‘We were in the Alps, on one of the most spectacular train journeys you can make. I love how the yawning man contrasts with the majesty of the mountains outside’

I’m very attached to this photograph. It was taken during the first real holiday I had with my father. Of course I’d travelled with him and my mother when I was a child, but I had to wait until I was 39 to have the experience of travelling just with him. There was no specific reason why in September 2015 we decided to take a trip of a few days into Switzerland, but I’m so glad we did. It was a magical experience and helped us better know and understand each other. And it was on that trip that I took this image that proved a turning point in my photographic career.

We were on the Bernina Express, which leaves Tirano in the north of Italy every day and travels across the Alps into Switzerland. The distinctive red train takes a historic Unesco world heritage route on the Alps’ highest railway and is one of the steepest railway climbs in the world. It’s surely one of the most beautiful and spectacular train journeys you’ll ever make.

My father and I took the train that day to St Moritz. In that cramped train compartment my original intention had been to take a photograph that showed the silhouettes of the people inside contrasted with the bright sun and the mountains outside. I was trying to get the picture I wanted but the man closest to the window kept moving, fidgeting, yawning and breaking the balance of the composition I had envisaged. I was feeling very frustrated. Then suddenly in a moment I realised that if I changed my way of seeing the scene in front of me, what had been an annoyance could instead become the focus and fulcrum of my image. The train compartment was small so I used a low perspective and shot from below. Instead of a simple photo with a landscape and shadows I had an image that was both humorous and ironic and full of meaning.

The man was, I think, a German tourist – at least he and his companions spoke German and I understood they were on the train to go trekking in the Alps. He knew I was taking photos but he didn’t say anything, he just continued to yawn. What I love about this image is how it contrasts a banal event – a man who yawns and is indifferent to the landscape – with the sheer majesty of the mountains outside.

Prior to this I hadn’t done much street photography. I am shy and an introvert and found it difficult to go into public places and take photos of people I didn’t know. Up to that point I had dedicated myself to landscapes – which meant I didn’t have to engage with people! But that day in the train, the yawning man didn’t say anything or object to my camera and I realised the worst thing that can happen if you’re photographing people in public was that they’d ask you not to, or to delete the photo. Maybe it’s then that I realised my fellow humans weren’t all that intimidating, and from that day in the Bernina Express I started to take a different kind of photo.

I like to shoot in cramped spaces – trains, restaurants, public places where you can be sure that with so many people something unexpected is always happening

The best street photography should present the ordinary through a new perspective. I like to shoot in cramped spaces – trains, restaurants, public places where you can be sure that with so many people something is always happening, and often something unexpected. Martin Parr is a major influence. Like him, I prefer to use humour and irony in my images. I don’t choose to shoot scenes of violence or conflict, or to tell stories about social deprivation. I like to observe people and capture moments where we are unguarded.

I live in Trieste, on the north-east coast of Italy, and I take a lot of my photographs on the beach. Parr has called the beach “that rare public space in which all absurdities and quirky national behaviours can be found”. When people are off duty, on the beach or on a tourist train, you find strange or surreal moments that don’t happen when the usual constraints of everyday life are on us. A good photo is not just a reproduction of reality but it must also be your interpretation of it. I work mostly in black and white as it gives you the opportunity to offer a different way of seeing the everyday.

I love the opportunities photography gives me to experiment. My day job is teaching Italian literature and Latin at a high school. Maybe I wouldn’t enjoy taking pictures so much if it were my job and I couldn’t shoot what I wanted.

CV

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: Giancarlo Staubmann

Born: Trieste, Italy, 1976.

Trained: A degree in classics; mostly self taught in photography.

Influences: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Robert Frank, Elliott Erwitt, Vivian Maier, Martin Parr, Alex Webb, Todd Hido.

High point: “My work was selected by Martin Parr and Nick Turpin at the Urban Photo awards 2019.”

Low point: “Every time I can’t shoot the photograph as I would like.”

Top tip: “Never stop questioning yourself.”