Surreal Halo

 What pieces or projects have you been working on lately?

Lately, I’ve been working on several projects, but the one I feel most ready to share is a series I did about weddings. Using flash, I isolate specific moments within the party context, aiming to give the scene a surreal and theatrical air. With macabre, ironic, and surreal touches, I try to decontextualize interactions at different weddings to give them new meanings.

What did you learn (or unlearn) while working on them?

I learned a lot about the value of flash, which isn't just for lighting, but also for creating scenes.It helps me dramatize moments, pushing them to surreal extremes. I also learned the value of mistakes, how each error can lead to new ideas, and I unlearned the idea of perfection.

What words, ideas or emotions were going through your head?

I don’t think there were specific ideas or emotions while taking the photos. My way of photographing is closely tied to play, trial, and error. I started noticing recurring ideas across several images and realized I had an interest in sublimating ordinary wedding moments into surreal ones, separating the moment from its context. The flash helped me focus on specific actions, generating this theatrical dramatism that gives soul to many images in the series.

Were there any conversations, movies, music, or books that made their way into that work?

Nothing in particular consciously influenced it, but I definitely find references. I can think of a photo by Trent Parke, where a man walks through a ray of light and gets “burned,” or Lynch, who inspires that surreal halo, or maybe even the Coen brothers with their irony.

What's been the most difficult thing you've faced recently in your creative process?

It’s been very challenging to conceptualize before starting a project; I’ve been very used to a street photography approach of just heading out and seeing what unfolds. And because of that, I’ve sometimes felt stuck and have tried to grow and improve this part of my work, looking for common themes I’ve explored recently and trying to develop them more consciously, connecting ideas and photos.

What is your favorite restaurant and what do you recommend we order?

Probably Bakea is amazing; their roasted quail is unmatched, but really, any dish you order will be delicious: the rack of lamb, the lentil soup, the onion cream, and for dessert, the mamey crème brûlée.

If your life were a movie this month, what would it be called and who would write the soundtrack?

Another Month, it would be by Helado Negro.

Recommend us an artist you follow who inspires you, and tell us what you like most about their work or their way of working. 

There are many artists who inspire me—photographers like Alex Webb, Rebecca Norris-Webb, Raúl Cañibano, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sara Messinger, Sarah Van Rij, Martin Parr, Trent Parke, Zed Nelson, and many more that I’m probably forgetting, hahaha. Filmmakers inspire me a lot: Kubrick, Denis Villeneuve, Cuarón, Lynch, Del Toro, Alonso Ruizpalacios, Iñárritu, Lubezki, Roger Deakins, Terrence Malick, Darius Khondji, the Safdie brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson, and surely there are more I’m missing here too.