I wasn’t raised in kitchens. I made my way to them. I’m Renzo Leopoldo. I document food the way some people document war, with memory, smoke, and salt. I cook because I couldn’t afford not to. I photograph because someone should remember it right. I live in Italy. I work everywhere. This isn’t a portfolio. It’s a field record.
Cooking taught me discipline. Photography taught me patience.
I photograph what time forgets, before it’s gone.
I shoot to preserve tension, the moment just before it settles.
—41.9028° N / 12.4964° E
the
ARCHIVAL CUT
I founded my studio in Rome with a single belief: photography should hold weight. It should endure. For over a decade, I’ve created work rooted in memory, images that don’t just capture what was seen, but how it was lived. With a background in cinema and archival imagery, I now work internationally, focusing on story-driven commissions for chefs, makers, curators, and cultural spaces.
My process blends cinematic structure with raw presence, layered compositions, lived-in light, and a tactile, analog sensibility influenced by the visual language of the 1970s. Every commission is handled from start to finish, from concept development to final delivery, with care, discretion, and a deep sense of trust between myself and the client. Whether documenting a space, a table, or a practice, my focus is always the same: to preserve something real, with intention.
This studio remains independent by design, working selectively, never in volume, and always with focus. The images created here are not trends. They are records. Proof of presence. With a growing archive and a limited annual calendar, I’m shaping a body of work that stands quietly apart: personal, evocative, and unwavering in its depth.
→ A WORKING PRACTICE
THE LENS
—41.9028° N / 12.4964° E
I was born in southern Italy to a home where memory lived in the kitchen. Raised by my grandmother while my parents worked long hours, I learned to observe before I was taught to speak. I watched recipes passed down by instinct, not by measurement, and understood early on that some of the most meaningful things in life are unspoken. That intuition became my foundation, first in food, then in photography.
By my early twenties, I had left the countryside and moved between Rome and Paris, studying cinema and working in kitchens to support myself. I began photographing the quiet rituals of food preparation, scratched cutting boards, flickering stovetops, the rhythm of hands, and found that the intimacy I once witnessed in my childhood was something I could now frame and preserve. Over time, my lens shifted from restaurants to people: artists, writers, editors, and collectors who wanted to be documented not as subjects, but as themselves.
Today, I work between Italy and abroad, offering a select number of commissions each year. My work is defined by its cinematic influence, analog process, and an instinct for tension, capturing people in their in-between moments, where something real is still unfolding. I continue to cook daily, often photographing the meals I prepare myself. For me, photography and cooking are not separate passions, they’re parallel rituals of care, attention, and preservation.
This is what I do: part craftsman, part chronicler. My work is less about taking photographs, and more about making sure someone remembers.
DOCUMENTING THE UNSEEN
ARCHIVE // ENTRY ONE
RL
Under Light, With Purpose
True luxury isn’t perfection, it’s presence. The smoke, the sound, the silence.
GUIDING LINE
Images that increase in value and meaning with time.
Created slowly. Remembered deeply.
LEGACY
Everything in frame must be earned.
If it doesn’t serve the story, it doesn’t stay.
PHILOSOPHY
Visual restraint. Emotional clarity. No staging.
METHOD
Enneagram 4w5 , The Individualist, The Observer
ARCHETYPE
—41.9028° N / 12.4964° E
the RECORD
— Giulia Ventresca Executive Chef, Milan
“Renzo doesn’t just photograph food—he captures the soul of the kitchen. His sessions felt effortless, but what he delivered was sharp, editorial, and emotional. I’ve worked with a dozen photographers. He’s the one I’d call again.”
—41.9028° N / 12.4964° E
— Andrés Costa, Restauranteur
“There’s a richness to his work that you don’t often see in commercial shoots. He saw the beauty in the chaos of our prep kitchen and turned it into art. Our site’s never looked better.”
ROME, ITALY
—41.9028° N / 12.4964° E
— Noah Browns, Food Writer, Rome
“Renzo’s images made the feature sing. It was like the dishes were telling their own story. He has that rare ability to photograph flavor—and memory. That’s not something you can fake.”
ROME, ITALY
—41.9028° N / 12.4964° E
— Marie-Claire Dubois, Creative Director
““We hired him for a shoot and came away with a full campaign. The way he interprets place, plate, and purpose is masterful. He works quietly, but the impact is loud.”
ROME, ITALY
—41.9028° N / 12.4964° E
Every commission begins with an exchange, sometimes clear, sometimes uncertain. Whether you arrive with a defined brief or an instinct you haven’t yet named, I approach both the same way: with attention, discretion, and an understanding that the work often starts before the camera is ever lifted.
If you’re here considering a project of your own, I welcome the conversation. This is where the dialogue begins, measured, grounded, and shaped by intent.
— A Direct Exchange
