Estación de Santa Justa en Sevilla. Arquitectos A. Cruz & A.Ortiz, 1987-1991

Flavio Coddou: Like it happens to almost all photographers, you don’t like to be photographed. How did the process go from your discovery of the camera to going behind it?

Duccio Malagamba: Indeed ... Like all families, my father took photographs when we were kids, something that always bothered me a lot, so I got interested in the camera to take it off from his hands in this way. But my virtual discovery of photography followed later, at around the age of 15, when the father of a friend who had a darkroom allowed us to assist him. It still gives me the shivers when I remember the fascination it caused me to observe how the image gradually appeared during its development. Unlike other things that only impress you the first time, it has always been a thrilling experience for me. Having marked interest for photography before, after discovering the magic of the development process, I became addicted to it: I bought all the magazines that I could find and read them from cover to cover with enormous enthusiasm.

FC: How did your architectural training go and how did you decide to work as a photographer?

DM: My parents supported my passion but they didn’t encourage much the idea of their son as a photographer without higher education and persuaded me to get a university degree. I was not sure what to study, I only knew I liked photography. Since in the Italy of late 70's there were no good photography schools, we considered a highly prestigious Swiss school. However, the school turned out to be very expensive and the cost of living in Switzerland for an Italian pocket was unthinkable. So, I started to reconsider the idea of a regular university degree and while thinking about where to enroll I discovered - by chance - that at the Faculty of Architecture in Venice there was a photography department.

That was enough for me to attract my attention to architectural studies. It seemed an interesting option to me because it had a creative side that other options didn’t. Besides, this career appealed to me as I have always been interested in urban scapes and architecture of remarkable buildings. However, for family reasons, I ended up enrolling not in Venice but in Genoa where, unfortunately, there was no photography course. Anyway, as I proceeded with the studies I gradually got more interest in architecture and less in photography ...

Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo en Santiago de Compostela. Arquitecto Álvaro Siza Vieira, 1988-1993