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Continuing with our series of up-and-coming Photographers that are destined to make a unique mark with their work, we preset Tony Francesconi and his unique mix of environmental, portraiture, and action photography.

I’ve personally known Tony for quite some time, and he has an eye for capturing both composition and emotion – and it’s the blending of these 2 elements that makes his work so engaging.

Now … dig in!

|Brandon Oelling
X-Equals – image, workflow, technology, business

Invariably we all pick up a camera, and at that point the addiction begins. Describe that moment.

No joke it was one photo, I was 14 – it was 1986, I borrowed my dad’s old Canon and started shooting me and my friends skating. We were at this school and Oran was doing these huge wallrides, and I remember thinking “Oh man, this is gonna’ look so good on film.” I snapped the shot and it felt right, but I was all nervous that the film wouldn’t come out …

I went straight home to get a ride to Costco to have the film processed. When I got the film back and saw that wallride photo I was so stoked that I called everyone to come over and look at it …

All photos © Tony Francesconi

… that was it, I was hooked.

How has your shooting evolved over the years? What keeps you inspired?

I really started with skateboarding, moved to art and experimentation, street portraiture, portraiture, studio, and now back to skateboarding.

some great photographers in my life that have challenged me to make better images

I have been lucky to have some great photographers in my life that have challenged me to make better images, take risks, and gain inspiration from, like Kelly Castro, Peirce Schmidt, John Frazier, Spike Jonze.

All photos © Tony Francesconi

You shoot both flash and available light, which do you prefer?

I love available light in most cases, hands down. It challenges me to be more technically correct. It seems with flash you can make so many more mistakes, and you have the luxury to tweak them in post. But don’t get me wrong studio shoots are fun and all but more often than not you loose the sense of context and reality.

Your work goes from environmental to street to portraiture. How do you approach all of these different situations?

They’re all different beasts: Shooting street portraits, depending on the situation, it takes some serious trust from the subject. It takes respect and honesty. For instance I did an essay on a guy named Kelvin, it took me 6 months before he’d let his guard down enough so that every shot didn’t look like he wanted to kill me. We ended up becoming pretty good friends after it was all said and done.

Environmental stuff is fun. I went to visit some friends a while back in Paris. That trip had a huge impact on how I approach photography now as a whole, because they were shooting things in a way I had never even considered. Sure everyone sees the same row of houses in their town day-in and day-out. These guys were taking elements of their lives out of context with incredible results.

All photos © Tony Francesconi

If you could only have 1 lens and 1 body from your bag what would you grab?

1. Canon 5D Mark II
2. Canon 50 mm – f/1.2

Tell us about your post-production process.

Dump ‘em into Adobe Lightroom and final tweaks in Photoshop. It’s kinda’ the only way isn’t it?! (that’s a joke people)

All photos © Tony Francesconi

Parting comments?

Oh yeah it all takes a sense of calm, for any situation. Just be ready, ’cause it’s all about the eyes.

Shameless plug:

Check out DON’T EXPLODE – http://dontexplode.com

Hit me up, buy some prints. Or just say hi next time you’re in Chicago.

All photos © Tony Francesconi