From street photography to fashion photography, to publishing a fashion magazine -- that's the story of Biagio de Giovanni, Editor in Chief of FADDY Magazine. Based in Italy, Biagio started working on the magazine in 2018 and has already created a community that appreciates creativity, fashion and beauty. Ilze from Peecho talked to Biagio about his sources of inspiration for the magazine -- read the interview below.

What is your connection to photography?

In my day job, I am an IT technician, but for over ten years I've also been a passionate photographer. I started with street photography, and in 2013 I published my photobook StreetScapes. Me and my wife Alessandra used to live in Spain for a while, where she started modelling, working with some great fashion and beauty photographers. Although my role was only to take her to the studios, this got me interested in fashion photography. Soon, I set up a studio at home, and started practicing by photographing Alessandra at first. After attending many courses and workshops, I started to do fashion photography with other models. I've kept studying and practicing, and after several years, my job was recognised with publications in several fashion magazines.

And that's when you decided to create the magazine?

I started FADDY Magazine in 2018 together with my wife Alessandra Galati and some friends from fashion photography. It took a couple of months to form the team and receive the approval from Kavyar Portal, which is one of the main submissions websites for our magazine.Our aim is to promote and connect fashion photographers and artists, creating a community of creative professionals from all over the globe. We would like to become a leading fashion style authority with a dynamic mix of print and online media.Our audience is global. The majority of photoshoots come from the United States, Italy, and Canada, but we also get a lot of submissions from Russia, Poland, and Australia. Besides Italy, our major contributors in Europe come from Spain, Germany, France and the UK.

What's your life as a self-publisher like?

As this is not my main job, I can only spend a couple of hours per day on the magazine. My team, especially the fashion editor and the graphic designer, have more time available and help me put together each issue. At the moment FADDY Magazine is still more like a hobby for me, but the number of submissions we receive is increasing every month. That kind of regular income is at least enough to cover the expenses that we have.I wish I had more time to do photography, besides my primary job and my family. FADDY Magazine is my first experience with magazine publishing, and I really hope it will be a long adventure.

Has Peecho been helpful for you? Would you recommend it to others?

Yes. At the very beginning we had another partner for printing, but after discovering Peecho we switched to Peecho. First of all, the price is better than that of competitors. Second, I like that we can choose which currency to use for selling. I also appreciate the ability to customize the process of selling and to include the code for checkout directly into our webpage. The printing quality of Peecho is one of the best I have experienced. The possibility to decide between several formats (size, color or black and white, print or digital) is an extra feature that we appreciate a lot. Also the possibility to ship practically all over the world is something very important for us. For example, we have a number of clients in Russia, and we were not able to sell magazines to them until we started using Peecho.

Has being an Editor in Chief of a fashion magazine changed how you look at photography?

Yes, being the Editor in Chief is helping me a lot on improving my sense of photography -- and fashion, too. I review many fashion editorials daily. I can learn a lot from my contributors, and I also get a lot of inspiration from the process. To buy FADDY Magazine in print, click here. Follow them on Instagram (FaddyMagazine), Facebook (FaddyMag), or check out their website: https://faddymag.com/

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