It all started with a circle
While I was doing my Master of Fine Arts at Miami International University of Art and Design, I started developing a body of photography at night. My main goal was to experiment with light and movement. So I took my camera and started capturing the life around me.
First of all, I want to start highlighting there is a well-know photography effect called Bokeh, which allows the photographer to focus the attention of the viewer in a specific point, by blurring the rest of the image. This was one of the techniques I was exploring while being out there capturing life. However, I discover that if I used a certain aperture, lens, and shutter speed on my camera, the abstract background became more interesting than the focused object itself. That's how I started my experimentation and the first step for my photography to transcend from traditional photography to Abstract Fine Art.
This was my first photo, during the post-production process I did a simple color correction, and decided to present it as it was on my Art Critique class. I received a big amount of positive feedback from my professors and other talented artists. They all agreed it was an innovative and artistic way to approach photography into art. I was fascinating by my investigation and decided to keep going deeper on the experimentation, and developed this as my MFA project.
Going back to the streets, I continued the experimentation pushing to the edge all the basic photography concepts I learned. I started to allow the path of light that was coming through my lens to become brighter and more colorful. I also started adding movement to my camera, while I experimented with the ISO, the aperture, and the exposure. Consequently, I started creating a body of work full of life, vibrant colors, and bright movement. I was doing an innovative approach to traditional photography by experimenting with my light observation.
Once I had multiple images, I started placing some of them in groups. According to the colors, the movement, the design, and aesthetics. I often place the work into groups suggesting a visual narrative of life and energy. However, it was a complex process that took a long time and research. I was carefully finding a narrative behind, but also enhancing the aesthetic of each one of them. In contrast, sometimes I found myself making the decision of presenting an art piece by itself. These are the pieces that I later called Single and Magical.
At this moment of my process I passed from this:
To this:
This was my first Collection, from the project I called Let there be light, which invites the viewers to develop their own experience, shrouding reality to embrace this unidentified world.
Let there be lighthas a variety of shapes and color. This is the result of the experimentation between movement, camera setups, and types of lights photographed on the streets.
The most popular shape of this project is the circle. The circle is a universal symbol; it represents the infinite, eternity, perfection, movement, and timelessness. The repetition of these circles is what creates a sense of unconsciousness; to make the photos look like visions and dreams full of mystery, a door to a world that exists beyond the realism we experience.
Dr. M-L. Von Franz has explained the circle (or sphere) as a symbol of the Self. It expresses the totality of the psyche in all its aspects, including the relationship between man and the whole of nature. Whether the symbol of the circle appears in primitive sun worship or modern religion, in myths or dreams, in the mandalas drawn by Tibetan monks, in the ground plans of cities, or in the spherical concepts of early astronomers, it always points to the single most vital aspect of life – its ultimate wholeness. (Jung 266)
Once my artwork was moving forward, the shapes, their dynamics, and the movement on my photos were evolving too. The result started to be more elaborated but yet simple on post-production. One of my priorities is to keep my pieces as authentic as possible.
Collection #16 (Charming Energy) is an artwork that represents high-energy, vibrant, festive, and stimulating feelings. But at the same time, it evokes introspective and electric sense. It is a Collection formed by three pieces, carefully organized, where the predominant shapes are circles and subtle movement of light, like imitating the clouds, which strengthens the concept of shrouding reality to get immersed in this abstract world.
Collection #18 (Acido y Espontáneo) has a different concept behind it. First of all, the green tones evoke lively, fresh, renewal energy while the vibrant orange adds a fun, energizing, spontaneous, and jovial sense to the piece. Additionally, the way the movement of light was handle suggests a narrative of life full of movement and dynamism.
Finally, collection #26 (Tangerine Tango) is the perfect example on how the movement of light has been carefully enhanced, creating a subtle, delicate, but yet vibrant path of light.
Mastering my technique allowed me to experiment deeper, and add new elements to my composition. Nowadays my body of work has over 35 Collections, 8 Single and Magical pieces, 5 images as part of Places (my last experimentation), and over 5 videos which keeps the same concept but with a richer dynamism.