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LAURA SALES
In Conversation With:
Laura was born and raised in Barcelona. She studied analog photography, audiovisual lighting and later Fine Art. Her most recent project "Conversations with Myself" is a series of self portraits she has taken during isolation.
"I compose my scenes using the light as if it were a painting."
F: What first led you to photography?
L: I realized that photography caught my attention when I was given my first mobile phone with a camera as a gift. I loved capturing moments. I remember going on a trip with my parents and feeling the need to capture scenes that I considered special.
Much later I discovered analog photography. I was fascinated by taking photographs and then having to wait to see the results. I was hooked on that emotion you feel when you develop film. That's how I started my academic photography training, learning to develop my film myself in a laboratory. There I discovered the importance of lighting in photography, without even knowing how much that it would influence my aesthetic conception.
F: Your works are very intimate, what do you enjoy most about self-portraiture?
L: Using self-portraits as an artistic tool has helped me to know myself better. Self-portraits provided me with the possibility to experiment with my image, my way of seeing myself and the world. It is also a way to carry out my projects independently. One of the things I enjoy most about self-portraits is being able to do it alone, it is like my moment. I lock myself in my room and ideas emerge. It is almost therapeutic. I encourage everyone to practice self-portraiture as a mode of introspection.
F: In what direction would you like your creative image to progress?
L: This question is a bit complicated for me, because at this moment in my life I am exploring my resources. I am in an experimental phase of my creative process. During this phase, I don’t only experiment within the field of photography, but also, in other areas such as painting or sculpture.
F: How have you been staying creative at such an isolating and uncertain time?
L: Returning to the topic of self-portrait, if I used it as a tool before isolation, now I have more reason. I have learned to get the most out of a reduced space, and demonstrate that with few technical resources, work with aesthetic quality can be created.
I have managed to combat the most depressing aspect of this situation in isolation by turning it into a source of inspiration. Before the government lockdown, I found myself in a creative block, and yet it has been “forced intimacy” which has helped me to inspire myself.
It has not been easy but I have realized that when I feel my worst is when I produce more things. It's like a damn roller coaster of emotions.
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