FREISY GONZÁLEZ
All rights reserved ©Freisy González
Freisy González Portales (Venezuela) anthropologist, photographer and musician.
Her interests are around the exploration of identity, memory and migration, building narratives that use mixed media such as archives, video, audio and embroidery. She’s being part of publications and individual and collective exhibitions in Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Argentina and the United States.
When and where did you start photographing? Who has been the reference for your photography?
FG: I got to photography through research, looking at images as infinite sources of information, as visual ideas of moments, places, and even subjectivities. Even the first photography workshop I attended in Caracas, Venezuela, was precisely about the relationship between archives and photography. Then I took the path more directly, took black and white analog photography, and began explorations with street photography, dance, theater, and documentary photography. All this is also because of my anthropologist training and interest in historical processes. But the truth is that photography has accompanied me since I was a child because my mother had several film cameras in the house, which she secretly stole and took photos of as mischief and misdeed; this makes me think of a relationship with photography. as an impulse, even a secret, which has been present at various points in my life. But equally, this prank and theft of images were in absolute evidence when revealed the scroll.
“I got to photography through research, looking at images as infinite sources of information, as visual ideas of moments, places, and even subjectivities”
I remember taking those same cameras from my mother with me years later, traveling to Colombia the first time I left my country (Venezuela), and positioning myself against the difficulty of viewfinders and obtaining specific formats, certain rolls for being able to recharge them.
Who has been the reference for your photography?
FG: When I think about this question, it comes to my mind that I feel nourished by photography and others. I'm nourished by words and also by music/sounds. But I would have to talk about photography because we are changing references as we mutate in our languages and search without stopping.
I want to mention artists and photographers who have nurtured me, such as Daido Moriyama, Tina Modotti, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Claudia Andujar, Bárbara Brandli, Claudio Perna, Eugene Atget, Miguel Acosta Saignes, Nelson Garrido, Pablo Ortíz Monasterio, Antoine D'Agata, Luis Cobelo, Jorge Panchoaga, Santiago Escobar Jaramillo, Misha Vallejo, Marcelo Brodsky, Musuk Nolte, Julián Barón, Jahir Jorquera, Giancarlo Shibayama, Fernando Criollo, among others.
But I have found a lot of power in the speeches and works carried out by women such as Elena Cardona, María Elena Alvarado Boggio, Costanza De Rogatis, Malú Valerio, Ana María Arévalo, Andrea Hernández, Azalia Licón, Carelyn Daniela Mejías, Fabiola Ferrero, Alicia Caldera, Diana Rangel, Isadora Romero, Juanita Escobar, Tania Bohórquez, Gihan Tubbeh, Laura El Tantawy, Catalina De La Cruz, Paola Jiménez, Ana Lía Orézzoli, Gisela Volá, Prin Rodríguez, Saraí Ojeda, Sina Niemeyer, Alessandra Sposetti, Valeria Arendar, among others.
On the other hand, I believe very much in the references that are generated from collective work, as happened to me with the Recontrapai Collective, which has been very important in my journey through photography because, among other things, we dilute the author's voice, we become a mass that narrates from visual diaries, and from freedom, by not responding to anything.
“On the other hand, I believe very much in the references that are generated from collective work, as happened to me with the Recontrapai Collective, which has been very important in my journey through photography because, among other things, we dilute the author’s voice, we become a mass that narrates from visual diaries, and from freedom, by not responding to anything”
What do you want to convey through your images?
FG: Photography, for me, is an excuse; it is a door to life, experience, thought, and the intimacy of people and their infinite geographies, which in turn allows a reaffirmation of my identity.
photographing is a door to feeling and emotion, the mystery, the hidden, and the search without fatigue. I build bridges, connect with people and tell their stories, ask questions, go through life, and even talk from vulnerability.
How are your life experiences reflected in the symbols that we see in your photographs?
FG: I have realized that my metaphors are the sea, the trees, the wind, the snails, and the body; they refer to where I come from, memory and oblivion, my migratory transit, reflections of time, and even being a woman, among other ideas—the approach of my file in an extended conversation with my family file.
My last two projects are based on my personal history as a migrant and now a returnee and are nourished by the stories and experiences of other migrants, through the emotional and psychological, seeking to generate some impact and connect with people, but also generate empathy, and if possible, something “useful.”
All rights reserved ©Freisy González
