When and how did you get into photography?
This is difficult to define, I've been involved in the world of the image since I have memory... I was looking at magazines before I knew how to read... graphic images, typography and beauty always caught my eye... then when I was around 13 years I decided at that point that I did not have much to do inside my house and I decided it was better to spend all day on the street with my skateboard. For nearly two decades skateboarding and punk rock gave me values that have made me who I am today, I appreciate having those roots, now I know the street and I can move in marginal environments having moved away from the mainstream. It was at that time when I bought a camera, influenced by the great photographers of the world of skateboarding, I remember Dave Swift's work and Atiba Jefferson's style and precision... I started experimenting with film, flashes, cables and my friends. It was a wonderful time where there wasn't even internet or the digital world and to learn things you had to go outside and try it by yourself. Now it's all instantaneous and easy, you can download whatever, tutorials, technical tricks, its wonderful, and u can read blogs from the best photographers in the world... On the other hand I find it very strange when people write to me asking how they can do what I do, I usually reply, but basically I think that many young people have dead curiosity and are not able to discover things for themselves. The reality is that we are living in times where technical barriers are gone, you can buy a computer and camera gear that lets you take good quality photos for very cheap, so I hope to see many new talented photographers, and not just rich kids with money to buy expensive cameras as it was before! I mean 15 years ago it was a photographer who bought the expensive cameras, now it's different. A photographer can be someone who does something amazing with the same camera you bought to take your holiday photos with... For me photography was a game where I have fed my anxiety to investigate, discover and ask questions about a million things. When I turned professional it was a natural process, there was never an option for me, I always knew I wanted to live doing something I love. When I was young I dedicated myself to graphic design and for some years I made a living doing that, then I grabbed the camera and for a time I was obsessed with that. Then I moved to Barcelona and I fell in love with this f*cking city and spent two years doing everything away from the picture! haha. But now I think that time that I wasn't taking photos was the most creative period of my life. I began to think about what I wanted to do with the camera, I was living in a very precarious way, on edge, I did any kind of rare things to live, I played guitar on the street for coins, I traveled all over Spain to sell rubbish, I met people from all walks of life. It was a time to find myself and know who I am. Only with a long distance can you get a perspective of who you are and I did it, I walked away as much as I could from my vocation, to find what I could, and I found that people are not their profession, people are people and nothing else. If you have a talent for something you enjoy doing then anything you do in life will be interesting and give you something positive. Going back to photography was very easy, I just grabbed a camera and starterd taking photos, with clear ideas and appreciating much more what I liked. I just did it, then things fell into place quickly, and thanks to many people who helped me I got my first contract and started to pay for my rent and food taking photos. I still remember the first 4 months as a professional photographer, my girlfriend recently left me, my heart was totally wasted, i felt empty, I was homeless, had nothing except my camera, had no money in the bank, no clothes... I still earned very little money and after the first 15 days of the month I survived by drinking water and eating rice with some coins found out on the street and in my pockets. I was very happy because the situation couldn't be worse, there was only one option, to go forward.. I felt I was on the track, with my feet on the ground, with my head held high and my fist clenched to strike a blow to those who were in my way. |
I love your spirit bro, rock on, your a wise man.
When I think about my "self", I think that my self is the same self as everyones self. What makes me different is my body (although all bodies are physically really the same) and my personality (a often negative state of mind, made up from past experiences that makes you give up the will to look at the world in a completely open and fresh vision, it stops you from being new every moment)
Your self is a fragment of the one and only self, the ultimate life energy that is inside all of us. There for, we are fragments of the one self, and that's why we are all full of the one and only life and there for WE ARE ONE.
That's why we are social beings in my vision anyway.
So, If you look for your self, look for other people, see them as spiritual books, talk to them with an open mind and learn something about others and there for your self as well. Don't judge, just listen and feel them.
If you think about your self, you mind is going to give you falls impressions that are stored in the mind, stored impressions from things you've done and things that have happened to you. So your better of not to think "I'm this or I'm that".
Be new every moment and investigate. You are human, like all humans, and you, like all humans, want to be happy. With that knowledge, as a starting point, this earth could be a awesome place. Be good for each other, please.
Well, that should be enough for today. Enjoy!
..and the ACAB tattoo? I used to write that on my knuckles when I was a little kid until me mum gave me a clip around the ear and made me wash it off. A real punk wouldn't plan out what punk tattoos he will be getting next.
however, as a photographer he is awesome !