Here at the Phoblographer, we’re no strangers to what is known as shutter therapy; photography not only meant as a medium to portray our reality with, but as a way to come to terms with it, to ground ourselves and to make sense of an increasingly hostile world. Sergio Castañeira, a Spanish photographer who became tetraplegic after a harrowing accident in 2014, has plenty to say about this.
Sergio Castañeira’s Essential Gear.
- Sony RX100
- Olympus MJU II
- Canon Powershot GX7
- iPhone
I’ve always used compact cameras, both film and digital, to achieve what I wanted to achieve. I try to get my camera everywhere with me, so I’ve always chosen low-weight gear.
My latest project is entirely done with an iPhone; after the accident, it’s the easiest way for me to create.
The Phoblographer: How Did You Get Into Photography?
Sergio Castañeira: I started to get interested in photography when I was eighteen, as I was doing a film developing course in University. To be honest, I’ve always been a little bit interested in the art, but it wasn’t until I was 27 and I attended a course on Photographic Language and Creation that I really understood the power of the medium to tell stories, documentary or personal, something that transformed photography into way more than a way to get “beautiful photos”.
The Phoblographer: As A Teacher, What Do You Try To Instill In Your Students?
Sergio Castañeira: As a teacher, what I want to achieve is expand the vision of my students beyond the margins, helping them to make their own projects, to tell their own stories in a fluid manner and from their own unique perspectives. I always tell my students that it’s imperative for them to have visual culture; in pretty much the same way a good writer needs to be a good reader, a photographer has to go through different portfolios and projects just to enrich themselves and getting better at the craft.
The Phoblographer: As I Take A Look At Your Website, I See You Favor Black And White. Why? Do You Shoot In Monochrome Or Do You Edit The Pictures Later?
Sergio Castañeira: I think that it’s not about the monochrome, but about choosing a chromatic palette that can help you achieve what you had in your mind. Personally I use monochrome because I think I can create better personal universes in it. You can also use color, but that’s our default vision of the world; black and white can help you disconnect from reality and get into a dreamier, more mysterious world.
I usually shoot straight in monochrome, so I can look better for light and shadows.
The Phoblographer: Let’s Talk About Shutter Therapy. How Did It Help You?
Sergio Castañeira: Photography has helped me immensely, allowing me to internalize and recognize the changes I went through after an accident I suffered in august of 2014. The accident left me tetraplegic, and I didn’t take any pictures for almost a year. After entering a rehab center, I started shooting again as a way to understand what kind of situation I was in. Limbo, the project about to be published as a book, talks about that transition and metamorphosis. Its images allowed me to understand my living situation; while at first I was in a very weird mental state, feeling like I was a ghost, these images and their edition allowed me to find myself again not only on a physical sense, but also with my photographer self, one that had vanished at the time.
Something I learned is that my life has no meaning without photography. It’s always been there, and this project has shown me so.
The Phoblographer: How Would You Describe Your Vision As A Photographer?
Sergio Castañeira: Most of the projects I create are done way after the shooting itself. I don’t like going in with a preconceived idea, and I don’t like to develop projects in a conceptual way. I accumulate images of my daily life, and projects and topics start to work their way up to the surface.
I try to develop visual journals; territories, mental spaces, poetry, or just what I go through day by day. I don’t force myself to shoot pictures, and I always take my camera with me. I’m always alert to a call the meaning of I don’t know.
After taking the pictures, when I’m going through them, it’s when I see the way some pictures start to talk to each other. They are connected through a mental or physical link, as the way I shoot has a lot to do with intuition and sensory input — which leads to contradictions in edition, as that process is more rational.
I think there are two types of photographers, the ones who know that they’re doing while they work and the ones who don’t. I’m closer to the latter. Sometimes I think not knowing what I’m doing is a bit of a curse, but in the end it’s just a struggle with myself and the obsessions I cultivate without a clear goal. That’s the reason I approach these topics in such an unconscious manner.
I believe there’s a deep bond between poetry and image in my work, regardless of what the audience might think.
On the other hand, I’m fascinated by the way I reach those inexplicable, weird spaces. Without capturing that sequence of images, I would’ve never seen them — such an incredible journey from the known to the unknown.
For example, I wouldn’t have done Limbo if it wasn’t because I was living, first-hand, the experience of a patient at a rehab center.
The Phoblographer: Tell Us More About Limbo
Sergio Castañeira: Limbo is about a personal process of adaptation and metamorphosis. Back in 2014, the 15th of august, I suffered an accident that changed my life irreversibly; I fractured my spinal column and I was left tetraplegic.
After a year in which I was unable to take pictures, I got into a rehab center for trauma patients, where I started to shoot again. This photographic work was nothing but a way to see and explore the maze I was in. The images that strayed away from the pure documentary and got closer to something intangible started to mean something special to me, something I couldn’t describe. In the project you can see my inner state: desperation, powerlessness, loneliness — as well as some moments of pure light breaking through the darkness, smashing you with hope and calmness.
As you go through the photobook, you can appreciate there was always something pushing me forward, helping me survive. Once I left the center, I started to appreciate that the images that worked better were the ones where parts of my body or my wheelchair were in frame, as this project is clearly autobiographical. My fellow patients did also have a part, although more as a mirror than as a window; people I could see myself in, helping me understand my process through them.
As well as shooting these pictures, I was writing small notes, reflections or little poems. This work cannot be understood without the conjunction of the two.
I called the project Limbo because this space where I went from Monday to Friday felt like a kind of bubble related to the normal world I had left behind. According to Catholic tradition, being in limbo means to be in nothingness, a place without happiness nor sadness, without glory nor pain. In Spanish we say “estar en el limbo” (to be in limbo) when we talk about someone who’s spaced out.
I chose this name to reflect that symbolic state between past and future, between despair and hope, between powerlessness and empowerment, going forward with the bits and pieces Luck had seen fit to left me with.
The Phoblographer: We really liked your images partially because, as we’ve been going through various projects, there’s something that’s very human about it. With that said, what are your thoughts about all the AI projects out there these days and “AI photos” as they’re called?
Sergio Castañeira: I’m not sure what to think about this. I think it can be a fantastic tool for visual creators, and there’s projects such as the ones by Philip Toledano that are really attractive — but they stray from what is photography, getting closer to visual art. It’s clear that there’s a lot of AI generated images very similar to photography, and I can’t find it in me to criticize them. Let’s see what happens in the future!
All images posted with permission of Sergio Castañeira. You can see more of his work at his website or on his Instagram account. Limbo, his latest photobook —in a bilingual edition, English and Spanish— is available here. Interview translated by the interviewer from the original Spanish.