path. Everything what they asked in a photograph was an absolute absurdity for me, too many people in the same frame, hands chopped, heads chopped, legs chopped, a heel of a shoe, everything in focus, never someone looking at the camera, no verticals, no , no no no and so many other obsessions that defined a not so hardly reproducible style of photography, but one that initially posed so many limitations that the joy of making something you really "need" is gone.

After the shock unity came, letting all easy things apart we found that all these served one single thing. The natural, straight photograph that comes close (really close) to someone's face capturing what the eye sees and the way it sees it, communicating a sincere story, a slice of life of a place and its inhabitants.

The next couple of photographs were shot during this workshop. My eye has changed, my horizons are broader.