From Milan’s frantic runways to the monumental stillness of Doha, Italian photographer Mirco Panaccio found not just a new city, but a new way of seeing. We caught up with him to learn more.

When Mirco Panaccio left Milan five years ago, he wasn’t simply trading one city for another. He was leaving behind a system. “Milan is fast-paced, rooted in tradition, defined by constant competition,” he recalls. For years, that tempo had shaped his career.

But when the pandemic hit, everything fractured. Italy’s photography industry, once buzzing, slowed to a crawl. “It felt like the right moment to embrace change,” he recalls. Following his partner to Qatar, he landed in Doha with little more than his cameras and the determination to rebuild from zero.

What he discovered wasn’t just new geography but a radically different rhythm. “Doha taught me to breathe differently, to listen more to spaces and to people.” The phrase is almost whispered, but it carries the weight of a revelation. In the city’s slower, more expansive air, he began to see that photography could be more than an endless chase for aesthetics. The desert light, the hush of dawn and the vastness of the city’s architecture all conspired to slow his gaze, transforming it into an act of presence, patience and attention to the pauses between gestures.

The Geometry of Silence
Doha quickly became his studio. Its contradictions, from mirrored glass towers to sharp-edged geometry melting into infinite desert, reshaped his way of seeing. “The city is a constant play of contrasts,” he says. “It taught me to work with emptiness and with lines, to let the frame breathe.”

His compositions followed that lesson: models began to inhabit the environment rather than stand against it, and architecture shifted from backdrop to partner. He explains: “When I shoot, I try to translate that essential monumentality into images that are both intimate and powerful, where the subject engages in a dialogue with the space instead of being overwhelmed by it.”

That stillness soon became a signature. Yet Mirco insists his approach is not about rigid control, saying: “I prepare every detail with care, but I always leave room for the unexpected.” A gust of wind that disturbs fabric, a spontaneous gesture that fractures symmetry… These intrusions are where life enters the frame.

That principle has carried him through projects of every scale. The most striking example came when he was asked to work as Dan Bilzerian’s personal photographer – for the uninitiated, he’s an American ‘influencer’ with 30 million Instagram followers. “It was a unique challenge: to portray such an exuberant personality without falling into stereotypes,” Mirco says. His solution was restraint. “I looked for balance between intensity and authenticity, highlighting the man behind the icon.”

The assignment provided creative freedom, but above all, it confirmed that his philosophy works anywhere: in the silence of the desert as much as under the spotlight of celebrity.

When Images Speak
These experiences reinforced his conviction that photography is not about excess but about essence. For Mirco, every assignment, whether extravagant or understated, begins with a story. “Everything else – a fabric, a gesture, an atmosphere – becomes part of that larger narrative,” he says. He approaches shoots as if they were screenplays, each frame a sentence, each sequence a chapter.

His devotion to storytelling sustains him in an age where photographs flood every screen. “I firmly believe a single image can still cut through the noise,” he insists. Yet the reason, he argues, isn’t technical perfection. “An unforgettable photograph is the one that speaks, that goes beyond technique and reaches the soul.”

That conviction has become his quiet rebellion. “Today we see millions of technically flawless photographs, but often without a voice.” For him, what counts is sincerity: a picture that touches, surprises or makes someone feel recognised. That, he believes, is where photography proves its power and becomes unforgettable.

Looking back, Mirco doesn’t see Doha as an escape but as an alignment. He carried Milan’s discipline across borders, but his new surroundings allowed him to soften it. He discovered spectacle not in extravagance but in subtler forms: the curve of a line, the hush of ritual, the geometry of shadows at dusk.

His photographs now carry both worlds inside them: the rigor of European fashion and the contemplation of the Gulf. They don’t scream for attention. They command it. They ask the viewer to stop, if only for an instant, and breathe differently. Just as Doha asked of him.

See more of Mirco’s work @mircopannacio ✤