There are a lot of way someone can use his celebrity, but one of the best way is when you use it for a good cause. That is why I have a lot of respect for the brands that associate themselves to causes, especially such as the fight against Aids… Having had a friend who lost her mother to Aids, this disease always frightened me in a way…

That’s why I was very happy to be the photographer for Eastpak‘s latest event in collaboration with Designer Against Aids: Eastpak Artist Studio Italian Launch, who took place in the art gallery and shop XL Combine in Milan.

The rest of my pictures can be viewed on Eastpak’s facebook here. Also below, the video of the event plus the video of the Fikera Studio bag… 😉

The Artist Studio project reunites 130 various artists from all around the world. Each of them had to customize one or more of the classic Eastpak backpack which will be later sold on the 19th of March in an Internet auction on their website. The profits of the sales will be then reinvested into the fight against Aids and in the raise of its awareness.

Surprisingly there are still a lot of people today that think that Aids happens only in Africa or among the gays and drug addicts… In the 90s, this way of thinking was still acceptable but nowadays it is very scary to know that some people still think as such and never got tested in their life because “they know” they don’t have anything or because obviously it only happen to others.

And yes there are treatment for HIV and Aids but to this day there are still no cure which means that even thought the victims might have a longer life expectancy, people still die of it every day and everywhere. And the scariest things is that the numbers keep increasing especially among the “straight” community and the under 30s…

So my advice is this: Until you and your partner get tested, the condom will be your only way to keep the control of your life! And if you don’t have a regular partner, you shouldn’t even be second guessing the use of condoms…

[youtube w=”680″ h=”376″]http://youtu.be/yHLTmnk7w3w[/youtube]
[youtube w=”680″ h=”376″]http://youtu.be/A6iiQvu17Dw[/youtube]

Bag: Fikera Studio and Eastpak – Dress: 2nd hand from some boutique in NY – Tight: Veritas

And to end, here are a recent campaign that in my opinion illustrates very well the problem of Aids, not so much for the numbers but more for the fact that each person is part of a castle card and just one person can make everyone else collapse…

Here is another set of pictures I shot for the Luisa Via Roma‘s Firenze4Ever event.

Those pictures were taken on a rooftop near the Duomo, so you can only imagine how amazing the view was…* Especially with this light!

We had a lot of fun shooting these as we were trying to recreate a romantic atmosphere and I thought the choice of clothes was quite in tune with the mood… The colours of this Cavalli dress were just perfect with the skyline…

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*Talking about the view… I have to admit that looking down was quite scary… 😉

So as I told you in my previous post, last weekend I was in Florence at the Luisa Via Roma store to shoot the styling session of Zarko and Emilie and Bo from Fashiolista…

The concept was simple. They each had to select clothes from the store to create up to three different silouhettes. They could either wear their own selection or have models  showcase them.

This set of pictures are from Zarko’s first selection. He had the lovely Alina and Walter modelling the silouhettes he created. The day was perfect for shooting outdoor as there was an amazing light so we decided to use the city of Florence as our set! We found this little street which was perfect as it was hidden from the sales frenzy that was taking place everywhere… On and all it was a really fun session!

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Ps: How cool are those Pierre Hardy shoes??

Next pictures coming soon… 😉

Alina: Burberry Prorsum shirt – Burberry Brit leather jacket – Balmain high waisted raffia skirt – Fendi the Fendista mini shoulder bag – Pierre Hardy sandal wedges.

Walter: Burberry Prorsum trench coat – Maison Martin Margiela leather loafers – Givenchy shirt – Zagliani Volo python bag.