The shutter speed redemption

For ex-convict Donato Di Camillo, photography has provided him with a new purpose in life. He tells Geoff Harris about his creative life less ordinary

- Donato Di Camillo

One of the joys of photography is that you can take it up at many different stages on the journey of life. New York-based photographer Donato Di Camillo got into taking pictures while under house arrest for racketeering and other serious criminal offences he’d rather not talk about now. Donato ended up serving a prison sentence, but with the help of photography he’s put his criminal past behind him and is earning a solid reputation as a street and documentary photographer.

The child of Italian parents who emigrated to the US, Donato was a tough street operator who put the long hours of house arrest to good use by devouring photography magazines and online articles. He’d always been interested in art, along with exploration and wildlife. ‘A lady on my block would bundle up old copies of National Geographic and Smithsonian magazine and put them out for the trash,’ Donato explains in a chunky New York drawl straight out of the movies. ‘My dad brought them in for me and that’s how the photography seed was planted.’

While he’s now recognised as a talented street photographer, Donato had no idea the genre even existed. ‘I thought of photographers as photographers, and still do. I’d research techniques and photographers online for hours, and got to know the work of people who’ve influenced me, like Bruce Gilden and Martin Parr. I learned so much this way that when I later did some classes in photography, I knew a lot of it already.’