García de Marina (Spain)

García de Marina (Spain)

Since 2011, García de Marina has been using objects as a means of expression. He is interested in the symbolism of ordinary objects, and the random connection of elements to construct new meanings by virtue of their essentiality. His work revolves around intuition and surrealistic ideas, and the world of the subconscious and dreams.

“My work is deeply irreverent with reality, seeking to transform and stamp objects with new identities, challenging the obvious, and paying attention to the greatness of everyday life. The bareness of my photography endows objects with a leading role, while they are stripped of their essence to be reinvented. I seek to give emotion to a piece of cutlery, to a match, or to tell a story, my own story, with an eggshell.

The part more important in my creative process is the ideas and how they can arise, either looking for an individual image (because I have an idea or an object to work with) or in the realization of a project, but it all begins through observation, from lived experiences or from what at any given moment may concern me. Having many objects or elements to work closely makes you live constantly in the association of elements, which in some cases can end up in ideas.

Sometimes, when I am working on photographs individually, I realize that somehow some of them get to connect with each other and can get to join in a project.

Emptiness yields to being filled and fulfilled. Flow is also the exuberant feeling a person has when in one’s element. When one is enjoying the moment, the sense of doing right, the sense of using the innate skills, the sense of accomplishment, the sense of well-being, and the sense of inner peace prevailing. When one feels there are no obstacles or resistance to one’s being and feels the sense of being one with the world and the sense of being alive. Art happens when one is in that flow. An artist can take what appears plain and unremarkable and reveal a view that can change perceptions.

In my work, I look for surprises by joining two distant objects with a very different symbolic charge; also with the decontextualization and manipulation of the object. Through these tools, these pieces of our daily life are “denatured”, to give them a new meaning.

I never put titles to the photos because I think that it would condition an initial interpretation and would reduce the weight of what I am trying to find, which is a kind of dialogue between the work and the spectator. By not giving a title, I also look for subsequent interpretations or reinterpretations; in short, that there is a visual game.

I think my work is on a path between sculpture and photography. Without this manipulation or previous preparation, I would not have the object, and without the photographic capture, I could not capture it for its visualization.

Objects come from very different places. They can come from people I know, others I find by chance and others I look for in all kinds of shops. Many times the main challenge is to get a specific object to use. I have a lot of ideas to develop in the future when I find the object I want. I usually keep many of them since I sometimes use them again. Sometimes I like to go back to the work itself to give new meanings or tell new stories with elements that have already been used.

Images have long been a necessity for me. Not for the mere fact of creating, but for a need to capture my thoughts and ideas, and the ability to demonstrate those ideas through photography. I want to think that my work evolves towards a more surrealist than conceptual point of view.

I use a Nikon D800 and I usually use a 50mm. lens because it is quite similar how the human eye sees. I usually use natural light.

I do not use lighting equipment. Natural light gives me the kind of light with soft shadows that I need for my photographs. I live on the north coast of Spain, where the weather is normally cloudy, that’s why I get that kind of light.

I also choose to shoot in the early hours of the day. My studio has a large, south-facing window. Sometimes I have to wait to get the light I want, and if one day I cannot photograph, I prepare other objects for another day.

For backdrops, I use basic materials. I have a surface where I stick white, black, or grey backgrounds, which I change when they break. I use the minimum number of elements in my photographs as well as to take them.

On occasion I use a backlight. But that only happens when the characteristics of the object absolutely need it and I want to highlight them.

Currently my work is being represented by eight art galleries in the world and during last years I have participated in some Festivals of photography, in Spain and abroad as Photo Week D.C. in Washington (2015), Photo Romania Festival (2015), Photometria Festival in Greece (2016), Festival of the light in Argentina (2016), Bucharest Foto Week (2016), Addis Foto Fest in Ethiopia (2016), Uppsala Foto Festival in Sweden (2017), Yangon Photo Festival in Myanmar (2018), Xposure International Photography Festival (2018), Belgrade Photo Month (2019) and Budapest Photo Fest (2020).”