True locals: by and about star photographer Fabrice Dall'Anese

Fabrice is actually a lawyer. He studied in Paris and London until he finally wrote his doctorate in Munich. As a balance to the dry doctoral thesis, he set up his first photo exhibition - with his vacation pictures. It was a lucky coincidence that this very exhibition brought him a job offer for the semester break that would change his life. "That was the turning point of my life. It was the summer of 2000, after which I was a different person," Fabrice recounts. Because during those three months, he got to work with people who lived their passion to the fullest. This experience gave the then 24-year-old the courage and necessary tailwind to take a big step: To start his own business in photography. "I had my midlife crisis very early on," Fabrice smiles. Luckily! Because he has not regretted this step to this day. In the meantime, his job, portrait photography in the field of cinema, takes him all around the world. And when he's not jetting around the globe, he's relaxing on a family vacation in the Olympiaregion Seefeld.

480 seconds. 8 minutes. That's about 630 heartbeats or 80 blinks. That's exactly how little time Fabrice usually has to put the celebrities in the best light. After that, they're gone, and the perfect picture has to be in the can. Time: That's probably the biggest challenge in Fabrice's job when working with the stars. How do you get a good, real portrait shot in such a short amount of time?"You have to leave room for the unexpected."Finding and bringing out the emotion in the shortest amount of time is a huge challenge.

"You also have to be open to surprises. And flexible," Fabrice tells us. He always prepares well for the photo shoots, so that he goes to the set with ideas and notions of how he wants to show the stars and how he will get them there. But that doesn't always work out: then you have to be flexible and spontaneous enough to immediately let go of your ideas and notions and go for the new.Sometimes it happens that a celebrity who is actually totally likeable has a bad day. And you have to give him credit for that. But sometimes you're lucky, then suddenly someone who says no to everything suddenly says yes."It's a gift - you just have to be there and be ready to accept it."

Fabrice was able to experience exactly such a gift with the two-time Oscar winner Kevin Costner: Fabrice lived and worked with him on his ranch for a whole 4 days. "We had breakfast together and sat around the campfire together at the end of the day. That's pretty special," Fabrice recalls. Since then, by the way, Costner's ranch has also had its own campfire site, built by Fabrice: At the end of the production, the photographer really wanted another photo by the fire, but none of the sites seemed right to him. So Costner said without further ado: "Build your own: Take a few stones, make a place for yourself, bring some beer and this will be your place forever".

But Fabrice doesn't always have only stars and starlets in front of his camera. From time to time, he also photographs laypeople. "Working with inexperienced people is an exciting task that you can't compare at all," he thinks.Now Fabrice works together with the "region originals". In the course of the shootings with the personalities from the Olympiaregion Seefeld, Fabrice had many encounters that touched him. Two special shootings have remained in his memory in particular. One of them was with art smith Alfons, who otherwise rarely lets anyone into his workshop. "That was a human highlight and a pleasure!" says Fabrice in retrospect. "Everything was just perfect": the fire, the hard work, the coal-black hands - it could hardly have been better for the emotion and mood in Fabrice's pictures.A winter shoot has also stuck very much in his mind: On a freezing cold winter morning, he took pictures of a snow groomer - in the middle of a snowstorm. The image reflects exactly what Fabrice wants to show with his works: "Man in his structure." The intensity of the image is overwhelming, he is pleased to say. It's hard to plan something like this: the weather is certainly also one of those gifts that you just have to accept...

Few people know how much work actually goes into his portraits. But there's much more to a good picture than what you see. "Nowadays, everyone always has a camera with them," says Fabrice, pointing to smartphones. "From 8-year-olds to 70-year-olds, everyone is taking pictures." In just two clicks, the camera is ready. And thanks to Instagram and the like, everyone also has a gallery to show off their photos. People often ask Fabrice, "Wow, how did you take that photo?". They don't know how much work is already happening before Fabrice even picks up his camera. First he tries to get an idea of the person, he thinks about what emotion he wants to show and how to evoke it. Only after a long period of conception and planning is he ready to take a photo. "There is the technical aspect and the human aspect. The technology and know-how is one thing - but the human aspect is the more important one," Fabrice reveals. Only by getting involved with the person on the other side of the camera can you take a good picture of him. To work with him, to bring something out of him. "We work together for something". Only those who have understood this can also become a good portrait photographer.

Fabrice has been coming to the Region Seefeld with his family for 6 years now. "I'm in love!" he admits with a smile. "Living on the plateau does people good," he thinks. Indeed, he always experiences a humanity and trust here that is becoming increasingly rare in big cities like Paris. "Here I believe again in original human exchanges. This hospitality and authenticity, which has already been lost elsewhere, you get to feel here." He appreciates the balance of old and new, quaint and modern, and the vast diversity of the region. While his children go skiing, he discovers the Olympic region - from alpaca hikes to full moon hikes to Shinrin Yoku forest bathing, Fabrice has already participated in plenty. And the region has so much to offer that he's far from done exploring.