This is a quick snapshot of my creative process. Behind a specific photograph, even if the result of quick decision in an instant, the following process can take months, and a lot of hard work.
To give an example of this: “Que le dice una pared a otra?” which i developed with my best friend Ana (Hello if you are reading this) took four months, a trip around europe, and many arguments. It first started after an invitation from my fellows at La Casa Encendida – whose darkroom serves as a foundation to many of my projects – who invited me to bring a project to Libros Mutantes, possibly the biggest design and photography fair in madrid.
I invited Ana because it was the logical thing. It is always easy to share something with Ana, and we both shared the same passion for doing a project like QLDUPAO? Soon after we got the “ok” from the Event, we started compiling and resourcing the different things in preparation for the project. After some not very fruitful sessions, it was easter and we had our interrail trip. We worked on trains throughout the trip, walking track to track with the computer in hand, and taking decisions on the go without knowing much of what we were doing.
Still, the project came about. We sent the file to the printer the day before the event, and only got to see the Little Book that same morning. It had a lot of faults :). But still, we compiled in four months, two years of photography into a 20 page Little Book which we are very proud of. And sold many copies of; even to Omar Ayuso.
Here is us not working on the project in northern italy.
For “The Eleventh Kingdom,” the process was much different. It took a lot of time, but it was much more personal. The investment was deeply emotional rather than timely. The project started in Washington, where i had my biggest creative moment. I went around the city by myself with my camera and my Passport Notebook, writing for hours at a time and doing about 16 rolls of film (216 frames). Here the themes that later appeared in the project started to sprout and develop rapidly. By the time I went back, I saw this creative moment, not as something that was timely and constricted by its passing, but a moment i carried with me.
“The Eleventh Kingdom” served as a fabric where i could first organically dump these themes and messages, and later make something of it. Wove and give shape to something as loose as the memories i have of my childhood, or the escapes i go to when i want to go back to that peace, calm and collected essence. Six months passed since the Washington Trip and finishing the project. It was a process that took me deep into my memories, the fabric of my existance, and my myth, and it did so because it was necessary.
And thats the last point i want to make about my creative process. One writes or clicks the shutter, because he feels the need to, because its important, and everything is important.
This is the darkroom at La Casa Encendida
This is the first time i saw the Eleven final prints layed out.
