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I never thought I would have this pleasure… but, yes, thanks to Mariano, Jelena’s dad, not only did I get to meet the Gypsy Kings in person, have dinner with them…. but I also got to be on stage with them and photograph them during a concert here in Milan!

It was an incredible experience – they were all men with amazing world knowledge who had plenty of good advice to give. The concert was held for a very limited amount of people, so it felt more intimate than I could ever have wished for. How can I express what I felt while I was on stage as they played songs like ‘Djobi Djoba’…. wow! Hopefully some day I’ll meet them again! Enjoy the photos!

Jelena with some of the Gypsy Kings!


Jelena and Walter – don’t mess with him!

I FINALLY MANAGED TO PUT THESE UP! A few weeks ago, I had the ABSOLUTE PLEASURE of having the majority of all the people I love most in this world here in the studio with me! Stocked with beer, ‘books’, liquor, midnight munchies pizza, and lots of enthusiasm we embarked on a TWELVE HOUR SHOOT to produce all the photos you’ll be able to see below. Hope you like them as much as I do!

Download the FULL VERSION PDF of REUNION 2010 – MILANO here.

Alternatively, if you’re family, download the FAMILY VERSION PDF of REUNION 2010 – MILANO here.



Oh look! Olmo woke up! Everyone FREEZE in EXACTLY THE SAME POSITION! One more with Olmo!

The four cousins – for real – all together!

Me and Konstantin!

My cousins, Olivia and Guido!

Me and my cousin Olivia!

Me and my cousin Guido!

My cousin Guido and my sister Emily!

My cousin Olivia and my sister Emily!

Me and my beautiful sister!!

My sister Emily and her boyfriend, Ham! (Ok, ‘Graham’…)

Tommaso… my coast to coast counterpart!

Two of my best friends in the world.

My cousin Olivia and her boyfriend, Olmo!

Konstantin, my best friend, collaborator, house-mate in college… (he has lots of titles)… finally came to visit me in Milano!

The following images we took on a quick trip to the centro with the idea of creating a ‘postcard’ to send Elyse, his girlfriend… the ones you can buy are SO shiesty.

(PS. We never sent the postcard… sorry Elyse!)

MEETING HIM WITH KONSTANTIN!

My favorite thing that I learned about BB King on Wikipedia:

“In the winter of 1949, King played at a dance hall in Twist, Arkansas. In order to heat the hall, a barrel half-filled with kerosene was lit, a fairly common practice at the time. During a performance, two men began to fight, knocking over the burning barrel and sending burning fuel across the floor. The hall burst into flames, which triggered an evacuation. Once outside, King realized that he had left his guitar inside the burning building. He entered the blaze to retrieve his beloved $30 guitar, a Gibson semi-hollow electric. Two people died in the fire. The next day, King learned that the two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. King named that first guitar Lucille, as well as every one he owned since that near-fatal experience, as a reminder never again to do something as stupid as run into a burning building or fight over women.”

Here are some pictures my dad took of us before going out to the concert, and finally our photographic PROOF of having experienced a historic concert.

A series of incredibly creative AT&T commercials!! Which one is your favorite? I’d probably go with the ones that look most natural, for instance, the moose head!

For Valentines Day this year, my fantastic girlfriend photographed ME… how strange to invert the usual roles!! I love the way they turned out though… After that initial shoot, we moved on to some images inspired by the White Stripes…

MAN. Yes. I get to see almost every one of these beautiful expressions every day. Whoa!

An intimate wedding in the center of Milan that I had the pleasure of being included in…

It was a little embarassing that after all this time knowing the members of Nouloho, having even done a promo photo shoot with them, I STILL had not seen them play live. Well, now I have… and by God, I swear to you they are worth driving out ANYWHERE to see. They put on a goddamn good show… so I officially BEG you to check out the Nouloho MySpace page for upcoming show dates!



View the Nirvana cover video here! Please excuse the horrible audio quality but I took it with my iPhone!

A few months ago I was asked to cover this event for Evian publications of an event they did in conjunction with Galliano, a fashion designer. Do you know how ridiculously hard it is to have as a subject a little PLASTIC WATER BOTTLE?! I did my best – seems like they liked what I turned in – still haven’t figured out where they were used though….. this is a selection of the photos I liked the most – including my ‘commercial campaign’ of the Evian bottle (come on, not bad for available light and people running around behind me, don’t you think?)!

I miss DEEP DOWN. You haven’t even had the pleasure of experiencing DEEP DOWN…. yet. In an attempt to play with fate and hopefully get this project off the ground, here are some preview images I took for the DEEP DOWN website that I have been building and that will hopefully be released soon!!

DEEP DOWN: ENJOY ART, LIVE DEEP.

So here i am – blogging from my iphone… How technological of me!

OKOKOKOK – I’d like to first of all start out by APOLOGIZING PROFUSELY for this major lack of updating on my website… (I know I’m mostly apologizing to myself, but you know what, maybe there are one or two of you out there that are interested in seeing what goes on in my world, so that’s that.)

This post should give you an idea of how long it’s been since I’ve added new stuff! Back in December 2009 I finally made it back to Budapest to accompany Jelena to one of her best friends, Fanni’s graduation. Congratulations, again, Fanni!

Anyway, the trip started out with some freezing cold yet wonderful wanderings of the beautiful city that is Budapest, my first time seeing it under the snow! I can only imagine what it must have been under those kind of conditions in ’56…

I shot a few frames of Budapest’s very own Pigeon Lady, and if you look closely you might even catch a glimpse of PIGEON MAN. We then proceeded towards Gödör Klub, where I saw a Christmas tree made of recyclable bottles… it only downed on me now that maybe it would have been more useful to actually RECYCLE them… but I guess they did that AFTER Christmas.

That night we went to a ‘Photographer’s Party’… it turned out that we had actually crashed a photography class end of the year/semester/whatever party at the professor’s house. I was worried for a minute until the professor almost fell over onto me, drunk out of his mind, then offered me what he said was a joint but looked suspiciously like a toothpick wrapped in paper (no need to specify that I let him smoke the entire thing).



The next day we attended Fanni’s graduation. HUGE deal, with dozens of dance routines performed by the graduating class – some of which were very captivating! What blew my mind (but it’s typical) were the guys that were dressed in incredibly outrageous costumes that still tried to play it ‘cool’… Fanni stole the show both with her choreographies and her attitude – she knew this was an important day and transmitted it to the crowd beautifully.

Fanni was also the only graduating member of the class to have a full Staff available to her for this special occasion! She had two friends of hers, professionals in their field, doing her hair styling and makeup. She had ‘a professional photographer fly in from Milan just for the occasion’. She even had a wardrobe assistant in Jelena who after every dance number would RUN to the dressing rooms to help her change!! It was a spectacular night.

Just a few notes on some of these photographs: I really like the square one with the four men in it. The main subject is Fanni’s brother, but the other three men add a really weird sense of perspective to the image!



One of the final nights in Budapest, Jelena and I went to Szimpla, an INCREDIBLE bar – where we met Peter, Tris, and Zach…. three, well, geniuses in their own right who had gathered in town for a reunion vacation after months of not having seen each other. We joined up to look for… books. Which we never found. Not even back at Gödör Klub. Doesn’t ANYONE read anymore? One guy was reading a DICTIONARY when we asked him, and he blatantly refused to let us read too. Jerk. Anyway, we had a great time with these guys while we were together – hope they’re doing alright!



THERE WE GO. FINALLY SOMETHING NEW.

There’s LOTS more to come, so stay tuned!

Look! They linked me on the Colors of Life website!

READ THE COLORS OF LIFE ARTICLE ON THE KKIEN MILAN EXHIBITION.

A poetic, erotic, blasphemous, hilarious joke – recited by Andrea Bocelli. Sorry most of you won’t be able to understand this… but trust me, frikkin hilarious.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve added anything to my website, so I’m glad to announce I’m back and I’ve prepared a few things to show you.

…but for now I’ll just show you this cute little drawing my Panamanian friend sent me

Another wonderful reflection by Elsa Allen.



Who are you, maybe a muse?
Snake charming, engaging concubine of a thousand faces?
Facets of a single precious stone. Rounded sides of the same cube of marble.
Are you a harpist?
The air vibrates under your stride, you follow like a trail, almost like a train of a dress of silk.
Fronds of green trees rub together spreading the sound of elegance.
You look through a mirror and smile.
The defect that creates your reflection on the surface of the shiny plastic is perfection.
Behind that failure there is truth.
Maybe fashion, perhaps life, perhaps a dream.
Nobody knows, nobody has.
All, in their way, we are close as they can.

Photo by Elsa Allen
portraits Jelena
photography workshop MaisonSabbatini

READ THE ARTICLE (translate with Google Translator on the page)

Watch the video of the Milan opening of the Colors of Life international photo contest exhibition at the Kkien Atelier!

BRIELLE CAME TO VISIT ME!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! I thought we wouldn’t manage to see each other before her Study Abroad Semester in Firenze was over… but she pulled some strings, gritted her teeth, and got on a train with her childhood friend from Guatemala, Nalu!

It was an amazing weekend. Jelena took all of us to see Christopher Cross in concert at the Blue Note Club – she had just gotten back from a two week tour around Italy working as their tour manager and wanted to say goodbye to them. After the show we went backstage, had a few beers with the band, and eventually piled into my car (kidnapping three fifths of the band) to go back to my studio.

Andy Suzuki (clarinet, saxophone), Dave Beyer (drums), and Roberto Vally (bass) joined me, Jelena, Nalu and Brielle in a series of incredibly interesting conversations at the Maison… what interesting lives they have lived! What was really impressive was how there were never any downtimes in conversation, all the elements in the room meshed really well and enjoyed each other’s company. Finally, I drove the band back to their hotel to rest up before their journey back home to America, where they can relax after 6 weeks on an international tour.

The next day we tried to go see the Colors of Life Gallery, but it was closed… I really wish they would post the opening hours…. So then we met up with my cousin Guido Jung and took a beautiful walk through downtown Milano, near the Duomo. Everything was lit up with Christmas lights, there even was a HUGE Christmas tree in front of the cathedral! Inside the Galleria was hanging possibly the biggest mistletoe I have ever seen – under which people were kissing to donate euros to Africa (each kiss was worth a Euro, but I’m positive I got a good deal… mine was worth much more than that!). Jelena and I did our part to help Africa, which was wonderful – but then they refused to admit that they had taken a picture of us, and wouldn’t give us the keepsake photo, which WAS CRAP! But in the end, the kiss and the sentiment is all that matters.

That same evening I had my LA HACIENDA gallery opening, whch was a huge success. It was so exciting for me to have Brielle here especially for that, since she is a Sabbatimkon artist and we’ve showed art together before (see Sabbatimkon 2)!!! Click here to see the video from the LA HACIENDA evening.

On Sunday, exhausted from the long and event filled evenings we’d just experienced, we woke up and Jelena began work on the girls’ makeup as I set up the studio sets. We’d been discussing some photo ideas we wanted to try out – even if we had precious little time before Brielle and Nalu had to catch their trains to Florence and Venice, respectively. See Brielle and Nalu’s photo shoot!

Below, you can see some highlights from the weekend! I’ll say it one last time: IT WAS AMAZING HAVING YOU HERE BRIELLE, THANKS AGAIN FOR COMING! And Nalu, SO NICE TO MEET YOU!

All photos taken by Brielle, Nalu, and a few by me.

Sabato 12 Dicembre, LA HACIENDA presenta: dalle 22.00 ore Vernissage fotografico del giovane Christopher Sabbatini + Dj set Resident Diegoyut! simply rock’n'roll&beat&synth twist and shout + red lights cheap drinks open mind

FACEBOOK RSVP

Last night I had the pleasure of listening to a Beatles cover band that included Italian celebrity Morgan, who normally passes his time as a judge for the Italian singing talent show X-Factor.
They played in a club called ‘Scimmie’ – which had a very ‘underground’ feel to it, unusual for the average Milanese bar – as a tribute and in honor of John Lennon, on the anniversary of his death.



Jelena with Morgan before the show!

Finally! Here is the official photo gallery from Arte Padova 2009. Photographs by Alfredo Sabbatini.



Click below for the official MaisonSabbatini presents Alfredo Sabbatini at Arte Padova 2009!



All of Alfredo Sabbatini’s photographs printed on Canson Infinity paper.

I couldn’t believe it either when I saw this. Someone has my face tattooed on their arm!

Fun demolition game. Basic geometry and logical skills required. Fun stuff

PLAY DEMOLITION CITY 2

One of the extraordinary creatures that has been taking the first MaisonSabbatini Photography Workshop wrote this in her blog about the experience. THANK YOU ELSA!

READ THE ARTICLE (translate with Google Translator on the page)

Some are very funny, others are incredibly creative, all are effective. Thanks Konstantin, for finding these!

SEE ALL THE ADS

… you have the world’s tallest model for a shoot … and this is the best idea you could come up with? Still, impressive human being!

SEE THE WORLD’S TALLEST MODEL

Last week my dad and I were in Padova, where we had been given a stand to create an exhibition of his photography, along with a healthy dose of publicity given to what the MaisonSabbatini has to offer.

It was an incredible place. When we first walked in, the evening before the vernissage the two giant buildings were filled with endless corridors of pearl white…. WALLS. Every stand had requested personalized design – some had a standard four wall enclosure with one opening, others (most) got creative, choosing to have open corners, angled walls, or like us, a path to walk through.

It took us 6 exhilerating hours to unpack the frames and hang the art the next day. Fortunately, Carlo Fabbri, our incredible framer (who designed and built over 40 frames in less than two weeks to help us do this show) drove up with us to help us unload and set up the stand! All around us, galleriests, artists, workers, working with the diligence of creative ants to cover the pearl white with their own way of communicating with the world. We hadn’t planned how to fit everything we had brought into our stand – so we fluctuated from moments of “WE’LL NEVER FIT IT ALL!” to moments of “OH MY GOD. WE DIDN’T BRING ENOUGH!”. In the end, it all fit so well that it looked like the most thought out booth arrangement in the entire building! (n. This is purely my opinion. But, trust me.)

That same evening we opened the stand and our hearts at the vernissage. Hundreds of people were immediately attracted to the only stand blasting the likes of Dimmu Borgir and DJ Shadow (we showed four of our videos, including STREAKS and The.Light.Body.Paint on a plasma TV, in constant loop, as part of our exhibit!! NO ONE ELSE HAD MUSIC, and you could hear ours everywhere!)

The rest of the week continued at the same pace, with us in the stand from 9:30am until 8:00pm, with people showing up already wearing our bracelet, who had been tipped off to come see us by others who had left astonished at what they never would have expected to see at Arte Padova 2009. My dad and I enthusiastically explained the tecniques behind his work, showed the videos to audiences of up to 30 people at a time, talked about the various services the MaisonSabbatini offers… basically showed everyone first hand that our passion for what we do seeps from our pores.

…and just as they do when they enter the studio in Milan – so many people felt … understood … joined us on the ever growing TIDAL WAVE that is the MaisonSabbatini.

On the second to last day, SO MANY of our friends came to show their support… it felt so nice to see all of their familiar faces after hundreds of new ones. THANK YOU, again.

We documented every inch and every second of the experience, which means soon I’ll spend interminable hours in front of the computer preparing a video for all of you to see. AND I CAN’T WAIT!

IN THE MEANWHILE! Below you can see some backstage photographs I took with my iPhone! There’s even a photograph of STING, who came by our stand!!

After having toured in the United States with 48 other selected photographs, my two photos are on their way to Milan, Italy for their final exhibition.

In beautiful foggy Milan, surrounded by the Swiss Alps and the most enchanting Italian lakes, the 3rd and last exhibition of Colors of Life 2008-09 will be held on December 10, 2009. In light of the support from this year’s competition of Pangea and its constant work against the violation of the human rights of women, along with this year’s theme – “Emotions, Dreams and Thoughts of Humanity” – the date of the Italian opening will coincide with the celebration by the international community of Human Rights Day. This event commemorates the adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948. No other day seemed better!

http://colorsoflife.org

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/Pages/HumanRightsDay2009.aspx

Sixth Edition 2009



The SIXTH edition of the “Scatti per Bene” Auction was held on November 10th, 2009, to raise money for CAF, an organization in its 30th year of existence.

In all these years of hard work we have welcomed into our Via Orlando, Milano communities over 750 little boys and girls between the ages of 3 and 12, all victims of abuse, offering them a temporary home where they could process the pain and learn to trust adults again.

As we have done in the past, we have organized the now traditional Photography Auction – made possible by the generosity of many important photographers who donate their work to CAF, many people that are closely tied to the Association, and even of the photography experts and enthusiasts that bid on the photographs the eventing of the Auction.

The works were exhibited for the public on Tuesday, November 10th 2009, from 10AM to 1PM and from 2PM to 6PM at the Sede della Casa d’Aste Sotheby’s, Via Broggi 19.

The Auction took place at 6:30PM, Tuesday, November 10th, 2009.

All proceeds from the Auction will go to support CAF’s activities (view website).

The Auction included a photograph by Alfredo Sabbatini and one by his son, Christopher Sabbatini.



VIEW ALL THE PHOTOGRAPHS THAT WERE UP FOR AUCTION

Watch the auction miniclip!

The string of Trigon Brothers that have come to visit our crazy little corner of the world continues to expand…. first Dave Thornton, then Becca Clark, and now Elena Aksel! It was absolutely wonderful seeing her again. We did the usual (but wonderful!) tour around the Milan hotspots, celebrated her birthday in great style at the NEON DISCO (see below), and even managed to squeeze in a quick photo shoot.

Unfortunately Clelia couldn’t make it to her own show here in Milan, but fortunately I could! So I documented as well as I could with my phone… Click below for a video walkthrough.

Thanks to my great friend Daniele Parascandolo I managed to randomly get tickets to see the 1968 British progressive rock band, YES! Beautiful modern theater in the northeast of Milano, ridiculously talented musicians from another age with little fans propped infront of them to make their hair flutter, tight pants, carefully placed cucumbers, GOOD TIME!

Click below to see a video from the show.

My sister Emily is AWESOME. She recently went to see the Colors of Life 2009 exhibit at Artspace in Richmond, VA.
She is SO GREAT that she even took pictures! Check it out here.

See all the details on the Colors of Life 2009 international exhibit.

This past weekend I had the pleasure to play host to… wait for it… my sister’s boyfriend’s sister (take a breath) – Abigail, and her friend Sarah.

We had a blast, even went to see Gareth Emery at Club 71 – see visual evidence at tilllate.com.

At the end of their stay we decided to commemorate their trip to Milan by doing a photo shoot. In this gallery you can see some extra shots as well as some messing around….

Thank you so much Seba (assistant) and Jelena (makeup and hair)!

You can also view Sarah’s pictures from that weekend!

from the 19th of November…
every Monday and every Thursday…
for 3 weeks…


MaisonSabbatini, under the supervision of the Master Alfredo Sabbatini, has organized a Photography Workshop targeted both to amateurs and professionals.

A practical and creative journey, from shooting techniques to post production and the printing process.

- Subject/location rapport
- How to work in a studio
- How to use professional lighting setups
- Working with light and shadow
- Framing, composition
- Introduction to photographic equipment
- Special lighting techniques
- Creativity
- Photoshop
- Fine Art Print techniques


- You’ll receive a print of your best photograph
- Your photographs will be added to an online gallery


REGISTRATION INFO:

VIEW THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE.

DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE (pdf)

MaisonSabbatini
workshop@maisonsabbatini.com

tel. 0266116340

Via Ugolini 7, Milano

Largo Augusto Multimedia – Giovenzana

tel. 02 776901

Largo Augusto 10, Milano

NOVEMBER 2009

mon.19 – thurs.22 – mon.26 – thurs.29 – mon.2 -thurs.5
from 8:30PM to 10:30PM

Registration Fee: €240,00

Master: Alfredo Sabbatini

Make Up Artist: Zuleica Dos Santos

FineArt Print: GianPaolo Daldello

PostProduction Masters: Sebastiano Rossi and Christopher Sabbatini.

Although there should be plenty to keep you flipping through for a while, you’ll see much more material, some never before seen, arriving very soon in the portfolio…. so check back often! OR, you could always sign up for ‘chrissabbatini updates’ and let me inform you when a good time to come back is…

Finally! I’ve been wanting (and needing) to put up an online portfolio and here we are… thank you so much for being here and reading this, I hope you’ll sign up for my newsletter (and don’t worry, I’m not going to send them out often) so you can keep up to date on my new projects, my new series, my progress… And of course, if you have any sort of project you think I could be of help on, don’t you dare hesitate to contact me…!

Quick heads up. If when you sign up for ‘chrissabbatini updates’ an error message is shown, don’t worry: nothing bad happened, you should still receive a confirmation email! I just can’t seem to make that message dissappear… FOR NOW. I’ll fix it soon. (if for some reason you know how to fix it, let me know!)