PHOTO LONDON: Lost In Translation
© michel catalán, 2024
I understand that each participant was assigned a photographic project during the trip to Photo London. Do you think you could apply a personal vision for the assigned project?
Although the assigned project had a very particular name, “Lost in Translation”, At first I thought it was a bit literal. Then I realized that in addition to the literal, I had to have my own vision of couples, whether it was just people or people with objects, etc.. However, I think I also achieved that “lost in London” with the photo OF A LOT OF people and only one PERSON looking at the camera. I concentrated a lot on the distracted people and unusual situations….
The photobook “LOST IN TRANSLATION” is the result of the Photo London 2024 trip organized by Long Distance Photo Expeditions and Roberto Mata School of Photography. It is part of a collection of seven photobooks created by each of the participants during the photographic journey to London in May 2024. The course was led by Julio Estrada and Ricardo Peña, with the books designed by Claudia Leal. Participating photographers: Carlos Anllo, Michel Catalan, Aránzazu González, Omar Mattar, Dámaris Rodríguez, Yuraima Rodríguez, and María Elena Velasco.
When creating the project, did you place more importance on the individual images or on the group of images you wanted to create?
In this project I only let myself be carried away by what I was seeing at the time, I never thought of a group of images that could be connected to each other.
© Michel Catalán, 2024
Do you think working with a project in mind is beneficial for the photographic process?
I think it is very useful since it forces us to think, search, and look with a critical eye, putting in some cases the objective of project “x” over the technique in pursuit of the result.
And if so, what positive advantages or characteristics could you recognize?
In my case it forces me to look for the photo and see it in more detail, taking in what I see and its relationship with the idea of the project, I do not take the picture for the sake of taking it or for the pretty photo, That also helps me take fewer photos and consequently, the process becomes faster. selection and development.
