In this age of economic recession and Euro soccer cup fervor, it might come as a surprise that Italians and English would combine into creating something together. It might even come as a bigger surprise that the result could be such an appealing collection of travel images.
Back in 1995, italian photographers Johanna Huber and Giovanni Simeone created a travel agency called SIME. In these times of film, both were known for they creative and majestic large format photography. It was not long before other extremely inspired photographers joined them and together, built the agency into a very successful destination. Their demand for perfection was so acute that one of the photographers went as far as building his own camera, unsatisfied with the results he would get with those available on store shelves.

Not so long after the turn of the century, in 2004,as the digital revolution had started to heavily impact the photo industry business, photo agency 4Corners was born in London. Headed by Carlo Irek , it quickly assimilated its inspiration from its sister agency, SIME and with english discernment started building upon their success, quickly becoming a key resource for the image hungry english press. It pioneered the “motographs”, images taken by photographers who travel the four corners of the UK islands in a camper car, braving weather and long isolation to capture the best lights available.

“Whilst still gathering new contributors, Sime and 4Corners Images stay true to the adage that less is more by editing hard and working closely with gifted photographers to find new and different ways to bring unique travel photography to the market” says Sladja Kisic, Business Development Manager . No wonder their tag line is “Photography you can feel”

For their introductory appearance in La Lettre, 4Corners has decided to show us images of Sicily:

“Many travel photographers are obsessed with covering as much ground as possible, constantly buzzing from one destination to another.
Sime and 4Corners’ photographers get under the skin of a place, and capture the flavor of a location as well as its obvious natural beauty, giving us a genuine sense of place. This is perhaps most evident in the agencies’ collection of Sicily. By choosing to specialize in photographing the place they live in, by being still rather than running around the world, The Sicilian photographers’ work has a depth and perspective on the island’s daily life, of its people and traditions that can’t possibly be emulated in a short visit. Everything on the island revolves around Mount Etna - the heart of Sicily and her people, the colors, sea, the thousand years of history...and the photographers’ investment of time and patience is evident.

For more information on SIME or 4Corners, please email at info@4cornersimages.com or info@simephoto.com

Paul Melcher
Paul.Melcher@lalettredelaphotographie.com