The Diary Through the Image

What pieces or projects have you been working on lately?
Lately, my work has focused on a process of searching and reconnecting with photography. My recent images emerge from personal visual pleasure and from paying attention to what appears in front of me—from the act of looking and allowing the image to build itself through observation.

The entire process, from shooting to developing, is a fundamental part of my practice because it allows me to establish a more intimate relationship with the scene being portrayed. Developing my own photographs has become a space for exploration and learning, where the artistic, the experimental, and the personal intertwine. At this moment, I continue to work with photography as a medium for expression, reflection, and constant learning.

What did you learn (or unlearn) while working on them?
I remain in a constant process of learning (and unlearning). I have learned to observe more carefully, to enjoy the connection that emerges in the act of photographing, and to understand error as a fundamental part of the process. Very often, what doesn’t turn out as expected ends up teaching me more than success.

I have also learned to re-signify the archive image, the everyday, and what may appear insignificant. My gaze changes day by day: what interests me today may stop interesting me tomorrow, and vice versa. In this process, I try to keep curiosity alive and continue looking at the world with the same eyes with which I once learned to photograph.

What words, ideas or emotions were going through your head?
I usually carry my camera almost all the time. There are moments when I prefer to simply observe and not photograph, so as not to interrupt the feeling provoked by what I have in front of me. I maintain a constant attentiveness, a kind of state of alertness, open to the possibility that something might appear and deserve to be photographed.

The words that accompany me are often internal impulses: “look,” “observe,” “photograph.” Emotions appear as brief moments, similar to a sunset: they last only a short time, but remain etched in memory.

Were there any conversations, movies, music, or books that made their way into that work?
Lately, what has filtered into my work is a more introspective and personal gaze. I’m interested in understanding my own way of expressing and observing. I feel saturated by the amount of images circulating on social media and by everyday overstimulation, even in the simplest daily routes. Even so, I try to transform that saturation into material for my photographic work.

Photography allows me to hold onto an emotion that often cannot be narrated with words. In that sense, reading Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes (1990) has been an important reference. His idea that photography mechanically repeats something that will never be repeated existentially resonates deeply with my practice.

I photograph from that awareness: every image is a moment that was and will never be the same again. Perhaps that’s why I keep photographing—out of the need to remember and to capture what has been lived, even amid a constant saturation of images. For those who make it and live it, any photograph is worth it.

What's been the most difficult thing you've faced recently in your creative process?
The most difficult part of my creative process has been confronting constant doubt. Although I often feel the impulse to photograph everything, there are also moments when I don’t want to photograph anything at all. I question whether what I have in front of me is really worth photographing.

This contradiction intensifies when I’m surrounded by images on the internet, where comparison appears and makes me doubt the value of my own photographs. These thoughts arise while I carry my camera, telling me that what I’m observing is not enough.

However, I return again and again to the idea that sustains my practice: that anything can be worthwhile if the desire to photograph it exists. Photographing is also an act of trust.

What is your favorite restaurant and what do you recommend we order?
Gallo y Toro in Guadalajara. Order everything—it’s delicious. Also, Mariscos el Duende. Order the coconut shrimp and the aguachile. The portions are huge, so order carefully.

If your life were a movie this month, what would it be called and who would write the soundtrack?
The Diary Through the Image, soundtrack by Natalia Lafourcade.

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.
Edward Hopper. I’m very inspired by the framing and atmosphere in his paintings. I always try to see the way he looked. Whenever I want to photograph something I think: “If Hopper were here today with me in San Juan de Dios, how would he paint this space?”

Vivian Maier. Her street photography always inspires me. It’s a good way to reconnect with myself, my camera, and my walks while running errands downtown, anywhere. Any space was a good place to portray someone doing “something.” That’s what Maier dedicated herself to photographing.

Heo Kang. I’m not entirely sure if he’s an artist or what he does with his life. I found him on Instagram because he posted photos he took of his breakfast, his midday tea, the flowers he bought on his way home from work. No filters, no editing. Just photographing whatever he was doing in that moment. I photograph even what I’m going to have for breakfast, so I really enjoy this kind of photography.