Aurora Demasi is a 20-year-old University student from Rome who has made some strong, striking B&W work. It’s digital, but has a medium-format feel. She has a real flare for working with light,  and for  creating sophisticated and uncluttered compositions. This is impressive work from someone so young. She told us a bit about her nascent photographic pursuit:

Are you a professional photographer/student/serious amateur?

I'm a student and a serious amateur. I'm 20, started to take pictures at the age of 14 or 15. University is now giving me the chance to expand my knowledge with photography production and postproduction.

How much of your work in is B&W?

I believe a 40% now, counting my recent work. But I intend to increase it more and more in the future.

Why is so much of your work is in B&W; what does working in B&W mean to you?

I still have to find the answer to that. It's something I can't really explain well, since I get this ''different'' feeling every time I see a good B&W pic, a feeling, which I think is due to some emotional matters, that sometimes colors pics can't (paradoxically) convey.

Where do you find inspiration? Who are you photo heroes?

I find my everyday photo heroes on the net. The Flickr explore page

is an example of how you can daily find photo heroes by simply clicking

the re-load button.

Technical: camera, lenses, film, darkroom approach & materials (or if digital, any tech info).

I'm 20 and so I had a digital approach to photography, thanks to a video camera I found at home at the age of

14. Had my first reflex camera (a Canon 350D) at the age of 15.

I recently upgraded to a Canon 5D with a Canon

50mm 1.8, a Sigma 20 1.8, and two AWESOME old manual lenses which I'm enjoying always more: A Zeiss 135 f 2.8 and a Helios 58mm f2, a lens I bought used in mint condition for 7 euros which I truly, truly

(already said truly?) love.

I have a digital approach to photography, due to my young age. But I really would like to experience darkroom work and the film world sooner or later, since it's so fascinating.

Is B&W especially popular in your country? If so, any idea why?

Not really. One famous photographer (and poet) who comes in my mind

right now is Mario Giacomelli, who has recently passed away. He used

to shoot B&W only: high-contrast pics with a cool, strong grain I

really like. Some of his earliest works: (''Io non

ho mani che mi accarezzino il volto'', ''Lourdes'' and ''Zingari'') are

my favorites)