What do you want to show in Perceptio?
I see this exhibition as the culmination of the first stage of photographic work. The first stage always carries a very important and stressful component of mastering the technique because until you master this technical part, you do not have the ability to develop your capacity to the limit. This first part is a search that lasted years, and until now I felt that it was time to propose a much more personal vision regarding my work, and on the other hand to relate my photography work with my academic training in architecture.
I read that you had gone through a period of emptiness in terms of your relationship with photography …
Photography came to me as a means to continue connecting with space. But as time passed I felt that photography did not give me the scope that I wanted. Photography, unlike architecture, works in two dimensions, it is flat. As I developed in photography, I became more aware that I was missing the third component, which is depth, the dimension with which architects work. More and more it began to give me a feeling that I was not achieving anything in terms of a spatial proposal. In the process of developing the exhibition and curating Perceptio, the need arises to remove the photograph from the walls and put it more in contact with the observer. At the time we developed this concept, a piece emerged that is presented in the exhibition in a completely different way, in the center of the room, and automatically acquires a third dimension because it already has depth. This allows it to have a greater relationship with the observer and a very important conceptual value for reading the room because the extent to which people have contact with it is the extent to which each person will interpret the images displayed on the walls. Later I realized that I was not only relating and adding to my work characteristics of the third dimension, but also that the fourth dimension was emerging, which in architecture is the factor that is related to time. For example, in a walker it is the time that the user takes to go through the space and the series of sensations and feelings that the space produces. The exhibition aims to achieve a more personal and tangible connection with the viewer. Each one gives it their own meaning.
Your exhibition is of abstract photography, and photography, unlike other expressions, works from a reality that already exists. How do you work with it?
As a photographer, one of the main functions you have to learn to develop your photographic vision. When you start with photography you take pictures of everything you see, but since you are in the review process, they hardly manage to convey something to you. This practice allows you to develop the photographic eye, and that in turn allows you to detect the possibility of developing extraordinary images in the most ordinary places. When you take a photo, many times you do it without thinking because the photograph is immediate and not all of them are worth it. But when you do it professionally, you need to learn not to take a photo, but to create it, and that process begins before you hit the button on your camera. The photographic eye and your ability to see possibilities come into play, and once you have that, you need to imagine what you want your photography to be like. There is a completely mental process of creation. With a specific image, you need to see what values you are going to put on your camera to achieve the result you want. This is where the difference between using a cell phone camera and a professional one is.
‘Perceptio’ by Paola Bárcena is presented at the Juan Cordero Gallery, in the Casa del a Cultura de Puebla, from Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
