The woman who wanted to be a mirror A PURPOSE OF A SAMPLE OF ADRIANA LESTE IN BUENOS AIRES, reproduces an interview with photographer MADE BY DANIEL MERLE FOR THE NATION MAGAZINE (LIC) --------- ----------------------------
Adriana Lestido - Mothers and Daughters On Tuesday, the photographer Adriana Lestido, one of the most distinguished in recent decades in the country by the sharpness and sensitivity of his work, opens a retrospective of his nearly 30 years of work. In this note, said that vanity is the enemy of creation and the search is "to look at." Lestido Adriana's face is very similar to that of a cat. Big eyes, mouth minimum inscrutable. The long black hair, just curl, frames and enhances the look of this photographer, perhaps the most important decades in Argentina. His credentials are impressive: a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1995 Hasselblad Foundation grant in 1991, Mother Jones Foundation prize in 1997, Konex prize in 2002. These are the milestones in a career that began in 1982 and now meets in a retrospective at the Centro Cultural Recoleta. His books
Women prisoners and mothers and daughters, to name two of his best known works, they express their ability to record the invisible frame that connects the lives of people under extreme circumstances. In the face of the dam mother cried the day he was separated from her daughter two years the placid portrait of Martha and Nana in Mothers and daughters, these are the emotional counterpoint in which Adriana develop their talents to show what is not obvious to the eye.
Lestido The extensive work can be expressed In short: female, pain, love, innocence, separation. A huge fresco of privacy, minimal stories fragmented, almost imperceptible, except for the persistent gaze of this woman of 53 years who wants to understand what things the obsessed to find out how your search is fundamental: look.
a Saturday afternoon, shortly before the opening of the show, answered questions from the NRL.
Adrian Lester - Mothers and Daughters -
Why this show now? A retrospective should not be done as a summary of a lifetime of photography? "I do this show to understand what I was looking. I wanted to get to the root of how I look. Have it all together, see it from the beginning, has been a very intense experience. I look to try to understand.
- What do you see? "What I see is there, in the sample. The title was taken from a paragraph of the novel by Sara Gallardo Eisejuaz: for me sums it up. What I say adds little. I wanted to find out what the plot, the theme of my work. Which is, perhaps, the meaning of my life.
"There in your photos a great concern for women. In what is seen, the only work where the subject is a man is in the series Love I do not think you have a fondness for the subject of women. Ties may be stronger in women. My latest photos are designed to love, especially when the love ends. If there is a shaft in my work, is separation. So Salinas added that poem that reads "live, from the beginning, is separate." All the time facing the separation.
- And what is the conclusion you arrive? "Paradoxically, what matters most to me is to discover what is the connection between people. What interests me looking, is disappearing. I want to be a mirror of what I see.
- What were the first images that determined your career? "The first thing you see is a picture where I am with my mother. A sunny day when I was three years. A lost joy.
- Is it a memory or a photo? "In a sense, memories are pictures too, are images. I think that the pictures change so much as the memories.
-A Retrospective is a way of reckoning with the past. What next? "Maybe it will pave the way to the cinema. I started studying film. But I like being the lone observer, not depending on anyone. Being alone with the camera, being almost invisible. Although the film appeals to me and maybe do something in the future.
- Are they still intact your desire to photograph? -creation does not happen by doing. To me, the best way to live is in a creative state, and that state may be achieved by looking, or meditate. Hopefully at some point just look.
- Are you an artist without vanity? "I have an artistic attitude, but I seem to be linked to the vanity. Vanity is the enemy of creation. The artists I most admire are not vain. Nothing belongs to anyone. Things are there and you take them. The creations should be anonymous, the author forgotten. I have no great need of representation.
"But you also have to earn your living. "I can not have for the collective. But when I need money comes from somewhere. I do not care. Every now and do some reporting for Vu, Paris. I wish I could live my photos. Do not do things on request. But being in the environment of art involves an energy and work that does not interest me. I have no gallery. I find people who are interested in my work, value and buy it. I do not want work for the market. Regarding journalism, I have great affection. I trained doing press photos.
-A picture is fashionable. "Any photographer can call yourself an artist? -You can call yourself as you want, then to be an artist ... only time can tell. I think a photographer can make a piece of art. But the picture has to do with something "happened." An artist who works with photography can make things very valuable, but to capture the essence of a moment you have to be a photographer. Photography is ephemeral. Is magical. Involves a physical attitude. Merge with what happens in front of the camera.
"If the ideal was seen without an intermediary, should not leave the camera? -The image must be more than the conscious. I go by intuition. I have a previous idea about a topic I'm trying. But when I photograph I try to forget. The scene is all. I try not to interfere, and at the same time, my presence sometimes induce other courses in the conflict that I'm portraying. It is not free to go through life my people. But I could not shoot if my presence was welcome. I like to compare myself with the attitude of a cat that goes with it (although it can be annoying too), and be at there, go almost unnoticed. In some cases I can ask someone who is under a special light that is in place for a moment. Or suggest to look at the camera. But more than that. As to my way of showing, I prefer the book or sample. I choose to shoot with a Leica because it is the least interference in the eye. It would be good to work with other cameras, but do not want to add something that interferes with my eyes. If it were possible to create images without the interaction of the camera, would be ideal.
- How to avoid the cliché in your photos? "I do not avoid it. I do not believe in the pursuit of originality. Nobody invents anything. Believe it is vanity. Everything is in the reality we see. One must reach a state in which such person is cleared. My head needs to shut up. I have a point of view. But look, I'm just looking. Before and after the seizure, serves my point of view, the photograph, I want to merge with what I watch.
- seeking to awaken the public? "That connects to your own creativity. Bioy Casares said he recognized a good writer because reading it he felt like writing. It seeks to show my photos.
By Daniel Merle (dmerle@lanacion.com.ar)
more: fotodoc.multiply.com / journal
To About: http://www.adrianalestido.com.ar/
photo documentary project Ecuadorian football on bars. The idea is to be before, during and after the game with a bar. Photographing and more or less trying to document what it means to be a barrister in Ecuador. the excitement of the goal, endurance singing all match, the pain of defeat, but just keep holding. 
