Photographer Sante D'Orazio is a rare breed, a first-generation Italian-American from pre-gentrified Brooklyn. Although he was as American as any kid of his generation, the aura of Europe still clung to him. His mom was an opera singer at La Scala, his dad a champion cyclist. While his friends thought about making money, Sante thought about art, which he studied at Brooklyn College, the Brooklyn Museum and as the assistant of painter Philip Pearlstein.

One day he met a neighbor named Lou Bernstein, an art photographer in the manner of Edward Steichen whose work hangs in many museums including MoMA. Bernstein gave D'Orazio a Pentax and taught him photography by teaching him to see, and how to be in the moment.

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Source: http://www.maxim.com/