ORESTES GONZALEZ – www.orestesgonzalezphoto.com
Artist Interview by Juan Madrid
This is an open series of interviews with the artists in the Photography Now 2017 exhibition.
“Since these subjects were strangers to me and I have no relation to them, I can see how they can be seen as distant. Yet I’ve tried to capture an honest expression, which is intimate and personal, in the midst of all the noise surrounding them.“
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1. Where are you from, and what is your background in photography? How did you get into photography?
I was born in Havana, Cuba but raised in Miami. I got into photography as a sophomore at the University of Texas, where Garry Winogrand was.
2. What inspired you to make the work in Photography Now 2017? What is the work about? Please describe one piece, the evolution of the concept, and the process?
My work is about capturing people in their natural state, no posing, no feeling of self consciousness. street photography as a an observational tool in who we are.
3. Much of the work in Photography Now 2017 seems to describe a distance between the subject and the viewer, a disconnection, and/or a dystopian situation. How do you think your work relates to these ideas?
Since these subjects were strangers to me and I have no relation to them, I can see how they can be seen as distant. Yet I’ve tried to capture an honest expression, which is intimate and personal, in the midst of all the noise surrounding them.
4. What are you working on now?
I just returned from a 3 weeks in Guatemala , where I photographed the return of a domestic worker that hadn’t seen her children in almost 20 years.
5. What is the one photograph you always wanted to make but never could?
I’ve wanted to take pictures of well known people in situations that contradict their status….but I’ve never had the connections to do that.
General exhibition information:
Photography Now 2017
November 4, 2017 – January 14, 2018
Juried by William Ewing
Featured Artists: Lars Anderson, Sarah Anthony, Ben Arnon, Sandra Bacchi, John Barnard, Emily Berl, Adam Bernard, Christopher Paul Brown, Tianqiutao Chen, Jennifer Garza-Cuen, Orestes Gonzalez, Tamar Granovsky, Alejandro Loureiro Lorenzo, Jeanette May, Zora Murff, Laurie Peek, Ceaphas Stubbs and Ayumi Tanaka.
See full exhibition information or exhibition guide (issuu.com).
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