As a photographer, is there a philosophy you have maintained from the
start of your activities until the present day?
To
be honest to myself, to my subject matter, and to the photos themselves.
This honesty would be?
Simply
that I will not lie. For example, when I work there are times where I feel that
if I say certain things, I will be rejected by my subjects. But, even if I were
to be rejected, I need to properly express to them what I am attempting to
accomplish through photos. Sometimes, I will continue to pursue them even after
being rejected several times, but my photos are made through the subjects, and
if they don’t accept me, I cannot photograph them. If I wanted to I could manipulate
them, but if I continued to do so my works become inconsistent, and weak. This
applies not only how I approach the subjects, but it also applies to myself and
my practice; I think I need to be consistently sincere toward expression in
photos, and this is what connects to the quality of work, I believe.
Authenticity is required on the photographer’s side.
Even
so, there are a lot of stumbling blocks. There was this one time when I
realized that I was trying to photograph to match the image I was expecting,
and I thought to myself that maybe it was time for me to quit photography.
Would you tell us what project that was?
It was shooting stories on the impact of drugs in
Colombia which I continue working for twelve or thirteen years. This is the
work I first published in the online edition of Time. Until 2015, I went to Colombia
almost every year for the project. This was the longest running project that I
had worked on. Through continuing the same theme, however, I came to understand
the background and the personalities of the people involved. So, when I would
go to a new city to photograph a story, I could infer what was going to happen
next, and ended up imagining what sort of image it would become. When it came
to that point, I couldn’t photograph anymore, and left Colombia. I haven’t gone
back to there since. Later, when I looked at the photos I took during that
time, everything was captured as it was of course, but they were not beyond the
realm of imagination. I think many of documentary photographers imagine some
sorts of idea of “stories” before they actually go, which is rather editorial.
I don’t argue with that approach, but I somehow became more interested in more
pure approach which means I simply want to photograph and see what I see. In a
way it’s bit naive but this is what I am attracted now.