Cole Sprouse: A Story of Rebirth Captured by Niccolò Lapo Latini
Ready to examine the world through his camera lens, Sprouse seeks to define "the spaces" we occupy. He's now opened his first official website to exhibit his best works with a selection of limited edition prints for sale worldwide.
International celebrity and actor Cole Sprouse has become the protagonist and author of his career, turning his passion into his dream job. Now, he is ready to capture the world around him and, as he has said, "the spaces" we occupy, which both alienate and unite us. It's an artistic and human rebirth, his photography, for the child star. It's made him feel happier and freer.
The decision to launch his first official website came this fall. The site serves as a virtual space where he can display his best works and offer a series of more intimate prints for sale worldwide. The sale of "Fallen Tree," launched last November with the platform itself, will give its proceeds to the Nature Based Solutions Foundations and the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, both dedicated to the protection of ancient forests in British Columbia, Canada. Niccolò Lapo Latini had a chance to chat with Sprouse about this new venture, a unique meeting between Generation Y and Generation Z.
Cole enhanced my childhood by giving lightness and smiles to my afternoons after school. Having rediscovered him a few years later as a photographer was a further source of inspiration and teaching on how people can self-determine career and future by improving their path and their vision. Today, with this collaboration, I am really happy to have helped support your new project. In a way it is like having been able to give back, with gratitude, some of that joy and support that he gave me when I was a child. I wish him the best, fingers crossed!" ADV Niccolò Lapo Latini
Niccolò Lapo Latini: You have been an actor and model for a long time, has your experience as a performer helped your photography? Can you better understand what is happening on the other side of the photographic lens?
Cole Sprouse: I grew up surrounded by cameras, especially film cameras, so behind the camera lens I had a relatively thorough understanding of the technical aspects of framing and composition.
NLL: On the other hand, how much do you think your work as an actor and model can be improved thanks to the beginning of your career as a photographer?
CS: Switching to photography taught me a lot about how I wanted subjects to interact with my recording devices and how certain frames and lenses limited or allowed for different types of movement and emotion. At the time, I had no intention of returning to acting. However, by sheer coincidence, photography gave me several technical advantages, and eventually, I even went back.
NLL: For an artist, starting a new project is like taking the field for an athlete. You feel the enthusiasm and adrenaline of the performance. Which part of your work stimulates you the most and excites you at this moment in your life?
CS: My acting career up to now has been quite commercial and working for commercial interests. There is always a series of restrictions and impositions from the upper echelons, which is typical for most of the younger actors. Your image, as a subject, is often shaped by people above you. When I started taking pictures, I regained full control of my art. My vision has been trusted and this new feeling has empowered me. Having achieved artistic independence and therefore having the possibility of expressing myself without limits, with harmony and balance, is definitely stimulating.
NLL: Unlike acting, photography is certainly a more autonomous and independent discipline. You decide what to shoot, how, and when, especially outside of commissioned works. Have you ever used this new freedom in favor of a cause that is particularly close to you?
CS: I suppose the story of Fairy Creek, which inspired the current sale of charity prints on my platform, can be seen as a photographic series of social critiques. While I may idealize staying an impartial observer, when shooting reports or spending enough time on the front line with a community or movement, it becomes impossible and utterly inhuman not to empathize or express closeness.
NLL: What is the common denominator in your shots? Do you think there is an underlying message that binds your works consciously or not?
CS: The common denominator has always been space and how it is occupied. We are constantly informed and stimulated by the surrounding environment and by those in which we live our daily lives. Perhaps growing up in the spotlight from an early age influenced my fascination with landscapes, but I found even more spirituality and meditation in them when I began to venture alone to my favorite places and landscapes, photographing them silently. Even in my fashion shots, the surrounding landscape remains a present and fundamental element. I suppose the message, therefore, is to encourage people to establish and adopt a better language and communication between themselves and the spaces they live in. I believe that the search for this almost sensorial and emotional contact will be increasingly important in our lives as we constantly continue to separate physical from virtual identity through the use of new technologies and social media.
NLL: Has photography made you happier and more complete from an artistic and human point of view?
CS: It definitely made me happier. Communicating our ideas freely, as artists or simply as human beings, must not be a luxury but a right and a necessity for our survival. It is important, it makes us alive as much as breathing, certainly one of the main points of distinction and elevation for the modern man. All this may seem exaggerated perhaps, but even small acts of expression can put us in contact with a part of ourselves. I think we should have the courage and drive to test our limits and experiment with new forms of communication. I might be shit with the trombone, but at least I can say I know how a spit valve works. That sounded more erotic than I expected. The point is yes, Niccolò, photography has made me happier.
