A wedding is, by its very nature, organic. It is full of spontaneity, feeling, and surprise. It is rife with unpredictability.

For Carletti, capturing that unpredictability is the key to a great wedding image.

“Like music, it’s important to know the notes, but it’s important to improvise,” he explains. “The wedding is an anthropological rite. I want to know about the couple’s loves, their passions, but I want to discover something else about their lives during the wedding — the relationship with their parents, with their family, with their guests, with the environment.”

For this reason, preplanned shot lists are not part of his repertoire. In fact, he has but one rule: to make each image aesthetically pleasing and timeless, evocative of the sentiment of the moment.

When you study his images, you instantly detect a strong sense of place and drama. Environment, texture, and ambience are all woven together in an evocative and intimate swirl. “I want each couple to find a sense of themselves in relation to the space around them,” he explains. “This provides narration for the story.” And while he is loathe to manipulate elements to create the “perfect” moment, Carletti doesn’t deny that he will often ask his clients to move near or in relation to evocative architecture for strong scenic impact before disappearing into the scene long enough for his subjects to forget about him, and for the magic to happen.

Waiting for Magic

“I never wanted to be a classic wedding photographer,” Carletti says. “My intention has always been to tell the story of the most important day of a couple’s lives. I want to discover that story moment by moment as it unveils. Like the Italian filmmakers of the past — like Luchino Visconti, Frederico Fellini — I want to tell the truth of the story, but I also want to create something magical and beautiful.”

To that end, he spends a lot of his time waiting — for the perfect light, the perfect gesture, the perfect moment, the perfect surprise. “And when I find it, I shoot like mad,” Carletti says.

Though the Italian wedding photographer’s style is distinctive, resulting in images that are rich, vivid, and extremely dramatic, it borrows from his beginnings as a photojournalist.

Carletti entered the world of professional photography as a reportage photographer in 1987, shooting for magazines and newspapers in Tuscany, but it quickly became apparent to him that he wanted to do more. Realizing that what he loved about photojournalism quite naturally translated to wedding photography, he began shooting the weddings of family members and friends. In 1997, he joined forces with fellow wedding photojournalist Angelo Governi to launch the Photographic Art Studio, Arte Fotografica.

“We believe that telling the story of an event is part of the event itself in that it creates the premise of our memory. We photograph with the conviction that a photograph lives every time someone sees it,” Carletti says. “Our images are designed to make it continuously come back to life.”

Black, White, and Horizontal

Two things set Carletti apart: 95% of his images are horizontally cropped, and they’re always black-and-white.

About the horizontal cropping, Carletti says, “Our eyes are set horizontally. We read and write horizontally. Cinema and television have horizontal screens.”

Regarding his strong affinity for black-and-white images, he says, “As a reportage shooter, I only shot black-and-white film. KODAK Black-and-White Film.” Today, though Carletti shoots his weddings digitally, he will only provide his clients with black-and-white prints. The reason: It affords him control of an otherwise uncontrollable situation.

“With color, if there is someone wearing a red dress, this person becomes too important in the image,” Carletti explains. “If I shoot in black-and-white, I give importance only to the elements I want to emphasize, I control the results, and I am able to bring to life the situation I want to dramatize just as I want to dramatize it. Color is beautiful, but it’s distracting. It commands too much attention. Black-and-white is like a metaphysical situation — a pure situation — I can capture the essence of the scene, and the image.”

Twilight in Tuscany

“I‘m in love with light,” Carletti proclaims. “I think lighting is the most important element of photography.”

As a child, he became enamored with the paintings of Caravaggio. “In Italy, we have a classical approach to the lighting,” he says. “And for me, the light is the sprit of the photograph.”

He attributes his obsession with light to his experience photographing interior architecture. “I created three books about the Tuscany Palace, and discovered that the lighting of the texture of the palace created something magical. So I learned early on that it’s nice to have the right information, the right situation, the right story, but it’s nothing without the right lighting.”

This is why, though he does not like to create false moments, or pose his subject, he will position his couples where the light is best.

His favorite light? “The last light before sunset,” he sighs. “Twilight, when the sun is just below the horizon, when daylight is approaching its end, gently, peacefully, creating that glow.”

He also loves the light that comes after a storm. Which is why, unbeknownst to his brides, he often wishes for rain at his weddings. “I’m so happy when it rains because I know that if I wait, we will discover the best possible light.”

He loves the light right after the rain for another reason. “I love the reflective qualities of the water. I can discover a double reality,” he says. “A story within a story.”

No Place for Albums

Because narrative is such a fundamental part of Carletti’s wedding photography, he prefers to present his clients with something other than a classic wedding album. In fact, he is known for his specially bound books, the results of which, thanks to his thoughtful eye and attention to detail, are far more beautiful than his clients ever imagine.

“An album’s too boring,” he explains. “The books allow me to vary the speed and pacing of the story.”

Using an exclusive binding that he created, his books typically include up to 40 or 50 images, and bring a truer reportage feel to the narrative of the wedding day. They also bring countless raves from his clients, and a constant stream of referrals.

Carletti has his photos printed by his professional lab, Extracolor, on KODAK PROFESSIONAL SUPRA ENDURA Paper, which features soft/smooth flesh-tone reproduction and enhanced highlight and shadow detail. The paper’s moderate contrast, pleasing color saturation, and natural qualities deliver exactly what he looks for in a photographic paper.

“The contrast is just right,” he says. “I don’t want to create too much contrast and I find that the ENDURA Paper, with its medium contrast, delivers just the right level to tell my story.”

Next Stop, New York

Carletti currently shoots destination weddings all over Italy and Europe, but he has his sights on the United States. “New York is fantastic,” he says. “It’s so monumental, so eternal, so big, so new. The possibilities are endless. In Venice, it’s easy to make great images because the background is like a movie set. I’m ready for a change, a new challenge. I want to shoot destination weddings in the subways, limos, and streets of New York City.”

With numerous recognitions and awards, including the Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA) 2006 photographer of the year, and a growing list of clients on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, it is safe to say that he is well on his way.

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