biography

thomas pagani, born in Milano in 1997.I always pursued art: I studied traditional painting, then shifted to game design by enrolling in a three-year course at Event Horizon, a digital art school.From 2019 to 2022, with the help of some wonderful people, I founded Team SolEtude: through it, we experimented with interactivity and storytelling, exploring the themes of loneliness and the quest for sincere love.After that experience, I started teaching game design while studying at Brera Fine Arts Academy to deepen my relationship with narrative and visual storytelling.I approached photography in 2022 as a way to stop telling my stories and observe reality as it is, as the light writes it onto the film. Thus, I started confronting myself with film photography: not for the grain or the aesthetic, but for the chemical and philosophical functioning.
My practice consists of letting my eyes guide me and the camera; what captures my eyes while walking through the city is what ends up exposed on the film itself. A kind of "street photography" that tries not to insert itself too much into other people's private affairs and tries to capture Milano's emptiness and stillness.As of now, I'm spending most of my time wandering, taking pictures of spaces and people, then developing and printing them myself in the darkroom.

photography portfolio

I see my photographs as "notes on light and stillnes".
I don't look for particularly impressive shots, for the "decisive moment" or for shock value. I walk and calmly photograph only when I feel the light that I am looking for is in front of me.
I try to keep my approach to street photography as less invasive as possible: I don't want to intrude on other people's lives or disrespect their privacy. I focus on the light, on how it falls gently over spaces, people and items.Taking Milano as a battlefield, my fight is against the concept of “waiting”.
Waiting for a job opportunity, for someone to love us, for a place to call home, for a small moment of peacefulness.
This sense of constantly waiting is what I hunt for, whether my work takes the shape of an interactive experience, of a short story or of a photo.

Publications

december2023 - publication on format zine "provincia nera" issue
august 2023 - publication on the august issue of suboart magazine
December 2022 - release of "something that feels like waiting", a short interactive experience (b/w digital photographs); the project has been selected in the Indiepocalypse Issue #37 and Hands Eye Society MIXTAPE Vol.7

now working on

2024 release - "friday night", a short experimental interactive project to analyze and expose my approach to writing and photography, as seen through two different characters sharing a similar situation.
202? release - "i feel like that", a short experimental interactive project, shot with a Hasselblad 500C/M and set between Venice, Bruxelles and Milano (b/w film photographs)
ongoing - "lights that never go out", a series of photographies that search for calm lights among the chaos of milano.

events photography

My main field of work in regards to commissioned photography, is events, with a particular focus on art exhibitions.

'forma sinteresi'

in may 2024 i was asked by mandra studio to document the development, the setting-up and opening night of Matteo Urbani and Marco Cesari's installation 'forma sinteresi'.the work was done in digital colour during the course of three days, during which I spent time at the two artists' studio and then at the mare culturale urbano venue, where the opening took place.
the assignment consisted in documenting the realization of the piece, its setting-up at the venue, the two artists' talk and the opening's key moments.

'quasiarte' presentation

In January 2024 I was asked by gallerist franco toselli to photograph the presentation of his newly published book quasiarte.The work was done on film, with a focus on the light present in the venue space: Cece' Casile's workshop. It represents the first work that I shot, developed and printed by myself in the darkroom.

giacomo toselli's exhibition

Elena Pontiggia's lesson, which took place in the Le Pleiadi gallery (Milano) in March 2023, consisted of a presentation of Giacomo Toselli's paintings, with a short q&a with the artist himself.
Asked to document the event by the artist's father, gallerist and art expert Franco Toselli, my work was to observe and shoot photos of important moments during the lesson, to give an idea of who was there (the students, the professor, giacomo and franco, various artists and friends of the toselli family).The work was done entirely on film, using the natural light from the only window in the room.

biennolo 2023 - talitha kum

From May to June 2023, I was in charge of documenting the 2023 edition of biennolo, a big art exhibition that takes place in the nolo district in Milano.
On that occasion, I followed the whole development of the exhibition, from the set-up to the opening.
The whole work was shot on digital colour, and took place in two different places: mosso's spaces and the Caravaggio train.

interactive projects

something that feels like waiting

At the end of 2022, in order to mark my shifting from game development to photography and to experiment with the idea of mixing the two media, I developed and released "something that feels like waiting."The project, which could be described as a kinetic novel (a more linear and direct version of visual novels, with no interaction and a straighter focus on the narrative), is about my shifting: why was I so discouraged with game development? What were my hopes for the future at that time?Taking the shape of a half-fake biography, "something that feels like waiting" tells the story of a lonely and 'failed' game developer
waiting for the sky to clear up.The project can be downloaded for free here.Photos are shot on a Fujifilm X-T100 with Monochrome film simulation; development was done with Ren'Py.

friday night

A girl wanders through the city’s streets on a Friday night like any other. She’s thinking about what she can do with her entire existence and all her possibilities.
At the same time, in a different city, another girl wanders through the canals, wandering about the same things, but with a different approach.One of them lives in Milano, she is a writer but she feels the need to abandon this job and dedicate herself to photography.
The other one, on the contrary, wants to be a writer but can’t find a way to write a proper story.The first one wanders alone through the city, the other one meets an old acquaintance.
As the day turns to night, they try to dig into their desires and dreams.

i feel like that

Follow up to "something that feels like waiting", this new project is an iteration on that same concept: mixing photography and digital interaction, this time using film photography in order to bring physical reality (or at least the idea of it) to the digital dimension.The project is divided into three chapters/places (Venice, Bruxelles, Milano) and the story is about someone looking for her way through life.Photos are shot on a Hasselblad 500C/M with Kodak T-Max 400, Kodak Tri-X 400 and Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100II all pushed to different ISO; development will be done with Ren'Py.

lights that never go out

To reaffirm the eye over the light, over the people touched by that light, over the movement that takes shape from its encounter with matter, over the inaction that embraces the entire city of Milano.As the city’s rhythm grows faster and dimmer day by day, I see the moments of stillness wrapped in light as “lights that never go out”.
Roaming the streets, I wanted to capture moments in which “stillness” and “light” connect and portray the silent poetry often hidden throughout the city.
The theory behind this work is that no matter who we are and what is happening, a comforting light will always stand by us: at one point during our daily routine, we will be gently caressed by that light and find hope, even if for just 1/100th of a second.