When did you start photographing your family? And did you start for any specific reason?
I started photographing my family when my kid was about a year old (she’s for now), with the only intention of keeping a visual record of her growth. The family album kind of thing. In fact, I would say that photographing my kid was really the reason why I started (again) with photography (I had taken some pictures when I was 18 years old, bot forgot about it soon).
How did your family initially react to you photographing them? they seem to be very active participants in the process, almost like they know they’re in a movie.
It came as a natural thing. My kid was, and stil is, very extroverted, always acting like a clown and trying to make us laugh. And she loves to disguise herself, so I just have to be there with the camera. Both my kid and my wife enjoy the “shooting sessions” we sometimes do
Yeah, it does seem like a playful vibe. But there’s also a hint of a darker, more sinister vibe as well. Do you notice that in the work? Do you think shooting in black and white reinforces that a bit?
I do notice that, in fact I try to get that atmosphere in the pictures. My idea was to give a dark twist to the typical family snapshots. Yeah, I think shooting in high contrast black and white does reinforce that, it’s also part of the same idea of twisting the traditional cheerful and colorful family album. The irony that comes out from the mixture of a sinister mood and the expected happiness in family pictures, that’s what i’m trying to elaborate, I guess.
Are you planning on turning the family album into a larger project? it seems it would be difficult to determine when to wrap up the project when you’ll likely be photographing your family for the rest of your life.
I’m still not planning on putting an end to it. But yes, there is an end to it: I guess what I see in these pictures is related with the idea of infancy, the time of fairy tales. si, being my kid the main “character” of them, It will last until she grows older and enters the pre-adolecesnce world. that’s when the next family album project will start.
More of Rafael’s work after the jump.
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