What’s in my camera bag – Andrea Palmulli

Photography found me before I found it.

For years, an iPhone was my only companion. I carried it everywhere, through the streets of Rome, into the outskirts, and into those quiet corners most people walk past without stopping. The eye was already there. The intention too. I just didn’t realize yet that what I was doing had a name.

Then came Japan.

A trip through Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka turned into something else, almost a revelation. Being in a place where photography is taken seriously, where there’s a camera shop on almost every corner, changed something. I came back with a simple thought: it was time to take this seriously, even just for myself, without a specific goal. I bought a Fujifilm X-M5 as soon as I got back to Italy. The X-E5 followed shortly after, and it’s the camera that shaped how I see and work today. Small, discreet, always with me. A sling bag, just what I need inside.

Over the months, I tried different lenses. What stayed is what actually fits how I see: the 16mm f/2.8 to stay close, the 35mm f/1.4 when I want to slow down, and the 75mm f/1.8, which has become essential. At 75mm, space compresses. Ordinary places start to feel slightly off, almost suspended. That sense of compressed stillness is exactly what I’m after.

Today, my work lives mostly in color. For a while, black and white was important. It taught me how to compose, how to exclude, how to use contrast. But it was more of a personal challenge, a way to grow, not a final direction. Now I use color to look at marginal places: off-season seaside towns, empty spaces, ordinary architecture that usually goes unnoticed because it doesn’t seem worth looking at. These are places I know, and in some way, they belong to me.

I’m not trying to sound poetic, but the gear matters less than the decision to go out and shoot. Still, I won’t deny the pull of the X-E5. It makes me want to carry it everywhere. Even when I’m not planning to shoot.

Photography takes up a big part of my days. Not always shooting, but also studying, looking at the work of other photographers, or simply searching for locations for the next time out.

Like any form of expression, it starts for yourself, but at some point it becomes something others see too.

And that’s fine.

“You make the honey, bees, but others enjoy it.”

Gear:

• Fujifilm X-E5 
• Fujifilm XF 16mm f/2.8
• Fujifilm XF 35mm f/1.4 
• Samyang 75mm f/1.8 
• Godox iT30 Pro flash (occasionally) 
• Wrist strap 
• Loulex camera bag 
• UGREEN 10,000mAh power bank 
• 2 spare batteries

Andrea Palmulli, 32
Roma, Italia

IG: @aandrewpal 

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