ALEXIS LANDIN

Jul 16

WHO?

I am Alexis Landin from Nezahualcóyotl, in the state of Mexico and I started out in photography through the art of graffiti. Before I ever grabbed a camera I started to paint on walls and explore the city in order to capture an evidence of what the city looked like through its graffiti. This medium was a very important stage for me; I was able to discover that graffiti was a pure, political and aggressive form of communication, and then I used that philosophy for photography.

When I experimented graffiti, I was looking for an identity and also to feel the adrenaline; that experience of going out at night exposing myself to those unpredictable moments.

WHEN AND WHERE?

When I was a child I used to go to the historic center of the city with my father and visit free museums, hence my references were pictorial and graphic. I was also interested in mail art because I made stickers, screen printing, and engraving; but just like in graffiti, I wanted to write my name on the streets with this idea of appropriating those spaces to myself. I saw in Bellas Artes other elements such as muralism that spoke of political aspects. All of these life experiences helped me pursue my own interests.

“but just like in graffiti, I wanted to write my name on the streets with this idea of appropriating those spaces to myself.”

REFERENCES?

When I was a child I used to look at mexican tabloids (nota roja) and those images, those visual impacts were registered in me, and unconsciously that style was created. I photographed what bothered me, what I didn't understand but always looking for that feeling of adrenaline that I had found in graffiti.

TOOLS?
Using an analog and cheap camera allows me to be in dangerous places without having to worry about my equipment and enables me to focus on what I'm going through, the experience of the moment, and that became my work methodology.

“I photographed what bothered me, what I didn’t understand but always looking for that feeling of adrenaline that I had found in graffiti.”

THE PROCESS?

I print most of my photographs in small sizes to be able to manipulate and edit. I like to print and find relationships between images. That is my work process; It is instinctive and visceral and I can relate it to the situations that I am experiencing and feeling. When printing, I realize what I was really looking for: from the moment I take the photo and the processes involved until I have a tangible image of what this moment meant to me then. I really like that materiality of the image, the fact that it has a certain life, that it responds to something.

THROUGH AN ANECDOTE?

The Valentina sauce photo is something that I always wanted to have in my work, since it is something very representative of my country as it is literally used and found everywhere. That image of the scattered sauce refers to something slimy and viscous as if it were blood. Like something bursting and I find it interesting because in Mexico there is a very open perspective on death like in the mexican tabloids (nota roja) where the writer plays with the dead and where titles are made to refer to the deceased in a funny way. It refers to that Mexicanity as crude and humorous: That is what Valentina sauce represents to me.

IN THE UNCONSCIOUS?

What I photograph is that abnormality in people. Perhaps death is represented there as something poetic, because for me it represents a silence; a silence that lasts forever. Maybe, it is not something you are looking for but those photographs can be a psychological result. Many of my photographs are out of focus, becoming abstractions of real situations. There are many images that I could simply not take with my camera an many photographs came out blurry because my hand was shaking.

WHY FLASH INTO YOUR WORK?

When I went to museums, I found interesting to see paintings like those displayed in churches. Those representations of crucifixions caught my attention and I said to myself: "How can I refer to that type of lighting in my photographs?" . This is how I used the flash outside my camera, to give my pictures a certain volume or a certain dark light that I was looking for. As well as highlighting elements that make me uncomfortable.

“I found interesting to see paintings like those displayed in churches. Those representations of crucifixions caught my attention and I said to myself: “How can I refer to that type of lighting in my photographs?.”

I like the texture of the film a lot. It reminds me of the feeling of the timelessness, of not knowing when the image was shot, wheter it was ten years ago or five. It interests me that they refer to old photos.

CONCLUSION

My photographs are a result of my perspective of the city, without fear. That is how Mexico City feels like and this is also the way it feels to me. I also don't care if the moment is uncomfortable, all I want is to have that moment.