Interview with Carlos Abraham
How would you describe yourself and your artwork?
I describe myself as a thinker, showing my images with a personal style and where each image shows that precise moment in just a few seconds and also the character is transmitting what I have in mind. I try to take pictures with ideas that I feel attracted to since the beginning, leaving my mark as an architect.
I studied for my Bachelor’s degree in architecture in Mexico. I have a double nationality; Mexican and Lebanese.
How do you go about beginning a new piece? Do you have an idea already in mind, or do you start working with materials or sketches to find the departure point?
Whenever I begin working on a new idea, I like to be active. I look for things in my props or I buy something on the internet that goes along with my idea. I take pictures every day. Sometimes I accept invitations from friends. Lately, I have been taking pictures in a small
town near Puebla, Mexico that is called Izúcar de Matamoros, where I have been doing projects for them and there has also been an exhibition of my work in their Town Hall.
I have frequently been working on my ideas using a model. In my latest photograph sessions, I’ve used the figure of David, my model and then I send these images to open calls and exhibitions.
I don’t work that much with digital editions, I like taking pictures just as if I continued using my analogue camera.
When do you think your most prolific time of day or week is?
I like working on Sunday mornings when the air is fresh and the daylight helps with the photo session and it’s quieter around. David has more time available on Sundays too and he is calm with work. Everything is perfect and we start the session.
What is a barrier you as an artist overcame? Is there anything that enabled you to develop your work as an artist in your life?
When studying photography, I learnt to create my work with quality using good techniques, I have always had my feet on the floor and I was taught to remain active.
I think many of us artists surpass the envy of others and feel afraid of censure. And I understood censure is made by the owners of the galleries where their motto is “This is my gallery and I exhibit what I want, and this is what censure is for me. I’ve lived this in my own country.
But the simplicity or naturalness of oneself is what makes me and other colleagues continue with this beautiful activity.
Did you have an idea of what you wanted to create right from the beginning?
Since I began studying photography I always liked creating nudes, where I show volume and I involve it in the context of the architecture and in this way I exhibit the human body in a different context.
What is the meaning or creative inspiration for your work? We’re curious what the narrative or story is to what you are producing?
I’m actually presenting images that illustrate my stories. I started writing and publishing in a Mexican magazine that it is called Mimeógrafo, with all this extra time we have at home, a friend and I started to create texts and photograph projects. It’s fantastic to work in a team, wherein on some occasions she tells me the story and I create the photograph or image.
My work shows my sight and my thoughts in the instant I shoot the camera.
Sometimes I show myself in the image in my character.
Besides your artworks, are there any other things in life that your voice as an artist may consider vital or valuable? What makes you joyful and creative, in other words?
I love travelling. When I was a kid I travelled much more than now, I felt much more secure than nowadays. I love going to the beach and meditating and listening to the sea, in this way ideas invade my mind and then I can organize them and create photographs.
I can remember this time when travelling with a person that supported me with the work, Javier on our way to the country we found an old construction, we stopped and I took my camera that was a Mamiya, everything was calm and we found this church and Javier took away his t-shirt so I could take the picture and I called it “ Sinchi” which is a word in the Quechua dialect and shows the back of the all-mighty in the altar in yellow and blue.
Are there any exhibitions or places where people can see these beautiful creations in person soon? Anything on the horizon?
Unfortunately because of the pandemic, there hasn’t been an exhibition in my city Puebla, Mexico. Where I can show my work., but you can visit my web page and also here with you in your gallery. With this interview, it is shown the latest and most representative of my work. I hope that everything is going to come to normal very soon in order to be able to have more exhibitions in Izùcar de Matamoros, Puebla and will be shared by the government’s site on Facebook and my personal site on Facebook too.
