BYREDO explores Milanese photography with “Behind the Memories” For the launch of Future Memories, the brand invited two Milanese businesses to tell their stories on camera
Some photographs can be felt. Especially old ones, which document the most emotional days of our lives: the sound of footsteps on dry leaves accompanying a long walk in nature; the scent of freshly baked bread, savored moments after buying it; the warmth of a hug on a cold day. These are the memories that stay with us, the sensations that can rise to the surface of our skin through a photograph. To mark the launch of Future Memories, the new fragrance by Byredo, the brand decided to explore the relationship between photography and scent through a project tied to Milan. The result is Behind the Memories, a story developed by nss magazine that celebrates the distinctly Milanese histories of photography centers Colla Milano and Quick Photo Center.
«My passion for photography began when, for the first time in eighth grade, I tried shooting with a reflex camera», recalls Maurizio Checola, founder of Quick Photo Center. «I got everything wrong, but I fell in love with it». For the manager of this center — who works daily with established artists and creatives in Milan — the strongest memories tied to photography are not connected to Fashion Week or other glamorous city events, but to his very first years as a photographer. «I associate scent very strongly with photography», Checola continues, «and being from Milan, even the smell of fog doesn't bother me. It reminds me so much of my adolescence».
For Mario Bertieri and Monica Giuffrida, founders of Colla Milano, an analog photography lab, scent is also an essential note in their work. «If you could capture a scent in a photograph? It would probably be when the wind picks up and you catch the smell of thyme», they both say. «It does happen that we print images connected to sun and sea in the lab, and immediately the nose remembers everything», they add. «The day then takes on a whole different feel».
In the labs of Quick Photo Center and Colla Milano, the scent of developers and processing chemicals mingles with that of the city. Every customer leaves a trace within the walls of the two shops, every interaction a memory. Checola dreams of one day putting together a photography exhibition featuring all the people who have passed through Quick Photo Center. «It would bring together fashion shoots, lived experience, aperitivos, dinners». Because a shop too, in its everyday existence and just like a photograph, is a vessel for memories.