Paolo Barretta, also knows as « I am winter » is an Italian photographer and musician. « I’ve always been interested to Art since I was a kid. I can even not imagine my life without developing a concept, an idea or a memory through Photography and Music. I like to share my feelings with the world. » he tells us.

This artist started studying Photography in high school. « After I got graduated, in 2018, I arrived to be one of the ten contestants of the Sky Arts Master of Photography. I worked with famous photographers from all over the world. » he explains us.

« My first photographs – which are a part of my « I am winter » project – started some years ago with the purpose of coming back feeling things again. I was in a very weird period, I felt so lost. I remember clearly how I tried so hard to do everything I could in order to makes me feel alive again, to know that I had a purpose. I had a break about photography between the end of my studies and the birth of « I am winter ». All the things happened in the middle were a black hole to me. Changing cities, finding jobs, losing jobs, falling in love, saying goodbye… I was constantly disappointed by not having found my path as photographer. I started thinking that maybe I wasn’t enough good, enough brave, enough strong… I have been living like that for almost two years. And then something changed. I came back home to my family and I started feeling things, all sort of, and I needed with all myself to represent them in some way.  I took my camera for the first time in two years. I started taking pictures, I wanted to tell my story. My stories. My photography talks about this : It’s about loneliness and love. It’s about how to be in love with our sadness, our way to feel so small in the world. » he explains to us.

With his photographs, Paolo just wants us to remember that we are not alone with our feelings and emotions. « I want my community to read my words, to see my pictures and to feel understood. I want to let them know that we’re not alone. I receive hundred and hundred of messages of people just thanking me about how they feel less alone, just to know there’s somebody in the world who feels the same. This is the most important thing to me : sharing all myself with people and having no filters. I think there’s nothing better than being ourselves. No lying about who we are. Accepting. Accepting also the bad things. Accepting to feel lost, sometimes. To feel alone, but knowing there’s always a light upon us. » he finally says.