In a world that chases perfection, she chooses the "imperfect" as a way of evoking this world, bringing out the "underneath". Maria Tudela reveals nostalgia and beauty discovered in decay, creating a collateral world full of essences and symbols. Using the same kind of processing in her images, she introduces us to an ephemeral world in which the objective was to create an artistic side that was more than technical, more suggestive than descriptive.
Winner of numerous awards, she stands out for her artistic vision revealed in interviews and articles in numerous prestigious photography publications.
Hello, Maria,
We want to know more about you and your artistic vision and I would like to thank you for taking the time to participate in this interview.
To begin, where are you from? Please tell us about yourself and your passions.
I live in a city in the south of Spain, called Lorca. I am a nurse and in my free time, whenever life lets me, I try to take or create photographs.
What inspired you to approach photography?
Without a doubt it was the digital age, that brought everyone closer to photography, lowering the cost and making that world available to everyone. However, something wonderful happened, a wonderful discovery. For the first time I took photos where I decided the composition, without needing to be imposed by a fact, act or memory.
In a world that chases perfection, what does "imperfect" mean to you?
I believe that beauty is not perfect, and therefore I have tried from the beginning to emancipate myself from purism about perfection in photography. But perhaps also along with that act of rebellion, there is also an act of freedom, in terms of taking the photograph that I want.
Please tell us where do you find the inspiration for your visual stories? Why Pictorialism?
Inspiration comes to me from all sides, from a book, from a movie, from a person, from a situation, from life in general. But above all, it is NATURE that inspires me, it is what I like to photograph the most, and where I am most comfortable with a camera. Regarding pictorialism, I share many similarities with that movement: Distance from reality, artistic pretensions, blurring, a secondary role to technique, landscape as the main theme.
In the absence of words, visual poetry creates a much more dynamic and interpretive interaction between the author and the viewer. What do you think, is visual poetry easier to convey and feel in black and white?
I think there is no great distance between color or black and white, when it comes to feeling or transmitting. It will depend a lot on the story we are telling.
However, I confess that I have always been more captivated by the absence of color. I have believed from the beginning that through the drama and strength that permeates the use of color, I gave my images life and mystery at the same time, focusing the viewer's interest on what I wanted to highlight, preventing light or color from taking center stage. color. I have always seen the image as a whole, sometimes I even sacrifice the details, the reading of the image I intend is as a whole, otherwise my photos would not make sense. And the color is still a detail, which can often take away the prominence of my intention.
Please share with us what photographic equipment you use and how you create the amazing atmosphere in your artwork.
I use a very basic reflex camera with an 18-200mm lens. I confess that I have never shown importance to the camera in my creative process. However, it is in editing with programs where I give shape and life to my images. I manipulate the image with textures and selective blurs, to offer a photograph taken from the era but timeless, evocative and melancholic. There is certainly something nostalgic and beautiful about decadence, and perhaps that is the reason why almost all of my shots end up having a certain decadent feel. From the beginning I treated my photographs with the same processing, the objective is to give them a character that is more artistic than technical, and more suggestive than descriptive.
What can you tell us about the series “Almas grises” (“Grey souls”)? How much has your art works been influenced by feelings, by suffering?
You could say that the project I have called “Grey Souls” is a paradox, a journey to explore human feelings and emotions in the society we live in. It is a personal criticism of today's society, where individualism prevails, where we have replaced traditional values as important as respect, solidarity or justice, with those that give value to one's own. Therefore, making it more difficult every day to be able to express our feelings, and with it the ability to coexist among human beings. Of course, it is still a subjective perception captured in images. The protagonist individuals are shadows or figures without form or face “souls”, turning their backs on each other, and in an attitude that shows indifference towards everything.
And answering the second question, we cannot always separate ourselves from feelings, much less in the creative process. When you show the world in an image, what you are actually showing is how you see it. And perhaps that is the great paradigm of photography.
What is the essence and message you want to convey through the "Pictorialism" collection? What does you wish to express here?
As I explained before in another question, there are many similarities that I share with this movement. For that reason, I created that series, with no other intention than to express the respect and consideration I have for it. You could say that those similarities or similarities that I share are still a channel that I use in the creative process.
Working myself as a nurse in a hospital I have been influenced over time by suffering, or rather by the loneliness of the sufferer. How much does your profession influence your artistic vision?
Very much, we must keep in mind that I know the human being in his most critical facet, that is, during the health-disease process. I have no doubt that this inherent characteristic in my profession directly influences which points to touch in an image or in the creative or visual process to provoke sensations.
What can you reveal about this photo?
That is one of my favorite photos. Behind every photo there is a story, just as behind every story there is one or a thousand photos. That photo was taken at my mother's house and is very personal, and very valuable to me. It is part of the series "At the bottom on the right". The least important thing is what I wanted to capture, what is important is the viewer's reading of it, and that is the magic of this world that we are so passionate about.
I think that photography above all is memory. Yes, that would be my answer to your question.
What about this one and your "Obscuro" series?
Well, as a result of an illness that had me confined to the house without going out, “Dark” came about. For the first time I did something I had never done before, portraying what I had within my reach at that moment, my home. And that photo is nothing other than the expression of the emotional state. This is how the photobook “Oscuro” emerged: a set of moods portrayed.
What path do you think a photographer who wants to be a visual storyteller should take? What advice would you give him/her?
Choosing the path is a very personal option, each one will know where to go when the time comes. The only thing I can suggest is that Art must be subject to emotion, it is the ideal medium to transmit emotions and feelings. You must believe and feel what you do, to transmit it to the viewer.
What does success mean to you and why do you think your works attract so many viewers?
I prefer to use the term satisfaction rather than success. For me, the satisfaction is that a stranger and unknown person wants to take a photograph of me and place it in their dining room or bedroom. Or buy me a book and have it in your library. Believe me, there is no greater satisfaction.
Do you have a favorite photographer that you appreciate and who has influenced your photographic journey?
There are many among my favorites, but I am going to name two that, more than influencing, awaken in me a deep envy and therefore my great respect, and I suppose that in some way they have influenced and influence my work. One is Raymond Depardon, he states that what he does is wait to capture the moment when people express themselves and say something unique. Since I saw his work “Manicomio”, I have been an unconditional fan.
Another of my greats is Cristina García Rodero, no one has photographed rural and folkloric Spain like her. His photos are as strong as they are real, capable of awakening endless emotions. He states that what he wants is to talk about things that have neither time nor end, day to day. And he does it with so much honesty, all his work seems wonderful to me.
Do you have any photography projects for the future?
I am involved in the adventure of editing a new photobook. I confess that since I discovered this means of visual expression, it has me under its spell. For me it is going back to paper, handling the images, smelling them, and above all they are made up of a lot of photos within a story. It is like an exhibition, with the difference that when it closes or ends, it does not disappear. I think that of all the artistic disciplines, the photobook is where the author reveals himself the most.