juanele interviews argentine photographer eduardo gil

8/8/2019 Juanele Interviews Argentine Photographer Eduardo Gil

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JUANELE INTERVIEWS EDUARDO GILAUGUST 23, 2010 GILS STUDIO BUENOS AIRES

Juanele visits Eduardo Gil in his studio where he has undertaken the taskof revising his entire archive, negative by negative. We see photographs

that have never been exhibited. We discuss how the same image canadorn the pages of a family album or become highly critical, dependingon the intention, the context and the sense of the work. We talk aboutthe importance of experimentation and why photography has radicallychanged in the last ten years.

For art in general, Gil says, certainties are lethal.
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GABRIELA SCHEVACH: Now Im going to ask Eduardo Gil: What is photography?

EDUARDO GIL: Today this is a question thats hard to answer. Ten years ago I could tellyou very clearly what photograhy was. Fortunately today, photography has become

something wider, more ambiguous and unstable, with vague edges. Postmodernphotography, the photography that came after Clement Greenbergs postulates aboutthe limits of art, has precisely enabled us to show the world, an aesthetic project orto show oneself, also with the possibility of interacting and exchanging with otherlanguages, employing a photo camera or not. Its something very rich and passionateand that always keeps a connection with the real that photographers love. If youd liketo, I can show you some pictures.

GS: Lets go.Whats this?

EG: These are photos, obviously. There are photos that start out following the classics,until this and then this and then this, etc.GS: But its a selection of what you shot in color in the last few years.

EG: Its not really a selection. The most complete here are Aporas and Paisajes(Landscapes). The rest is a kind of hinge between this, that was more related to [myworks in] black and white. Its an absolute transition. This is the first color work Ivedone.

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GS: You havent shown it yet, have you?

EG: No, not at all, I havent shown it. There are lots of things that were never shown.

GS: You say this is an absolute transition and I realize, because of the documentarystyle, the portraits and all that... But for you, now that you are revising it, how wouldyou locate these photos in the context of your work?

EG: Well, this belongs to the time when I stopped shooting black and white, I startedusing more color [film] for professional reasons, I started travelling for work and, well,for practical matters, for traveling, I started to carry just color film rolls and only onecamera loaded with color film. So when Im in situations I want to photograph, well, Ihave to shoot in color.

Suddenly I started to find out that colors are important in what I want to show. In this

case, a formal period. Different places, different countries. But its a moment whenthere isnt a clearly-defined investigation yet; I am understanding myself with color:Knowing how it works, experimenting, learning. And there is a bit of everything.GS: Ive the feeling you are increasingly appreciating these experimentations.

EG: Yes, because they provide a way of finding connections. When you put two imagesside by side, you start to discover where some explorations are coming from, where acertain way of framing appeared and thats very useful in order to learn where you aretoday and why you came to this point.


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This is related to a better thought-out period of more intentional investigations,when I started to work with medium format, which also involves a decision. Here Iwas already completely familiar with doing color [photography]. Framings start to findunity, I start to get rid of things that had been essential for me: the visual impact,

the play with emotions, emphasizing characters. People start to disappear, framingbecomes austere. I start to detach myself from the artist and begin to act as a kind ofoperator who shows what is there, the force of the index, somebody would say. [Heis referring to authors like Roland Barthes and Phillipe Dubois, who in turn base theirtheories on Charles S. Peirces classification of signs].

The framing tries to be aseptic, without emphasis and, well, obviously very influencedby the Dsseldorf school [He refers to the work of Bern and Hilla Becher and theirdisciples at the Kunstakademie Dsseldorf] and all those currents started to interestme very much.

And precisely when I search my past I find pictures that are like precedents of theseframings, of this way of making pictures, that I hadnt found a place for in my workbefore. When I did this book, this Docena [He is referring to PRAESAGIUM - Eduardo Gil12na. Edicin Guido Indij VVVgallery. Buenos Aires, 2009]. I found these pictures, thesepictures made twelve years ago. I found these framings, well these not so much, butthere are very clear precedents here. These were pictures Ive taken ten, eight andtwelve years ago, but these kind of framings didnt belong in my work. These aredifferent places that I start to associate with in the editing.

But, well, here and in other projects, I start to discover where this frontality comes

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from, this detached investigation and, well, its related to things I did without knowingwhy.

This is the work I am doing now, entitled Aporas. Its about images related to an idea

of a great country, a greatness that never happened. Places that were important orthat had an aim, a possibility of creating and producing, but today they are closed.This, for instance, was a huge meat processing plant in Patagonia that used to providethe whole Latin America and is now closed. This is a much broader project.Aporas is a philosophical term that involves talking about things that have no answer.

This is a part of Aporas, a kind of movement in a symphony, that I call Marcas (Marks).They are related to getting close to these industrial places; these are traces of whatthere is and there was. I think I can see here a kind of somebody who is shouting, thatwants to get out from under the peeled paint. Disturbing images start to appear. Hereis also a part where I play with numbers, marks that had different aims, industrial

uses; but if we observe them with an aesthetic intention, they are very powerful forme.

GS: Yes, they are like traces of something that has functioned at a certain point. Whynumber and classify things that arent working?

EG: They finish very darkly.

GS: A bit like galaxies...


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Many years have gone by, but its very powerful to pass from a Bressonian style[referring to the influential French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson], like your firstpictures, at least the ones, that, according to your account, youve shot with a clearawareness of the photographic discourse you were employing. Youve passed on tothis work thats abstract. Anyway there is a very strong formal investigation in bothaesthetics.

EG: Yes, yes. They are different aesthetics. Thats why Im interested in showing mydevelopments, because it allows me to find this change. I dont know if I can call itevolution, but change.

One thing I propose and always try to suggest is the need to question oneselfpermanently, the reflection about the practice, what you do. To be able to make aneffort each day, not to simply be satisfied with what youve accomplished, but to tryto reach a higher complexity every day. I think at the beginning you are a bit nave and

then unfortunately unfortunately because at the beginning you enjoy it all, you likeeverything, everythings fantastic, you are happy when a pictures sharp. But then youstart to complicate and you start to understand and to study and, well, interestingthings start to turn up every now and then, very generally. So this generates a needto reflect, think and further think and further reflect and question much deeper. Andwhen you start to do something that is enthusiastically welcome and liked or that iskind of successful, then comes a moment of great danger when the artist can say thisis my thing and stay there. Thats lethal.

For art in general, certain


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This idea of going from a format to another, from one investigation to another. Is itenough to provoke an emotion? Is it enough when people feel attracted by the visual?Is it enough and for whom? There are things that are enough and people love it andthats very gratifying, narcisism feels nurtured, but thats not enough for myself. Thefirst to demand change is me. And thats the need, to go always deeper. And thatinvolves risks as well, because you can take the wrong decision, but, well its risk. If youdont take it, you would do always the same. Yes, there is a clear change and I hope Ican always go on changing, obviously.

GS: The author is always a constant for you, isnt it?

EG: Well, Ive had my author period. Thats a moment when you feel that youve becomea professional who detaches him or herself from the norm, the average. That is to say,this moment is very close to the period of knowledge, of being a trained photographer.Its closely related to the so-called creative as well. Nowadays Im more interested and

thats why Ive employed the word operator before, Im more interested in the concept,although I never neglect the visual aspects, that still interests me very much. Its thefact of being a trained photographer that doesnt interest me that much. Already whenIve made the book [(agentina), Ediciones Cuarto 14 Buenos Aires. 2002], I had done abreak-up.

In spite of going on doing black and white pictures, in spite of still using a 35 mmcamera, I had already made a break-up with how things should be, with the established,with the Bressonian [he refers again to French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson].My first period of color photography keeps the Bressonian discourse at the beginning,

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then I become an author again. But today I dont know if I feel like an author. I feel Imsomeone permanently experimenting, who intends to open new ways of expressionthrough video, installation, spatial work, incorporating new materials. The notion ofauthor is more associated with an image of black and white photography, more artistic,but not in the best sense of that word.GS: I was referring to the author as the subject that works from his or her own insightand ideas, a subjective world view.

EG: In that sense, yes.

This is related to Aporas, to complete those places that have never really happened orthat happened but are now closed. Aporas has a movement that is Marcas [Marks].But theres another movement, there is something here, entitled Enjoy it, related toplaces that had been built for tourism. Places thought-out for pleasure, leisure, having

a good time. Today they are abandoned, destroyed places. These cabins, precisely thisplace doesnt exist any more. Luxury hotels, El Edn Hotel, where nazi party leaderscame for holidays in La Falda, Crdoba, and is today an absolute ruin. This is a part ofAporas, a sub-chapter involving these horror holidays. This is the back of the EdnHotel, the gardens, that are now quite particular, arent they?What I mean is that, when you think and rethink, this is nowadays the work I mostidentify with my investigations and concerns. Its called Paisajes [Landscapes] andthese are the pictures where the concept of the operator is clearer than in otherprojects. These people I photograph are always lit with the same kind of lighting,

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always with the same background, always asking them to come with no make-up,no ornaments. I could have these pictures taken by my assistant, just arranging anappointment schedule. Because theres practically nothing personal and, if there is, Itry to reduce it to the minimum. That is to say, the most personal here is the electionof the subjects.

Heres a change with respect to the notion of author. Here I couldnt say Look how goodI employ lighting. No, lighting here consists of two umbrellas at 45: Period, theresnothing else. And thats what interests me the most, the undertone of these imagesthat have no particular intention, at least a clear intention as to why each subject isincluded. There are people I know, people I dont know, people I meet in the street and Iask them if they are open to do this experience.GS: I want to ask you about your teaching work. Ive taken part in your workshopsand I remember that at the beginning in 1992 we tried to move away from holiday

photography. In contrast to that, we would try to do serious work. I think today theconcept is different as to what is considered serious photography.

EG: Of course, the term "serious" has changed. What is it, to do photography seriously?

Perhaps the playfu today is a part of the work. Its related to how you systematize theinvestigations, then it can be pictures made during holidays, commissioned pictures. Infact I show pictures done in a work-for-hire context. There are people who use picturesshot in... Im thinking of Martin Rubini, who has shot society pictures in birthdayparties because he has worked for many years as a party photographer. And he uses


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that material to produce a fantastic book that got a prize in Mexico. And his pictureswere produced in a contractual context and they were given in albums to the familieswho commissioned them and who were very satisfied with them. Nevertheless, thesepictures are highly critical. Thats how everything depends on intention, the pertinenceof the project and the sense of the work.GS: But there is perhaps an awareness, I dont know if I should call it deeper or if itsperhaps more superficial, more visible, of the photographic genres. No doubt, there is, Ithink, a wider circulation of images.

EG: Absolutely.

GS: Because of the internet. Could it be that there is a stronger awareness of thephotographic genres or that the fact that so many images are circulating has alteredthe way to work with photographs? Do you think that has an influence?

EG: I think that without doubt there is an influence. Its a situation similar to the endof the 19th Century when cameras could be bought by almost anyone. So the onesdoing photography seriously are astonished and get frightened and they search forways to be different. I think that the photographers who got closest to that massivebanalization of images can best represent the language of photography in the first halfof the 20th Century.

The same happens today: We cant overlook the images taken with cell phones, all thefacebook and Flickr pictures, they are all permanently in the air. What I do think is that


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there is a democratic understanding of what a good image is in the simplest and mostsuperficial sense. We see a lot of images on Flickr that are nice, good, in the sense thatthey are well made, but you wouldnt look at them for more than a fraction of a second.So I think there are people who can take these kind of images, be it to incorporate them,to share them through the web, but mainly to work critically within this reality. Notlike saying what I do is very special, but what I do is a reflection about that or about aperson or about a situation or about photography.

Because a lot of the photography made today comments on photography itself; lotsof art is reflecting about art itself. So I think this could be the most evident change inphotography, comparing the situation today and ten years ago.

Interview by Gabriela Schevach for JuanelePhotographs by Eduardo Gil and 2010 Eduardo GilDesign by Rick PowellThis document released under a Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial - NoDerivs License

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juanele interviews argentine photographer eduardo gil

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