Entry Title: " Charlie"
Name: Lorenzo Martelli, Italy
Category: Non-Professional, Lifestyle


Entry Description: His grandfather was the one who renounced wealth and nobility titles leaving Charlie with the longing of still running the long lost family lands. From the seventies, Charlie has shared his daily life with more than thirty stray dogs. Today he still has four plus nearly forty cats. From the moment he started devoting his energies to his animals he never left Milan and rarely ventures out of his own neighborhood. In the spring, 2010, I asked Charlie permission to take pictures of him. Before my intrusion, the apartment in which he had been born and raised was but a fortress that has remained sealed for decades.

Lorenzo Martelli was born in 1986 and graduated from the Brera Art Institute of Milan, Italy. In 2007 he became acquainted with photographer Ernesto Bazan while attending his workshops in both Italy and Brasil. These initial meetings lead to a friendship and later collaboration: the creation and founding of independent publishing company, Bazan Photos Publishing. In the meantime, Lorenzo began visiting MiCamera Gallery and Bookstore in Milan. He attended several workshops with photographers such as Mark Steinmetz and Joakim Eskildsen, which helped him to pursue his own projects while affirming his interest in the publication of others'. In 2010, after several years of research and preparation, he presents his first project, Charlie.