She is someone who is totally in love with Berlin blue-light-Pantone, someone who moved from Spain because of that. Her name is Irene Cruz and she is a photographer, performer, and video artist. She consider herself as an artist fighting hard for a place as an artist in the world, trying to make some sort of gesture or write with light some kind of pathway that actually makes her really happy.
Cristina Benzi: How did you develop your interest in photography?
Irene
Cruz: I am not able to remember myself without a camera in my hands.
Since I have memories, Photography has been a very important part of me.
I used to travel with my family, and I have always seen my father
immortalizing moments, printing them, and showing them on our house
walls… it was so amazing, I wanted to do the same. And maybe that it is
how I discover my vocation.
CB: How would you describe your style?
IC:
I always try to capture and transmit through my artwork all this
feeling that the natural environment inspires in me. Rarely I show faces
in my images, I make my work away from customization to represent
universal emotions and feelings. My artwork is about philosophy,
mystery, privacy, integration with the landscape… nature is everything.
CB: What gives you ideas and inspires you to create such imagery?
IC:
I don’t know exactly where my ideas come from; Berlin, and the
experiences that I have here really help on that, it is an amazing city
to create. Sometimes the inspiration comes from the imagination that
awakens the books that I read, mostly of them, philosophy or sociology,
Nietzsche, Simmel, Ritter, Spinoza, Heidelberg, or Sennett are some of
my favourites. On other occasions I get inspired by movies, I am
especially fascinated by the director Terrance Malick, he is my big
reference. I love his way of working, his way of telling stories.
CB: The first photographer that comes to your mind.
IC: Gregory Crewdson
CB: What equipment do you prefer to use?
IC:
I have lots of cameras, but normally I shoot with my Nikon D800, and my
favourite lens is the 24mm one. I also hold a Fujifilm Instax (instant
pictures), an underwater camera… and also the old analogic Nikon FA that
my father used when I was a little girl now travels with me.
CB: How important is Photoshop in your final images?
IC:
It is not really important, I only use it to develop my photos in a
very basic way. In most of my images, I just use the plugin Adobe Camera
Raw and that’s all. When I do videos, I edit them with Final Cut colour
correction tool.
CB: How do you promote your photos?
IC:
Normally I work with different galleries that sell and exhibit them on
different places as Art Fairs. On the other hand, I publish my artwork
on the Internet very often, I get featured on different online (and
printed) magazines and especially I share them on Social Networks like
Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
CB: Among your work, which one is your favourite and why?
IC:
I think I have a little predilection for my series “Inner Tales”, I
developed it on my first travel to Berlin 5 years ago. It happened in
Spindlersfeld. It was like a revelation, Berlin’s blue light came
through my eyes, through my lens, and I saw it clearly: that day I
decided that I wanted to work as a professional artist, and go as far as
I could.
CB: What photography ambitions have you not yet achieved?
IC:
I would really love to exhibit my work in galleries as Camera Work, or
C/O Berlin… But I have the feeling that my style does not really fit in
the Photography tendencies here. My photography is very performative,
and here they bit more for a documentary or fashion one.
CB: Where do you see your work in 5 years from now?
IC:
This is a very difficult question for someone like me that rarely think
about my far-off future. Maybe I get crazy and I end up living in a
lost town between mountains, deer, and lakes (as long as it has wifi…),
or maybe I will be in NYC (who knows if on Brooklyn Bridge or under it).
Let’s see! I will keep working for making the situation the best
possible.
CB: Which are your following projects?
IC:
This week we are inaugurating in Berlin “Instintos Distintos” an
exhibition commissioned by Instituto Cervantes Berlín and La Red at
Glougauair. During the summer I will work mostly on video art. On
August I am planning to improve my skills as VJ and I want to learn some
Video-mapping techniques. On September I will be part of the Berlin Art
Week, and then I will start travelling again, to participate in Art
Fairs in Sweden, Spain, and France as I have written down in my agenda.
For more info about the artist:
