Photographer: Bill Diodato | Title: Futuristic 2
What makes great photography? For Graphis Master Bill Diodato, it’s something more than exposure amounts and image size: “A photograph, no matter how good, has to move you, be it positively or negatively—it has to arrest you,” he told Graphis in a Q&A in Photography Annual 2013.
A New York-based Photographer, Diodato is a consistent Graphis winner with a robust roster of clients that includes Self, NYT Magazine, Allure, Marie Claire, Vogue, Glamour, Elle,
Interview Magazine, Travel & Leisure Magazine, Oprah Magazine and Men’s Health Magazine. And that’s just on the editorial side. Diodato has produced advertising work for clients American Express, Foot Locker, Nike, Prada, Cole Haan, Reebok, John Freida, Avon and ad agencies BBDO,
Leo Burnett, Grey Advertising and Publicis Kaplan Thaler.
Title: Under the Table Title: Lips
In the Q&A, Diodato said he finds inspiration in “movies, music, conceptual art, popular culture, and counterculture” and said that his children, William and Adrianna, “never cease to inspire him.”
Diodato’s photograph, “Lips,” received a Gold award in the Photo Annual 2005 and graced the cover of the Photography Annual 2005, and his “Under the Table” received a Gold award in the Photography Annual 2006. He explains the process in a Q&A in Photography Annual 2006:
I had a dinner party about a month before this shoot and happened to notice all this sexiness under the table. I was shocked at the amount of money spent on furs, shoes and the rest of the fashion accessories no one was even seeing because they were under the table. When the fashion director, Ann Song, contacted me about a fashion accessory story, the first thing that came to mind was that party and what a great snapshot of capitalism this concept would be.
In the same Q&A, Diodato named his most significant influences:
Personally speaking, my father has always provided my with the intellectual space a father and son need to exist in. Professionally speaking, the career I admire most is Irving Penn’s. He is one of the few artists to successfully bridge the gap between the commercial world and the art world.
In 2010, Diodato, an avid collector of photographic literature, published the book, Care of Ward 81, a collection of photographs that examines the plight of women who lived at the Oregon State Insane Asylum (the same hospital where “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was filmed), specifically Ward 81, where women with mental illness were treated in isolation. To buy a copy of Care of 81 or learn more about the book, click here. To view more of Diodato’s work, click here.
Additional photographers from New York include Kristofer Dan-Bergman, Tatijana Shoan,
Mark Stetler, Henry Leutwyler, Caroline Knopf, Phil Marco, Chris Santucci and Sandi Fellman.
The Photography Annual 2015 features the most compelling and influential photographs of the year. Platinum awards, along with winning entries, will be published in the Photo Annual 2015. To submit your work to the Photo Annual 2015 competition, click here.
