About

My name is Francesco Cavaliere, I am an artist/photographer or to put it another way, an artist who takes pictures. I had my first camera (a box brownie!) when I was nine years old and the first thing I remember shooting was a train derailment that happened outside where we lived at the time. Despite that I never developed a taste for photo-journalism! I got my first SLR when I was twenty-one and never looked back, I’ve been taking pictures ever since. I freelanced in the music business for a number of years and later worked as a portrait photographer, although not as a full-time occupation. I now take pictures solely for the enjoyment I get from it. For those interested in such things, I use Sony digital cameras. My ‘studio’ camera is the A77ii coupled mostly with a 35mm prime lens and for outdoor pictures I mostly use an A58. My film cameras of choice are Pentax, Minox GL and the Olympus XA series.

The Victorian Art Project

I started what I call ‘The Victorian Art Project’ in 2017. I started off taking pictures, subjects and themes from Victorian (that is 19th century) art but broadened my outlook and my inspiration now comes from art before that also. I take a work of classic art and create my own version of it, usually in my studio, which I then turn into a simulation of an oil painting using software. I also use filters, but not the digital kind. I like the kind that fit directly onto the lens so that I can see immediately what the picture will look like. The sharpness considered so essential in ‘straight’ photography doesn’t really concern me, I find a pictorialist approach far more enticing! I never use flash and shoot using available light whenever possible, only adding a single ‘continuous’ light if necessary.

At this point it would be very remiss of me not to say a big ‘thank you’ to my models, without whom this project would not exist. Thank you all.

Other Photography

When I’m not in my studio I can often be found in one of London’s ‘magnificent seven’ cemeteries, all of which I have photographed, and continue to do so. I am also often to be found taking pictures on the Thames bank and forshore, both north and south, somewhere between Waterloo and Tower Bridge. I am also a keen travel photographer. Needless to say I am happy to apply my pictorialist tendencies to these types of photography also! Examples of my other work will be added to the galleries when I have the time.