All images by Arthur Bueno. Used with permission. This post was done in collaboration with the Sub-Reddit R/Analog with permission from the mods.
“It was around the time of 2010 – 2012 that I had lived in the Bay Area California for school. I was attending the Academy of Art University for photography and had to make my trips from Daly City to San Francisco for class almost everyday,” said photographer Arthur Bueno about his series MOMENTS IN THE SAME PLACE. “It usually started early mornings and ended late nights. And as I started to grab onto this routine there were a couple of things that I started seeing that were unusual. Before I knew it I started gripping my camera in the morning, during lunch, and at night.”
Arthur largely shot the project in between classes as he got lost or happened to be in an area out of pure coincidence. But after a while, he wanted to look at the work in an angle that he thought seemed to made sense. “Then the words ‘MOMENTS IN THE SAME PLACE’ came into mind. It was exactly how I felt about the work,” he said. “Most of the images I was making were in my daily routines. It starts off going into the city, walking around the city and then leaving from the city.”
“A sort of ‘guide’ to what it looks like to be me for a day. It was also a realization that my work has a very voyeuristic approach to what I see in front of me. MOMENTS IN THE SAME PLACE are a collections of images of my routines as a student witness interactions of people and space.”
Phoblographer: Talk to us about how you got into photography.
Arthur: To tell you the truth I got into photography kind of by accident. I was 19 and had a group of friends that were starting to become aspiring photographers. They were photographing their friends at hangouts and photographing their favorite local bands. I was always jealous and inspired by the work they were producing that it had me consider trying it.
It wasn’t until I took an intro to photography course at Fresno City College that really gave me the chance to learn how to take pictures. I loved it so much I went through the entire photo program. And because of that program I became the photographer I am today.
Phoblographer: What got you into street photography?
Arthur: I was already a street photographer before I even knew what the term meant. My first rolls of film were images of the street finding what I was interested in. It wasn’t until I moved to San Francisco and met a couple of friends (credit to Sean Custer & Theo Slavin for introducing it to me) that sort of labeled my style in such a way.
Added that I was also influenced by the likes of Joel Meyerowitz, Gus Powell, Phillip Lorca di Corcia, Mark Cohen, the In-Public roster, and a lot of punk rock / skate photographers. The combinations of these influences lead me to this style of shooting.
Phoblographer: Creatively speaking in your mind, what motivates you to actually take a photo of something when you encounter it?
Arthur: My motivation usually stems from the quality of light that’s emitting onto the subject. It also depends on the type of subject I’m seeing and what relevance it has to how I feel the moment I’m there. There are also other factors that play into my motivation such as musical melodies intertwining in my head, past memories, or feeling the atmosphere of what I’m witnessing. Above it really depends on the quality of light.