MANUELA SAAVEDRA
All Rights Reserved ©Manuela Saavedra
Manuela Saavedra (1994) is a Colombian photographer born in the city of Cali, located in the western part of the country. Recently she lives in Bogota, where she has dedicated most of her time shooting street photography.
Manuela gave us time to present to RETINA LATINOAMERICA her project during the COVID-19 lockdown called ALTARES. The artist shares with us her transition from street photography to the ritual of creating a new world with personal objects, with heavy symbolism that belongs to the artist’s memory.
ALTARES
Tell us how starts this project?
MS: In March when the lockdown began, I started to create the photographs that I’m sharing today. I called them “Altares”. They born from my anxiety of seeing myself apart from the comfort of my photographic space, that was the street. I needed an excuse to continue taking photographs. I was looking for a narrative in the place where I was quarantining, but my first attempts result in showing empty spaces from the house I was living in that moment. I didn’t like those first attempts. However, I kept looking for a language and then I found my “Altares”.
“I found in my bookshelf an old book with an image of natural still lifes from Dutch artists from the 16th and 17th centuries. Looking at them I started to recognize the symbolism that those objects have...”
How did you decide to approach the topic of Los Altares, what caught your attention?
MS:I found in my bookshelf an old book with an image of natural still lifes from Dutch artists from the 16th and 17th centuries. Looking at them I started to recognize the symbolism that those objects have, like: coings, candles, knives --beyond being utility objects-- are channels of communication between life and death. Like that my new world started to have a new meaning. My stories resonated to that microcosm of my belongings. These objects from the exterior world became part of my interior world. They have my memories, but also ideas and pre established universal meanings. At the same time they could mean something personal and totally different to the audience.
About the staging of los altares, like the ones of the dishes in the sink, are they related to chaotic elements related to COVID-19 that reflect your anxiety?
MS: I think that particularly the altar with the dishes has a direct relation to COVID-19. Even though I frequently cooked during the pandemic, when all of this started I noticed the amount of dirty dishes increased substantially. Thanks to this chaos that naturally occurred in my kitchen it occurs to create an altar. I also recorded a video, showing the explicit relations to COVID-19, in the video I speak to the topic staging elements like disinfectant, face masks and hygienic paper. Also I included recent newspapers from the beginning of the lockdown that talked about COVID-19’s impact in the society.
In other altars there’s certain elements that belong to COVID’s world. However, the objects that prevail in these photographs have connotations more pertinent than the relationship they could have or not with COVID-19. For example, the shoe’s altar has a connection with movement. The shoes represent the physical movement of our bodies and the magazines the verbal and communicative movement. About the anxiety, I think the disposition of these objects in the photographic space reflect more this emotional state.
“The shoe’s altar has a connection with movement. The shoes represent the physical movement of our bodies and the magazines the verbal and communicative movement. ”
Do you think moving the significance from the universal to the personal to these objects give them a museographic value?
MS: I think that photographic objects from the daily life gives the audience the opportunity to impose their own meaning to the image. This allows the photographs to ascend between the universal and the personal, giving to others the opportunity to bond with the images. I had a conversation with a close friend about the photographs and he makes me realize that those photographs are a current record and that those objects can disappear with the years. Some can transition to a commercial use or can change their label. Thanks to these photographs I can keep them as objects that belong to these times. I guess then they can relate to the fascination with the past you see in objects from museums. However, there’s objects that don't evoque this nostalgic feeling. The same way when I observed those still lifes from old books, where I found them close to me like the mirrors and the books.
Have you ever worked on a visual project prior COVID-19?
MS: I never worked on something conceptual and controlled at the same time. It was until the pandemic started, I was focused on shooting moments at colombian streets. I was creating a project about capturing moments from windows, but I paused it at the moment.
Do you think this project has changed your way to see street photography? There 's new interests that you want to approach?
MS: Yes, definitely I think the project impacted new ideas and ways of thinking about photography. The way I staged the altars, I noticed there’s street photography influences. For example, now that I’m interested in taking portraits, I try to distribute people around the space. I look forward to building relationships with people in the streets if they’re doing something that interests me to have a better proximity and framing. Working this way has been useful to work on my ongoing project documenting life at a park since the lack of crowds in the park makes people more conscious of their surroundings but with the need of asking for permission. I still take candid photos, it’s a beautiful exercise and a way to observe that continues to be part of my photographic language.
Another way this project has been helpful is to stage and manipulate spaces with lighting sources. This idea is complemented with John Divola’s photography, particularly his book “Chroma”. In this book there's a great color manipulation and use of symbolic sources to create new speeches, like his magenta goat photograph that I can interpret at a biblical and demonic symbol. I am looking forward to try new lighting techniques since I limit myself with this project because of my space wanting them more brighter and with less shadows.
“Another way this project has been helpful is to stage and manipulate spaces with lighting sources. This idea is complemented with John Divola’s photography, particularly his book “Chroma”. ”
What’s a takeaway from this project?
MS: My reflection is that as a photographer you can have simultaneous paths. With that said, you can be more than a street photographer and amplify your vision to diverse genres like still life, portraits or architecture. Curiously, between all of them you can create authentic and personal styles that reflect your photographic identity.
All Rights Reserved ©Manuela Saavedra
