SHOE

Oct 11

Juan Zapata aka @_____shoe I @recontrapai.tk

I was born in 1995 in Lima, Perú. I studied photojournalism and committed to explore photography from family archives, street photography collectives and independent media through journalism. I studied journalism because I liked to write, but in that journey I found photography as a tool to tell stories as well.

When and where did you start photographing?

JZ: When I was a teenager, I had a compact digital camera at home with which my parents, sisters, and I took photos of our family events. Unknowingly, we started to create a new archive, apart from the albums that show my grandparents' memories and my parents' youth. Today I look at those photos with nostalgia, tenderly keeping the memories that remain after absences. At university, I learned to use professional cameras. On the street, I met the Mal de Ojo and Jauría collectives covering the protests against the government then. His images were very different from the traditional ones in the media: I knew he wanted to take that path.

“I met the Mal de Ojo and Jauría collectives covering the protests against the government then. His images were very different from the traditional ones in the media: I knew he wanted to take that path.”

Who has been the reference for your photography?

JZ: From Peru: Mal de Ojo, Jauría, Nada Colectivo, and Daniel Pajuelo.

What do you want to communicate through your photography?

JZ: From Recontrapai, I am interested in transmitting a sensation that an image takes you to a memory of your history, to a scent, to a sound, perhaps, the movement of youth, the city. Everyone sees what they have experienced, and sometimes, although in an unrepeatable way, many of us have the same memories.…

“ I am interested in transmitting a sensation that an image takes you to a memory of your history, to a scent, to a sound, perhaps, the movement of youth, the city.”

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

JZ: Our values, our way of understanding the world, are reflected in our photographs because the images we choose to have a part of us that we have learned by living, studying, or in some other way (politics, art, family, friendships, love, work, etc.). Leisure,). The more experience we get, the more options appear when editing our images (or others).