Before taking a photograph, I need to get to know the place.
My process begins with research: consulting archives, documents, plans, publications, testimonies and any information that helps me understand what I am photographing. A photograph does not stand alone; it is part of a story, a place and an experience.
In projects such as Valores Declarados, this research has led me to explore the history of a building and of communications over many years, connecting historical documents with the spaces that still remain. Research also means learning to look: discovering what happened in a place, what has changed and what traces remain.
PROCESS
DOCUMENTING THE PRESENT IS PRESERVING THE MEMORY OF THE FUTURE
1. A GAZE THAT TAKES SHAPE OVER TIME
2. RESEARCH
Then comes the time to observe.
I move through the spaces without immediately looking for an image. I am interested in discovering how architecture, objects, traces of use, light and the passage of time relate to one another.
From this observation, I consider what I want to photograph and what I want to say. Sometimes I start with a specific idea; at other times, the space itself inspires an unexpected image.
My perspective moves between documentation and the conceptual. I may photograph an architectural element to record its existence, but I may also isolate a detail, a texture or a shape to create a different reading.
3. ENTERING THE PLACE
Some of my projects take place in spaces with restricted access. For this reason, the process also begins with obtaining the necessary permissions to work there.
Once the project is approved, I plan the locations I want to explore, the time available and the working conditions.
Planning is important, but I don't intend to control everything that happens in front of the camera. I leave room for discovery.
I work with a particular focus on light, viewpoints, perspectives, the relationships between elements, and details that might otherwise go unnoticed.
4. DEVELOPING THE PROJECT
For me, photography is a way of being inside a place.
I work mainly with a digital camera and RAW files, aiming to preserve as much information as possible so I can decide later how to build the image.
Choosing the frame is essential.
I am especially interested in frontal viewpoints, perspectives and vanishing points, but also in fragments, details and the subtle changes that appear on surfaces and objects.
Light plays an essential role.
In interior spaces, it can completely transform the same scene: reveal a texture, darken an area, highlight a trace or change how we perceive the architecture.
I don't simply aim to show what a space looks like. I want the photograph to convey its time, its use and what it has retained.
5. PERMITS AND PLANNING
An essential part of my work is returning.
Returning to the same place months or years later makes it possible to see what has changed and what has stayed the same. A wall, a door, an installation, a mark on the floor or an abandoned object can become a witness to transformation.
That is why some of my projects take shape over long periods of time. Repetition does not mean taking the same photograph; it means looking again from a different point in time.
Photography thus becomes a tool for documenting change.
Photography preserves what time transforms.
6. THE PHOTOGRAPHIC FORM
After taking photographs, another essential part of the process begins: selecting.
Not all photographs have the same value within a project. The selection depends not only on whether an image is visually appealing, but also on what it contributes to the narrative.
I group images by connections, themes, spaces, shapes, colours, textures or ideas. I compare photographs and look at what dialogues they might create with one another.
Sometimes an image that seems secondary takes on importance when placed next to another. The story emerges from the relationship between the photographs.
7. BACK
Post-production begins by respecting what has been captured.
I work from the RAW file and make the necessary adjustments to brightness, contrast, color, noise and framing. The aim is not to transform the reality captured in the photograph, but to find a visual interpretation that is consistent with the project.
I work with high-quality files and a workflow that preserves the original information and allows me to go back whenever necessary.
Colour management and file preparation are also part of the process, especially when photographs are intended for an exhibition, publication or fine art print.
8. SELECTING AND CONNECTING
A photograph does not necessarily end when the image is captured.
The project continues through the selection, editing and sequencing, and ultimately in the way the work is presented.
In a book, images establish a relationship between pages. In an exhibition, the size, distance between photographs, space and light all shape how the work is read. On a screen, the scale and setting are different.
That is why I understand each project as an open process in which research, photography, editing and presentation are all part of the same vision.
Photography is documenting, but also interpreting.
It is about looking again at what we think we know and finding, within the everyday, a story that still remains.
9. BUILDING THE IMAGE
After researching, observing, returning to the place and selecting, there comes a moment when photography is no longer merely a record but becomes a form of visual construction.
Here we see a search that is part of how I look at the world: clarity of form, geometry, balance, a direct viewpoint and a certain purity of image. It has a connection to the Bauhaus tradition and to an approach to photography in which form can also become content.
One of my key influences is Bernd and Hilla Becher. I am deeply interested in their way of looking at architecture and industrial structures: the precision of the framing, the clarity, symmetry, repetition and ability to isolate a structure from its context until it becomes an image with its own identity.
Her work has taught me that architecture can become more than just a photographed building; within the image, it can become an autonomous visual work.
I don’t aim to reproduce that perspective. The reference is part of a learning process that has gradually become part of my own way of working.
So, when I create an image, I make decisions about the viewpoint, distance, camera height, perspective, light, framing and the relationship between the elements. I aim to remove anything that doesn't add to the image and find a visual structure that can carry the photograph on its own.
Symmetry can bring order to an image, but a slight deviation can also introduce tension. An empty space can carry as much weight as an object. A line, a shadow or a repetition can reveal a relationship that wasn’t obvious at first glance.
In this process, aesthetics are not added to the documentation: they arise from the way we look at what is being documented.
Thus, photography becomes a place where research, memory and form coexist.
Document what exists, but construct an image that lets us see it differently.
10. FROM SCREEN TO ARTWORK
The photographic archive took different forms: first a collection of images, then a narrative, and finally a physical work.
Selection, editing and sequencing transformed the archive into a project that could be exhibited, explored and shared with others.
The book was one of its first forms of materialization, but not the only one. Exhibitions and presentations allowed the images to once again occupy the building’s space and take on new meanings.
11. AN ONGOING PROCESS
Valores Declarados does not end with the publication of the book.
After eighteen years of work, the archive continues to offer new perspectives. Some images take on a different meaning over time; others remain as a record of spaces and ways of working that have disappeared.
The project remains open to new perspectives, new ways of presenting the archive and new relationships between photography, architecture, memory and transformation.
Because photographing the same place for so many years doesn’t mean you’ve finished getting to know it. It means learning to see it differently every time you return.
