1) You are a street photographer with a very personal and intuitive sense of human substance. Could you talk a bit about what you do?
«Streetphotography is the genre of genres (Leica / Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum…). This kind of photography is intuitive. If you stop for a second to think about what are you shooting it is gone. I shoot things that have an impression on me, but can’t tell why, I just shoot, the click machine is like a beat of my heart. I cannot have in mind a 35 mm. square registered in a 1/250 part of a second (humankind limitations). Once I develop the images I find myself surprised by the frames I took. The photographer getting unexpected results from his own work! Like magic! Like alchemy!
The beauty of the camera machine is that allows you to register a capsule of reality hundred times faster than a second. One person imagination has got limits, expected limits. If I shoot what I planned the results will be those I planned, nothing new will come. If I shoot a still life, I am not pushing the camera qualities as far as they can reach. Reality is like a theatre where different realities get crossed and you do not have control on them. If you pay attention on what surrounds you, the stimulation of continuous inputs will keep you excited and awake. Face expressions, body language, compositions, details… that come from reality, you can tell there is human substance, you can say that it is real, smell it, you can feel identified.»
2) As a young photographer what is your perspective towards the world, and how do you approach your subject matter?
«We cannot forget that these pictures are documents too, they talk about this time, this season, these real people that were there that day… In new trends photography (planned portraits) you can smell they are planned, the expressions are fake. You can tell that for the perfect set, the tightness in the body, the serious look. Contemporary artistic photography has left aside reality, I don’t know why. But if we take a look to many photography galleries around the world we’ll see the lack of it. In the newspapers they want narratives (beginning-middle-end stories) but not single frame stories. I understand photography as a celebration of life. Every picture I publish is an homage of the moment.»
3) What is your attitude with people? How do you generally move in the city and choose locations? Do you return to places that interest you? Is it also random walking and travelling?
«My aim is not to be noticed. I am interested in what surrounds me without being involved. Most of the times people do not realise I took a picture of them. If they do, I am already in my way to talk about it or if I stay, I must admit I just took an homage to the moment. When I say I am taking an homage of the moment some people keep walking, some smile, some think (by their look) I am crazy or that I am lying, and with very few people I have an argument. Usually I do not wait, I shoot as I walk. I carry the camera in my daily life. My work is my diary.»
4) Living to capture, to breath the moment. Is there any difference when you are photographing in a new place? Tell us of your recent trip and street photo shooting experience in New York.
«There is a big difference when you are in a new place! I found NYC a very hostile place to shoot. Everybody agreed to look suspiciously at my camera and me, I had more arguments in three weeks in NY than in one year shooting in Barcelona. I only spend 25 days in NY. It was probably me being too aware of myself shooting. My conclusion is that shooting in a new place is naturally hostile. It takes some time to feel comfortable to shoot in a new place. In three weeks I enjoyed a gradual change. More time you spend anywhere better pictures you take. »
© All copyright remains with photographer Enrique Muda