Bored Panda has reached out to Gabriele to find out more about the “Toy Stories” project. Starting from the beginning, we wanted to know the genesis of this series. The photographer told us: “I started this project almost by accident. In 2010 and 2011 I was working for an Italian magazine called "D di La Repubblica," I had a weekly column about travel and hospitality. Basically, I traveled to 56 countries around the world for two years going to sleep in the homes of people who were hosting me through the website couchsurfing.org. Every week I would publish portraits of the people who hosted me and their stories in the magazine. A few weeks before that long trip, a dear friend of mine had called me to her home to take photographs of her daughter Alessia. When I arrived there, Alessia (4 years old at the time) was putting her toys in order. I helped her, had the idea to advise her to put them in order by shape and color, and without realizing it I took the first photo of this project. I really liked that photo and then decided to try to replicate the same concept in every country I would visit during my couchsurfing world tour.” 

Next, Gabriele gave us more insights about the project: “ I gave myself one rule: find children between the ages of 3 and 6 and photograph them with their favorite toys. I chose this age because I thought that in those years children have only one concern: to play! The children I then photographed were often, if not always, related to the families who were hosting me. Sometimes children or grandchildren, sometimes neighbors, or children of friends, etc. During that trip, I photographed about 70 of them. Then over the years, I kept photographing new ones every time I was visiting a country where I had never been before. I think right now my project has more than 100 photographs.”

Asked about his approach to photographing children who may not have been accustomed to being in front of a camera, Gabriele explained the whole process: “As a first thing I certainly always need the complicity of the parents who are the first to explain the idea of my photographs to their children, while I show them the photos I have taken previously. It is very nice then to see that in 90% of cases, the children immediately understand the concept and participate in the shooting as if it were a game. This is perhaps less easy when they are 3-year-olds ... but when they are 5-6 years old they immediately understand what I am doing and participate while having fun.”

We wanted to find out if there was any particularly memorable experience photographer had while working on the "Toy Stories" project, but Gabriele shortly answered that: “It is not easy to tell an only story. Every family I met, and every child I photographed, left me with unique memories and teachings.

Given the nature of working with young children, it is hard to imagine that it would always be easy. This is why we asked about any difficulties or challenges that Gabriele Galimberti faced during his work on the "Toy Stories" project.The photographer told us: “Honestly, not many challenges, the children quickly understand what I am doing and almost always enjoy participating and then seeing the comparison with the pictures I have taken of other children. I only remember a couple of cases where I had to give up taking the picture because the child was crying and didn't want me to touch and play with his toys. In these cases I immediately step back, never wanting to force the situation. The parents, however, almost always step in, they seem to be the ones who want the children to be part of my project. I then give them time to calm down, to regain serenity with the parents, and if that happens then I take the picture, otherwise, I give up.”

As we know, extensive travel and immersion in different cultures impact a personal worldview and approach to various aspects of life. We wanted to know how did it affect Gabriele and his photography. He said: “Obviously, all my travels have taught me millions of things and shaped my personality during all these years, and certainly helped me to know the world and understand things that were previously unknown to me. Certainly, they taught me to feel good with almost all people and to know how to quickly empathize with and trust them. however, it is difficult to be able to tell in a single answer to this interview what are all the things on which I have changed. And as far as photography is concerned, I can say that she has been my most loyal travel companion. Photography and I walked hand in hand and it was she who helped me to see and learn about the world, she was the one who helped me become familiar with people and gain their trust, she was the one who gave me the ability and the possibility to then tell the things I have experienced and learned about people in all these years.”

Lastly, we asked how Gabriele understands the role of photography in promoting cross-cultural understanding and empathy. He told us: “Photography is a language that unites almost all the people of this planet, it has the ability to make us communicate with everyone even if we don't know the language spoken in each country... this it does because it is itself a language by now. Almost every person takes photographs on a daily basis and in most cases shares them on social media where the whole world can see them. Through photography, you can understand the thought of the person who took it, his state of love, and his desire to communicate or hide something about himself. This communicative power undoubtedly helps cross-cultural understanding and empathy.”