photo book
I love Lee Friedlander's work, but his book "Western Landscapes" left me puzzled. I just don't like those images, and yet, there are so many things I learned from studying Friedlander's vision for the landscapes I like to photograph.
I'm so excited to announce my new book, "Memorias na néboa" (that's galician, it means "Memories in the fog"). A collection of over 100 images made in and around my hometown.
I'm very proud of this volume, the result of years of work and hundreds of walks with my camera in hand.
ONE has been sold out for over a year, until now. I just got new copies of the book, and they are ready to ship. Click here to grab yours now.
Unfortunately, I'm only shipping to the US at this time.
Just over a year ago, I published my photo book ONE. Years worth of photography, and weeks of hard work summed up in one volume. It was a lot of work, and in this video, I wanted to share the whole process with all of you. We'll see how to select the images, sequence them, design the book, promote it, sell it, and ship it.
By the way, there are new copies of ONE available.
My photography book collection is rather small: just a handful of volumes I really adore.
Books are an important source of inspiration, and I'd definitely have more if I had a permanent home. But I can't help to think that keeping it small has helped my photography in many unexpected ways.
I lack formal education in the arts, even less in photography. I didn't have a mentor either. I learned many things from work I was seeing online, and from the books I do own, but most of what I know, I gained from experience alone. From the daily practice of photography.
Of course my work and myself as a person are heavily influenced by others. We are humans after all, we don't live in a vacuum. But the lack of formal knowledge and understanding of photography made me freer than I would be otherwise.
Free from comparisons, free from following the rules, and free from not following the rules. I was doing photography for the sake of photography.
This is still true today. For example, I try not to look at other photographer's images of a place I'm going to visit soon. I like to see it myself first, to take it all in with an empty mind, free from preconceived ideas, and make the images I see. Then, I might take a look, often to realize just how different or how similar we saw that location. It's fun.
There's a lot value in studying someone else's work, but sometimes, it's more fun to go somewhere with an open mind and try to create something different. Something that comes from within.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure to talk about my book ONE to Euan Ross from his podcast Biblioscapes in Discussion. It was a lot of fun, and you can listen to the conversation here. You won't regret taking some time to go through some of the past episodes with some very talented and interested photographers.
I owe photography a new way to see the world. I felt an urge to capture and share what I saw, and that’s what drove me for years. Until I published my book. For the first time, there was a sense of completion, almost as if I had accomplish my mission.
Was that it? Was I done with photography?
I wasn’t. All I needed was a break from the summer, and I finally got the perfect morning.
Years in the making, my first "coffee table" photo book is finally here. ONE is a collection of almost 200 images, my best work from the first 5 years as a professional photographer.
ONE is available right now for preorder. Make sure to get your copy before June 13th. On that day, I will stop taking orders and the book will go to the printer. There will be no more copies after that.
If you can't find your country in the list, please contact me to find a way to get a copy in your hands.
In this video, I give you a quick overview of my whole photography process. From the very beginning, when the image is just an idea, to the very end, sharing those images online or making a print.
I thought I had everything figured out. Then I found myself quitting my job, selling all my possessions and moving overseas with my wife. What followed was an adventure that transformed not only who I was, but who I thought I could become. This is the visual story of a journey of becoming.
Becoming an American is a visual autobiography, covering one of the most transformative periods of my life. After 30 years of comfortable and predictable life in Spain, I quit my job, sold everything I owned, and got on a plane to cross the ocean.
I was to travel thousands of miles in the next few years, but the true journey didn't happen on the road, it was within. By embracing the unknown, going well beyond my comfort zone, and experiencing new places, I realized I was able to build a whole new self, from scratch.
The images in the book are the experiences I went through to build a new me. Most of them were neither comfortable nor predictable, but that's what kept me constantly in awe and feeling alive.
I felt free for the first time in my life. I had become an American.
This book was never in my mind when I was capturing those raw moments. Most of the images were never meant for publication, but that's what makes Becoming an American so personal for me.
Becoming an American is available for purchase now. Please allow a couple of weeks for printing and delivery.
This is the cover of Becoming an American, my upcoming book.
Self-play is a concept that I find fascinating: artificial intelligence can learn how to play games -like chess- by playing against themselves over and over. Starting from scratch, with no knowledge of what works and what doesn't, machines eventually come up with strategies and plays that surprise even grandmasters, who reward them as "creative". This made me think about photography: how we look for inspiration in other photographers' work, and the value of experimentation.
Read MoreIn this video, I wonder about the value on buying photo books. Taking into consideration that we can look at images from our favorite photographers online, at any time and from anywhere, are books still a good investment?
I don't mean a financial investment, by the way. I mean an investment on our photography, to improve our vision and to get inspired.
Also in this video, I venture on the streets of Lisbon looking for a photo book. It'd be the first of my new collection. The chosen one: "Genesis", by Sebastião Salgado.
