XIMENA ECHAGUE

I grew up in Buenos Aires, became a photographer in Europe and I am now living between New York and Brussels. My life has influenced the way I look at the people around me. I have always lived in big cities with large floating populations, which naturally led me to empathize with them. We are all migrants in different ways, moving around trying to improve our lot in life. I try to capture this human dynamic in my photography, made of hopes fulfilled or shattered, with its drama and contradictions. The odyssey of human life.

When and where did you start taking photographs? Who has been the reference of your photography?

XE: I’ve been surrounded by photographers, journalists, and filmmakers, both relatives and friends, so my interest in photography developed naturally as well in other things like sculpture and contemporary dance. I relocated to Spain without any money when I was 20 years old. I left behind the sculpture and later on the dance. I worked in tons of side jobs, finally, I started studying photography and I learned from it as I worked for more than 10 years. Photography has been a part of me since then, with seasons more dedicated than others. When I relocated to Brussels with no kids, without speaking French, and without knowing anyone I decided to link with people using my camera. Since then, photography has become my passion and daily job.

“When I relocated to Brussels with no kids, without speaking French, and without knowing anyone I decided to link with people using my camera. Since then, photography has become my passion and daily job”

I grew up surrounded by books and a huge poster of a Mapplethorpe dancer in a room at my mom’s house. Those are my first memories and for sure early inspirational sources.

I can’t mention all the photographers that I admire because it’s a long list, but the classics like Ramón Masats, Josef Koudelka, Eugene Smith, Robert Frank, and others. I’m inspired by the work of Joel Meyerowitz, Alex Webb, Bruce Davidson, David Alan Harvey, as well other documentary photographers such as Nan Goldin, Diane Arbus, and Cristina Garcia Rodero. Each one with a powerful and particular perspective. All of them, and many others, have influenced who I am as a photographer. I have to mention that currently the brothers Vineet and Rohit Vohra are my photography gurus. Even though their work is different, their perspective and poetic narrative deeply moved me.

What means documentary and street photography to you?

XE: Street photography, documentary, and photojournalism are continuous, sometimes with vague boundaries. All of them attempt to show and explain the reality we live in. I think that street photography within a “Bressonian” decisive’s moment perspective ---without altering the reality--- is also documentary photography. Street photography is immediate, candid, and surprising. Documentary photography is premeditated and studied, you know the message you want to convey, while in the streets you let yourself be surprised.

“ I think that street photography within a “Bressonian” decisive’s moment perspective —-without altering the reality—- is also documentary photography”

I got out to shoot almost every day while I work on any documentary project that tends to last several years. For my documentary and street photography compliment each other. The streets are the moment’s adrenaline, and adrenaline I need to live with. On the other hand, documentary photography is more a long term objective that structures my time.

You stated that “ my life has influenced the way I look at people around me”. How are your experiences reflected in the subjects we see in your photographs?

XE: I believe that my images are mirrored to my experiences, mixed with the moment’s emotions. It is something that happens to many photographers. There’s an unconscious process where your attention is caught to certain types of situations and not others. You think you’re open to everything, you go out with your camera and your gaze gets stuck by determined scenarios that can reflect your emotions at that moment, something like your soul’s reflection. That’s reflected in your photographs and sometimes is more related to the photographed object that we don’t even get to know. We talk about an honest photograph since we photographed something real, even though when we frame we use the light and we focus on something particular from the scene, creating a type of fiction.

Your work has been shown in around 20 countries in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. As well as your photographs, published in magazines such as Eyeshot, Fotografiska, Leica Fotografie International, LensCulture, Life Framer, National Geographic, and others. Do you remember your first exhibition or publication? What motivated you to make your work known in the documentary and street photography community?

XE: I remember my first exhibition since it was part of my first assignment. I had borrowed a camera to “play” during the Gay Parade in Madrid. I was 20 years and I worked at a photography studio. When I revealed the work people told me to keep taking photographs and I thought it was a joke. I don’t remember how, but a year after my photographs were shown in Madrid and Barcelona. It was a shock, a huge encouragement.

What has been your experience in street and documentary photography festivals? What impact they had in your artistic and professional process?

XE: The festivals are a type of business, and I think that’s fine, even though in many cases I don’t agree with their operation. Thanks to festivals I have discovered the work of professional photographers that I truly admire and trends in photographic narratives. I’d been awarded at photo festivals, which encouraged me to continue. I don’t think festivals have an impact on my process as a photographer. More than that, they create opportunities and new friends, photographers from all parts of the world that would otherwise have been difficult to meet.

“ I experienced several setbacks in my career, some of them have had something to do with being a woman and other times, as a Latin American, in the recognition by some media for being based abroad”

There’s some type of role you have in the arts? Tell us about your experience as a curator, judge, and mentor in organizations like Women Street Photographers, (WSP) Little Box, and LATAM Photographers.

XE: In addition to work on my projects, I try to collaborate in the dissemination of photography made by women. For many years, especially in street photography, women have been underrepresented, even groups and collectives were made up mostly of men, as well as festival juries. Over time this changed, but given the supposed lack of interest in our work, we decided to start promoting ourselves. This is how some groups and collectives created by female photographers were born to show our work on a global level.

In my particular case, I started joining WSP, created by Gulnara Samoilova in New York, where I work in different areas, from the search for spaces for exhibition, as a mentor of the two-week residency program in New York, being a judge along with Gulnara for one of our open calls, as a producer of short films about photographers, in this case, women and men as well, and as a creator of new projects… a bit of everything! In Latin American photography by women, my work as a curator goes beyond street photography and includes documentary photography and fine art. I intend to help promote the work of young emerging photographers beyond the region. In April, Latam Photographers will have its first exhibition in Paris, showing the work of 69 women.

“Being Latin American myself, I know first-hand the limitations that many female photographers face when trying to publicize their work beyond social networks. I always like to work in a team and above all, to help others. I firmly believe that unity is strength.”

Being Latin American myself, I know first-hand the limitations that many female photographers face when trying to publicize their work beyond social networks. I always like to work in a team and above all, to help others. I firmly believe that unity is strength.

Have you noticed any change in the role and opportunities for women in photography?

XE: I experienced several setbacks in my career, some of them have had something to do with being a woman and other times, as a Latin American, in the recognition by some media for being based abroad. However, going back to the first point, things have been changing in a positive sense. Since women have come together and empowered, our work has settled in an important place and we could say that today it is recognized and valued. The union empowers every one of us. As for my work, today it has much more visibility thanks to my participation in WSP, which has more than one hundred thousand followers on Instagram.

Tell us about your current photography projects. How has COVID-19 impacted your creative processes?

XE: In 2019, amid the fear, bewilderment, and anguish that the pandemic generated, an introspective work was born, almost without realizing it, from the frustration of not being able to continue with my SP. This started a series of self-portraits that I made for myself. As a genre it is not something that interests me particularly, however, when we decided to create with Gulnara a group on Facebook for street photographers to share the type of images they were creating in confinement, I decided to share one of my works. It seems that they liked it because they started to share it and publish it in some magazines. That was the push that encouraged me to continue. Once the streets opened again, although what I saw didn’t interest me; masked and distant people, I preferred to continue betting on the SP, although with a minimalist style. That inspiration caused by the self-portraits disappeared. It was part of the moment, and before the reopening, it no longer made much sense to me.

“In 2019, amid the fear, bewilderment, and anguish that the pandemic generated, an introspective work was born, almost without realizing it, from the frustration of not being able to continue with my SP. This started a series of self-portraits that I made for myself.”

As for my photographic projects, I work almost daily in SP and I am thinking about how and when to resume my documentary work on immigration. Today I hardly have time; I dedicate many hours to the new projects that we are creating with Gulnara for WSP, as well as being in the process of creating my first book. All tasks require high concentration and little compatibility with diversification.

What plans Ximena Echagüe have for 2021? Are any future ideas or projects being put together?

XE: The first thing I hope, like everyone else, is that we manage to end this pandemic with the least amount of human and economic losses possible. Until then, planning is somewhat utopian. I have worked the last year for some exhibitions that have been canceled until further notice. The same has happened with the trips I had. The only thing I can do is continue advancing in the projects that I have on the way but without a scheduled date, and take advantage of this time in Brussels, where it is forbidden to leave the country, to work on my book.

ADOLFO GRACIA

ALEJANDRO GUTIÉRREZ