A selection of Fernando Prats’ photos from the series he made in Buenos Aires in April 2011. The photo-book ‘Immadencity, Buenos Aires contemporary architecture according to fernandoprats’ is going to be published in July in both standard and deluxe editions.
•
•
^
Nothing like
^
An immadencity
^
In April
^
For rebirthing
^
Under new
^
Unexpected circumstances
^
Like a drunk butterfly
^
At the top of its possibilities
– Hello, Fernando. How would you describe this set of images?
– Immadencity is a series of images about contemporary architecture in Buenos Aires, made by request of Red Square Gallery. As a footnote, I’d like to add that all of them were composed and framed during shooting in one day, with a handheld camera, a lens and natural light. Postproduction was conceived as a way of emphasizing the singular, dense and immanent character of the city through a notably corporeal iconography in the area of Puerto Madero, and it is limited to obeying the histogram’s wishes.
– As a photographer, what do you find interesting about urban environments and architecture? What attracts your visual attention?
– Perhaps the discourse of the shapes as a dialogue of power, the composition as a basis for positioning … On a more technical note, the handling of focus and depth of field as selection tools, geometry as a historical statement – although we’re getting less technical here … – spaces as erotic instruments, materials as a poetic weft, sensuality in the details …
– Which other photographic styles do you like besides architectural and urban photography?
– I like all styles because … (jump to the next question/answer)
– What motivates you to be busy with photography, what is your goal as a photographer?
– … I am interested in risk, risk along with the command of tools, both in photography and in any other discipline. Imitating a determined style, whatever the reasons, swim in its surfaces and drink from its as hypothetical as austere springs, must not mean an inconvenient to anyone since it doesn’t even imply any challenge: it’s only about assuming gestures as one’s own. But … the ephemeral and the lack of substance and possible cor/relates show under the auspices of diverse forms, tics that come and go, happily and inexorably towards their fatal, as Jean would say, and irreductible fate, as Oliverio would delimit. The proliferation of non-places 2.0 somehow provides and favours a sort of convex mirror determined to bring back, excuse my words, a priori clichés and, if participants insist, pictures that are blurred, textured, reframed, hyperfiltered, reflected and/or etcetera a posteriori. Maybe that’s the reason why I prefer to think of images more than photographs, or even better fotoworks, neologism that unites under the umbrella of an idea, titles, small texts, tags and links that de-re-signify and question the semantic unicity of a certain image or group of pixels.
– Do you have a ‘dream location’ where you would like to take photos? Which city would you like to visit for a photo session?
– Not a ‘dream’ one, neither a single one. I keep going. Slowly but surely, although sometimes a bit of a rush is OK too. Right now I’d like to go to Mexico and Australia in 2012.
– What is your favorite camera?
– Most of the time I use a Nikon D7000, a Canon 40D and a Casio EX-H10. Some others that have brought me satisfactions, but I have decided to hibernate a FujiFilm S5800, a Nikon S550, and several lomo cameras (Holga 120s, Woca 120, Supersampler, Colorsplash, Actionsampler, Pop9). Currently, my favoutire lenses are Tokina 11-16 f/2.8, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, Tamron 90mm f/2.8, Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L and Tamron’s 50th Anniversary commemorative 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD.
– Did you publish any photo books and where do you expose your works on internet?
– Yes, some published examples are “Whe(re)n?”, “Shapes and Shapes” (Formas y formas XL), “Formas y formas” and in collaboration with Miguel Ruibal “Objetos Sujetos”. Also collective publications such as “Shadé” and “Shadé II” by Brancolina, Hypo-X-Series, a digital curation by Alan Wilson, White as a colour (for the fight against multiple sclerosis) by Sophie Addison and 1 Navidad, 1 niño, un libro by Escritores Solidarios.
As for online circulation, and leaving aside YSE for obvious reasons, some photographic works were published in magazines such as FILE magazine, U.K.’s Building magazine, And I still miss you or Platform 58, and have been exhibited in Tate Liverpool online, Open Call – Frieze Art Fair 2009, Ambiguities exhibition @ University of Kent, ElPAÍS.com, ****contrasted gallery and on Azurebumble’s blog Aesthetic investigations.
On my day to day, and as a part of what could be called a methodological routine, I publish my work in several social networks, with my main axis on Facebook and Flickr.
More info at fernandoprats.com
•
English version translated by Alicia Pallas, to read in Spanish please click here
•
red square gallery 
You must be logged in to post a comment.