My name is Gerardo Rodrigo Ezquerra Sánchez. I was born and raised in Ciudad de México. I'm 24 and finishing my tesis project to become an licensed architect at the Faculty of Architecture in the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
I'm interested in everything that has to be with architecture, design and analog photography, but there are other fields that I'm passionate about, like science, politics and economics. In general I'm interested in any kind of knowledge that hepls me to "understand" the world and society in wich we live.
How did you discover photography and what makes you keep on doing it?
I started with analog photography the day after my camera (a nothing special samsug digital point'n shoot) broke up when I was in a academic exchange in Czech Republic in 2012. I went to a photographic shop in Prague downtown that a good friend recomend me, to take my camera to a technician to make it rapair, but the cost he said to me was quite high (almost as much as I originaly paid for the camera), so I decided not to repair it.
When I was on my way out of this shop I saw a small and old-looking camera-shop just across the street. I went there and ask for the cheapest OK-working camera (I couldn't spend much money on that issue since my general budget was quite tight haha), and the attendant showed me an old BeLomo Vilia 35.00mm made in the USSR, fully mechanical and fully manual, for 70 czeck crowns (US $4.00). I bought it.
It took me one whole week and one roll of film to understand well the proper operation of the camera. Suddenly every camera setting depended now on myself, not like my previous digital, that practically did everything for me (kind of haha). Also it was hard for me to wait for this first roll to be developed. But with time I have come to not only get used to that; now I rather enjoy that looking-forthward-ness.
Since then (and now that I'm back here in México) I fell in love of analog photography (and on photography in general). I have been trying to shoot as as much as I can; I'm always carrying a camera with me, just in case I need it (which usually happens haha). I also decided to stay in analog. At the begining because it presented me a lot of challenges which worked as motivation, and afterwards because I just think that analog looks and feel better for me.
Now I have a small collection of cameras that I've been acquiring (back then there in Czech Republic and now here in Ciudad de México). Most of them (with a few exceptions) are quite cheap cameras, but which offer me what I want and what I need, to do what I like.
For now I'm using mostly a Pentax K1000, an Olympus XA and a seemly not very known Yashica Point'n shoot with a nice 28.00mm lens that I found in a flea market for US$10.
A few months ago I found a guy on ebay that had on sale 45 - expired in 2003 - Kodak rolls for a nice price, and that's what I've been using since. Also the reliable and cheap Fujicolor ISO200.
I started with analog photography the day after my camera (a nothing special samsug digital point'n shoot) broke up when I was in a academic exchange in Czech Republic in 2012. I went to a photographic shop in Prague downtown that a good friend recomend me, to take my camera to a technician to make it rapair, but the cost he said to me was quite high (almost as much as I originaly paid for the camera), so I decided not to repair it.
When I was on my way out of this shop I saw a small and old-looking camera-shop just across the street. I went there and ask for the cheapest OK-working camera (I couldn't spend much money on that issue since my general budget was quite tight haha), and the attendant showed me an old BeLomo Vilia 35.00mm made in the USSR, fully mechanical and fully manual, for 70 czeck crowns (US $4.00). I bought it.
It took me one whole week and one roll of film to understand well the proper operation of the camera. Suddenly every camera setting depended now on myself, not like my previous digital, that practically did everything for me (kind of haha). Also it was hard for me to wait for this first roll to be developed. But with time I have come to not only get used to that; now I rather enjoy that looking-forthward-ness.
Since then (and now that I'm back here in México) I fell in love of analog photography (and on photography in general). I have been trying to shoot as as much as I can; I'm always carrying a camera with me, just in case I need it (which usually happens haha). I also decided to stay in analog. At the begining because it presented me a lot of challenges which worked as motivation, and afterwards because I just think that analog looks and feel better for me.
Now I have a small collection of cameras that I've been acquiring (back then there in Czech Republic and now here in Ciudad de México). Most of them (with a few exceptions) are quite cheap cameras, but which offer me what I want and what I need, to do what I like.
For now I'm using mostly a Pentax K1000, an Olympus XA and a seemly not very known Yashica Point'n shoot with a nice 28.00mm lens that I found in a flea market for US$10.
A few months ago I found a guy on ebay that had on sale 45 - expired in 2003 - Kodak rolls for a nice price, and that's what I've been using since. Also the reliable and cheap Fujicolor ISO200.
A thing that I've always liked to do is just to wander around, I mean that something that I've always enjoyed every time that I'm in a new place here in Ciudad de México (which is not dificult, due to the tremendous size of this city) or elsewhere around the world, I enjoy to take at least one walk by myself. It's in those walks that I find must of the subjects that I try to capture.
Most of them are not like "wonders of architecture" rather that normal everyday stuff that you can find in the main square of some city center or in a ramshackled building in the outskirts of that same city. So I can say that I try to get a singular point of view of not so singular subjects. It's just a matter of stare a little bit more, and you will find something worth sharing.
There is more "beauty" around -that is just waiting to be acknowledged by everyone- than we tend to expect.
In the photographic sence I try to compose the images in a way that the final result makes clear what the subject of that particular frame is, whether it's a leakage point, a pattern, the sunlight, a rough texture, a simetric axis or an interesting arrangement of the elements in that place.
At the end of the day I think that to look is to listen (or at least is an attempt). And photography can freeze that sight in time, with a twist from the author, making it something special.
Maybe because I think I'm still kind of new in this thing of photography and because I'm always looking forward to learn more, I would say that I'm more than eager to work with anybody that is as passionate as me in photography.
Or maybe it would be interesting to do something with someone that specialize on other field than photography like an architect or a sociologist.
Any upcoming projects or ideas?
Well, I'm currently working on a series of pics that has the intention to depict certain elements of the city (in this case, Ciudad de México), but that actually could be part of almost any city worldwide. Something like wildcard architectural elements, that in a sence, draws a common bond in all of us who live in The City. But I'm still in the process of "wandering around" to find all those elements. I hope it to be ready in the second half of January, 2014.
Well, I'm currently working on a series of pics that has the intention to depict certain elements of the city (in this case, Ciudad de México), but that actually could be part of almost any city worldwide. Something like wildcard architectural elements, that in a sence, draws a common bond in all of us who live in The City. But I'm still in the process of "wandering around" to find all those elements. I hope it to be ready in the second half of January, 2014.
I think that sometimes it takes me too much time in take a picture, which translates into the fact that I've lost many potentially good photos, because these are spontaneous scenes or moving subjects. I envy a lot from "lomographers" that thing of "Don't think; just shoot".
And well... I also have a serious mess in my "archive" of negatives. So every time I need to find a specific roll of film takes me ages to find it, haha.
So if you are starting with analog, I seriously recomend you to store your negatives in proper order from the very begining, or maybe it's better to have a catalog of your exposed rolls.
In a vast sence I do this because I love to do it. As I said before, I think I'm still kind of new on this, and one of the perks of being new is that it's even harder to earn good money from it, just to give an example. So for now I'm just trying to have as much fun as I can, and step by step learn more about other aspects of this noble craft. And who knows what the future might hold for you.
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