By Mariajosé Fernández-Plenge
Before being a photographer you studied Art Direction in Filmaking. There is a strong influence from your previous career in your current work. Would you say this is a conscious decision in every project?
Absolutely. Props, locations, color palettes and patterns is something that it’s considered since I have an idea in mind. I can’t picture a frame without these elements which are key in its composition and even relates one image to the other.
Your last project Somewear is a series of self-portraits. Does your artwork always comes from a personal issue that you want to talk about? How does your creative process works?
I realized with my last two projects that I understood that I was talking about a specific theme after finishing it. I need to have something that I need to discover or identify through the process of creating it. If the way to its core is simple I am not longer interested. That’s why I was so into Somewear, because it was like a visual game. Also I need to have a clear aesthetic approach with supports an idea and makes it stronger.
Somewear is a project about identity. What inspired you to talk about this?
Leaving abroad is something that makes you embrace where you come from. You leave behind your country, family, and traditions in order to be part of another community, to function in it. But you still carry with you all these values and features. After my second year of moving to NY I realized that I needed to get closer to all of these, even more in a city where you are constantly changing and so does everything that surrounds you.
