Italy’s weird. Instead of just sitting back and enjoying all that America has to offer by ways of art and culture, they’re always running around making their own stuff for their own entertainment—never caring a lick for what we’ve got to say about it. Alessandro di Giampietro is one of these impudent roustabouts. For the past decade he’s been working out of Milan, taking pictures of pretty girls and weird clothing and other things his countrymen like. He’s also involved with Milan’s Office for Urban Transformation (OUT), these guys who stage weird public exhibitions like installing palm trees in the middle of city streets to try and get people involved with city planning and mapping out public spaces to suit their personalities. This may sound like a bunch of fruity hippie-style civic activism, but you know who else was big on fucking with the urban environment? The Situationists. And as any nerd worth their salt knows, what were the Situationists responsible for besides one pretty solid riot and a bunch of unwatchable films? Oh, just a little thing called punk.
(PS: We aren’t trying to be racist and make him sound like Luigi from the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, we did this interview over email and this is exactly how he wrote out his answers. So it’s charming—not offensive.)

So, Alessandro, why photography?
And what do you feel with your photos?
What’s up with the pic of the girl you took for the issue?
Is that an alligator tattoo on your chest?
There’s a pretty big Italian sculptor named Alexander di Giampietro—that’s not your dad or secret identity is it?
What’s taking up most of your time these days?
Young Guns
You can check out Alessandro’s work at alessandrodigiampitro.com
(PS: We aren’t trying to be racist and make him sound like Luigi from the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, we did this interview over email and this is exactly how he wrote out his answers. So it’s charming—not offensive.)

So, Alessandro, why photography?
Pictures from Young Guns.