Have you ever arrived at a city’s landmark only to be mobbed by hundreds of other photographers? Sometimes when travelling – or even walking around your hometown – it can seem that everyone is shooting the same thing in the same way. But there’s a lot more to urban life than that. According to Davide Oricchio, all you need to do is explore, look around you, and get creative.

An experienced travel and documentary photographer, Davide takes his approach from the simple desire to discover new things. Repetition is not a good look for him. “What I’ve always loved about travel,” he explains, “is experiencing new cultures and interacting with locals, but in ways that are not part of the touristic perspective. I like to connect, often with a guide, who can help me uncover new places, or I go alone to discover them in a new light. In that way, I’m able to tell a different kind of story – one that’s more authentic than a standard perspective.”

It’s an approach, says Davide, that can be used anywhere, and simply involves tapping into the enthusiasm of discovery, at home or abroad. Recently shooting in his home city of Rome, Davide’s images show the same freshness of uncovering scenes that he’d feel on the other side of the world.“What you notice,” he explains, “is that when you are in a new place, you’re constantly looking, searching. You notice differences everywhere, and it’s interesting. “

“My approach,” he continues, “is to be passionate and open to discovery and put it into capturing your home city, too. Remain focused, looking for moments, details and patterns of life in a context. If you imagine everything is new, you can be more creative in your work. A big part of that is personal touch, new perspectives, looking for new locations, exploring areas outside of the touristic mainstream, or shooting the better known sites at unusual times so that they have a different mood.”

Davide likes to keep his approach as natural as possible, shooting mostly handheld favouring a relaxed process and –  often using the FE 35mm f/1.4 GM – working with a lens that gives a very human and documentary perspective. “I prefer to follow the flow of the city, and see where my feet take me,” he explains, “and living in the moment in that way gives more interesting results than following an itinerary!”

"As for the FE 35mm f/1.4," Davide continues, "it’s a lens that’s able to show a more realistic side to the city, but still make it look beautiful. The look it gives and the way it renders a scene is very close to human vision, and so it provides a great documentary connection, where for instance, a much longer lens can compress the frame and have the opposite effect. It’s also a highly versatile lens," he praises, "because you can do many types of photography with it: portraits, street photography, I can even use it for landscape or reportage."

Mounted on his Alpha 7 IV, Davide feels he has the perfect tools for his refreshing brand of travel photography, and a camera "that’s also great because I only need to carry one body around all day for both stills and video – a real win for anyone who’s lugged heavy bags around shooting travel. The Alpha 7 IV’s in-body stabilisation also lets me shoot handheld with much greater sharpness in stills and smoothness in video."

"With an increased resolution of 33MP compared to its predecessor,” he continues, “the Alpha 7 IV also gives me the ability to print with greater confidence, and allied to that are the great colour science it provides straight out of the camera, I’m able to do everything perfectly according to my editing style, from color grading to minimally adjusting the vibrancy of my images!

All of these features help Davide get to the heart of storytelling, a process he sees as “putting a message inside the images I make – something that the viewer can connect to. If we keep seeing the same views in the same way, it gets boring and it says nothing. A good image needs more than simple aesthetics, and by adding context, reality, and a personal touch, I can tell a more interesting and richer story. For example, when small details catch your eye, like the vines growing up the side of a building, they might not seem important to someone who’s only focused on the checklist of a city’s highlights, but to me they’re emblematic of Roman life. The Alpha 7 IV is the perfect tool for helping me bring such an image to life and capture those unique perspectives of a city."