Path of the phoenix

What pieces or projects have you been working on lately?
Lately, I’ve been working more as a director of photography for commercial videos, music videos, and skate projects, and I’ve also been experimenting with Super 8. Even so, I haven’t put analog photography on standby. I’ve reconnected with my documentary side and have been shooting street photography during my skate trips, mainly for a project I’ve been developing since last year between Mexico and Chile. More recently, I also returned to doing a couple of editorial shoots: one with Janna, collaborating with her on makeup for the shoot, and another developed from an idea by Axel, one of my closest friends, who I started out with in photography.

What did you learn (or unlearn) while working on them?
Through these projects, I’d say I learned to observe again with calm, through curiosity, contemplation, play, and a dialogue with my immediate surroundings.

What words, ideas or emotions were going through your head?
There’s been an ongoing internal dialogue with my younger self from when I first started making photographs: trying to build a bridge between what motivated me to create back then and what motivates me now. Experimenting and exploring like at the beginning, since I still feel that same excitement when I pick up the camera and head out into the street without knowing what I’ll find.

Were there any conversations, movies, music, or books that made their way into that work?
Speaking about the Mexico/Chile project —and clarifying that two projects came out of it— one is the skate edit and the other a documentary exploring parallels between the two countries. Starting with the documentary, it was an experimental film residency that brought me together with others who shared a sensibility and a way of working closer to resistance and dissidence in how we create and support one another, finding similarities in what moves us and what troubles us. One of the central themes was the forcibly disappeared, and another was the right to leisure.

As for the skate edit, a video called Mindfield and the film La Haine, continue to circle in my mind, I revisit them from time to time. There’s also the lingering feeling of being warmly welcomed on the other side of the planet just by holding a skateboard in my hands; even as strangers, people suddenly become friends.

What's been the most difficult thing you've faced recently in your creative process?
One of the hardest things lately has been time. There are rents to pay, walks to take and care to give to Nef (my dog), and deadlines to meet for the audiovisual work I’m currently doing. Even though it’s all freelance, it piles up, and it often becomes difficult to make time for creative projects where I have complete freedom, without having to think about a client’s criteria.

What is your favorite restaurant and what do you recommend we order?
I really enjoy going to Vàlgame Deos, in Santa Tere. I’ve been going there for years, and I’d recommend the Mochomo aguachile, and for dessert, the guava pie.

If your life were a movie this month, what would it be called and who would write the soundtrack?
Path of the phoenix, with the soundtrack by my friend, Nirl Cano.

Recommend one or more artists you follow who inspire you, and tell us what you like most about their work or their way of working.
Andrea Arnold, for her storytelling and her ability to find beauty and humanity in pain and decay.

Duane Michals, ever since I discovered his work, I return to it for its internal dialogue, that constant back-and-forth, and for the way he translates ideas into something visual.

Ben Thouard, for his ability to keep exploring the same context while creating endless possibilities, from micro textures to expansive, macro perspectives.