Pino Coduti grew up in a photographer's family in Lucera, in northern Puglia. His father Carmine was a photographer, and Pino was already working beside him as a second photographer at sixteen, the age at which he began experimenting with infrared film. He has now been in the profession for more than thirty years, holds the European title Maestro Fotografo Europeo (MQEP), and says that more than 1,300 couples have trusted him with their wedding.
He describes his wedding work as artistic photojournalism. During the day he lets things happen and chooses the moment rather than asking anyone to repeat a gesture; when there is time for portraits he guides the couple lightly to build a more considered picture. He moves between colour and black and white, and names cinema and seventeenth century painting as the influences behind his use of light. In editing he works on light and colour but will not add or remove people from documentary photographs, because that would change the record of what happened.
“Credo profondamente che tutto ciò che viviamo e amiamo meriti di essere visto, ricordato e preservato.”
Pino Coduti. In English: "I deeply believe that everything we live and love deserves to be seen, remembered and preserved."
The signature of his work is chromatic infrared: photographs made with cameras converted to record infrared light, so that leaves, olive trees and cypresses turn rust and red against deep blue skies. He says it is captured in camera rather than added afterwards, and that he was the first photographer to use it at weddings, where it sits alongside the documentary coverage rather than replacing it.
He photographs every wedding himself and meets couples beforehand at his studio to learn who matters to them and what they want. His published weddings run from the trulli of Alberobello, the seafront at Polignano a Mare and clifftop terraces at Mattinata on the Gargano to masserie around Foggia, Trani, Vasto in Abruzzo and Lake Maggiore. He works mainly in the provinces of Foggia, Pescara and Chieti and is available throughout Italy.
Every wedding story is completed with an album designed by him, and he advises on paper and printing, including Giclée fine art prints. He also turns wedding photographs into framed pieces for the home. His awards include a FIAP gold medal at the Lishui International Art Exhibition for his de La Tour portrait project, a place in the Artistic Guild of the WPJA Top 30 photographers in the world for 2024, and membership of the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers.