MARIANO BRIZZOLA

Feb 8

Buenos Aires Argentina but also Uruguayan citizen May 11, 1979

I spent some intrauterine months in Montevideo. I was born in a hospital in Buenos Aires. I grew up and lived until adolescence in the Munro neighborhood with my mother, grandfather, grandmother. uncle, aunt and my dog. Summers were spent in (La Teja) Montevideo, at my great-grandmother Justina's. At 9 I was hit by a car and I survived, at ten I took two rolls of photos, I did not stop drawing and talking. at 13 I went to live with my mother and my stepfather who adopted me, they changed my last name, I repeated, they changed schools, I started playing bass, I put together a band, I left the bass for the guitar, I put together another band , I stopped drawing, I left the band, I went back to drawing, to painting, I started working, I met my dad, my dad died, I had a bad time, I kept working and quitting. at 24 I bought a Nikon FE. At 35 I stopped taking pictures with a camera. sporadically I do something with the phone, mostly in the form of micro videos of 8 to 15 seconds. I trained with a basic photography course. then I did a couple of workshops in which I highlight two clinical / editing. one with Fabiana Barreda in 2009 and another with Alberto Goldenstein in 2012. I started showing photos in 2007 in galleries, art fairs (arg/uru/peru), cultural centers, museums, etc. I got some mentions and awards here in Argentina. They search for anything on google, in a cv or interview that must be floating around. I am interested in the spaces of this part of the south of the world, places related to my personal history, elements that come from several decades ago but that still coexist with us today. a lot of chromatic and compositional emphasis. much memory, much past in the present. "nostalgic celebration"

When and where did you start photographing?

MB: In 1989/1990 I made 2 rolls (I was 10 years old) I asked relatives to take me to photograph the center of the city of Buenos Aires. Then I didn't shoot again with the intention of doing something until 2005.

Who/ Whom has been the reference of your photography?

MB: I recall the work of Lee Friadlander, Josef Koudelka, William Eggleston, Helen Levitt, Saul Leiter, Joel Meyerowitz, Vivian Maier, Robert Frank, to mention some of the most relevant names.

What do you want to communicate through your photographs?

MB: Over time I realized that the answer is: relief

What does street and documentary photography mean to you?

MB: A way for someone else to know your memories, what passed through your eyes and through your heart.

How are your life experiences reflected in the subjects we see in your photographs?

MB: Possibly they are reflected through the search of calm, silence, relief. Although much of what is seen in them has deteriorated over time, I think they preserve that, not each element itself, but the conjunction and how they are arranged.