Navidad is Coming

In October 2024, Life Framer awarded this photo the First Prize in its 2024 Colors contest. I was thrilled the judges captured the air of impending festivity. This moment announced the arrival of the holiday season in Puerto Rico. It anticipates the sound of traditional music and the taste the slow-roasted whole pork. I was literally laughing the moment I took the photo.

First Prize Colors Contest, Life Framer, October 2024

The color and cropping of this photograph are genuinely captivating and immediately caught my attention. The repeated use of red — from the woman’s vibrant fingernails to the shiny truck and the cluster of poinsettias — creates a cohesive visual thread that stands out against the blue sky. This artist’s use of color not only enhances the composition, but also infuses the photograph with a playful, light-hearted energy. Overall, the image radiates a charming, almost whimsical quality that is both delightful and engaging. – SHANA LOPES

Vibrant shades of red and blue fill the frame in a joyful and almost mesmerizing manner. The composition is nonconformist but well-balanced nonetheless. Color is the main focal point and narrative line, taking over both foreground and background, and delivering environmental clues and delicious details. One can hardly depart from this photograph, its apparently nonchalant air being, in fact, incredibly eye-catching. A clever candid shot. – LIFE FRAMER

Source: https://www.life-framer.com/colors-2024-2/#

Life Framer Interview, November 2024

 Your winning image is a perfect urban coincidence of color. Can you tell us a little bit more about the shot and the circumstances behind it?

 I was having coffee and a cheese pastry at a Spanish-styled bakery shop in a busy area of the city. I walked out and this pick-up truck was driving by. When I saw the red fingernails, I smiled and ran for it.

How would you describe your photographic work more generally?

I generally don’t plan shots. I am moved by what makes one moment different from another, how one small thing changes everything. I also have some work based on found objects. My shots are basically spontaneous and natural. 

There’s very little of your photography online. What first inspired you to get into photography, and what role does it play in your life? Where would you like it to lead?

As a high school student, I always had the camera dangling from my neck. I started using the darkroom back then too. (I miss losing track of time that way!) Then, technology changed. I also had a hard time carrying heavy cameras and equipment. I have undergone periods of inactivity because I feel I don’t have the right equipment for me, for the way I see. Truth be told, I have a legal career. Regretfully, I have not dedicated myself fully to photography. I have, however, sporadically participated in exhibits and have also had of my own. I would like to make more room for creative expression in my life.  

Who are your biggest photography heroes or inspirations? Do you find inspiration outside the genre too?

 In childhood, I always loved journalistic and nature magazines, but probably the first time my soul was stirred by artistic photography was seeing a Duane Michals’ exhibit. Later, I attended a class titled “Words and Pictures” at the International Center for Photography in New York through which provoked new thoughts about expression through images and words. I’ve also developed an interest in cinematography. I don’t think I have one single hero, but I am inspired by Susan Sontag, Joseph Cornell, Surrealism, Cartier-Bresson, Wes Anderson, Annie Liebowitz, Manuel Alvarez Bravo and Tina Modotti, among many others. I am also inspired by artist Carmen Herrera, who sold her first painting at age 89, and exhibited at the Whitney Museum at age 101. 

And do you have a particular favourite shot of your own? Can you talk us through it?

My favorite work is titled “Metal Sky” inspired on a poem by Octavio Paz. It consists of a series of shots of coins found on the floor that I took over the span of approximately 20 years. Over 100 photos are printed on aluminium and are assembled as a ceiling installation. The viewer is invited to look up to objects (s)he usually looks down on, literally and metaphorically. It plays with the idea of money as a god and the social order that stems from that, using the image of the lowest value unit. 

What has been your best photographic experience to date, and your worst?

 As a resident of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, I felt we did not have much connection with other Caribbean islands. Despite the geographic vicinity, there is an abysmal deficit of direct transportation and communication between Spanish, French, Dutch and English colonies. Neighbors who are foreign to each other. So, I came up with a trip to the island of Guadeloupe, which is French, for the Fête des Cuisinières. It is an event for which the lady cooks of the island prepare and serve their best dishes for everyone. As an independent contributor for the Travel Section of El Nuevo Día, a Puerto Rico newspaper, I wrote an article that was published with my photos. It was a lovely and delicious experience.

 Before our phones were totally smart, I always carried a small camera with me, which came in handy in unexpected ways. The worst experience I had was using this camera to document the scene of a car accident in which my car was hit by an unlicensed minor driving at excessive speed on a narrow rural road. As the kid’s father was dictating to the police officer what to write in the report to shift the responsibility for the accident to me, he threatened to smash the camera on my face. The officer said nothing and simply shrugged. In the end, the power of image paid off at a court hearing and the charges against me were dropped. 

What are your thoughts on the balance between technical skill and artistic vision in photography?

 Expensive equipment does not mean much without vision, sensitivity and playfulness. Lacking in high-quality equipment, I have relied more on composition, concept and color. That said, I would really love to acquire sophisticated equipment that doesn’t break my neck.  

What’s the best piece of advice you’d pass on to your younger self if you could? Or maybe one you frequently pass onto workshop participants?

Know yourself, be your own observer and position yourself in regards to the world, then learn the technology that helps you express and honor that.

Source: https://www.life-framer.com/isa-savitri/

Cielo de metal

Leave a Penny, Take a Penny (2022) se exhibió en La Casa de les Contrafuertes en San Juan, Puerto Rico, y es parte de proyecto que participó en Festival Internacional de Fotografía de Santa Marta en Colombia. https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cqec1UkoEHW/?igsh=OW90OTV2aHc2dHg2

Comúnmente, las monedas en el piso conllevan dirigir la mirada hacia abajo. Mirar hacia abajo también es una forma de expresar desprecio. A través de realzar la belleza del objeto, busco aumentar su valor como instrumento transaccional y representativo. Al hacer esto, también busco redirigir la mirada que los humanos nos damos los unos a los otros, como reflejo de la programación jerarquizada del sistema monetario.

La pieza Cielo de metal está compuesta por 100 fotos de monedas de un centavo encontradas en el piso, impresas en aluminio y colgadas del techo. En el poema Entre la piedra y la flor, Octavio Paz critica a quienes ven el dinero como un dios en el “cielo de metal”, aludiendo al lado oscuro de la acumulación de dinero como deshumanizante. Sin embargo, el dinero es un instrumento esencial para participar en sociedad tal cual está organizada, y no tenerlo excluye e invisibiliza a los ciudadanos de ella. En vez de moralizar sobre el lado oscuro del dinero, trato de rescatar la intención igualitaria de su origen— un lenguaje común para traficar cosas desiguales.

Visibilizando al pequeño centavo y embelleciendo su contexto, busco reemplazar una mirada de desprecio por una mirada de aprecio. 

Aspiro a que a través de este juego de miradas que exploran el valor y los acondicionamientos, nos abramos a vernos los unos a los otros como inherente e igualmente valiosos. 

Uno

Llevo más de 20 años retratando centavos encontrados. Inicialmente, los vinculaba con el jarro de centavos que mi papá guardaba y el tema de la buena suerte. De las fotos empezaron a resaltar las texturas y condiciones climáticas en las que se encontraban.

Entonces, en la situación existencial de cada uno, empecé a ver que la unidad más básica del sistema monetario funcionaba como metáfora del individuo como la unidad más básica del contrato social. Se tornaron en retratos de personajes con sus propias historias y aventuras.

La moneda emblemática de este proyecto es el centavo, la unidad básica componente del dólar estadounidense, que es la moneda que se usa en Puerto Rico, como colonia de los Estados Unidos. Dados los entornos en que se hallan estas moneda de color moreno, estas fotos también pueden representar un intercambio no igualitario entre la metrópolis y la colonia porque en la mirada de las autoridades, los ciudadanos en las colonias valen menos y el sistema los abandona, tal como a estas monedas en el piso.

El reto se convirtió en revalorizar la unidad más básica del sistema, como a nosotros mismos.

Ejército de Uno (Homenaje a La buena fama durmiendo de Manuel Alvarez Bravo)

El Verano de 2019 en Puerto Rico fue una sublevación creativa frente a la desesperación económica y el desamparo gubernamental. Por semanas, cientos de miles de personas hicieron feroces reclamos frente a la mansión ejecutiva. Luego que el Gobernador anunció su renuncia en la noche, la ciudad de repente se vació. En el silencio repentino, este hombre permaneció solo careándose con la autoridad, como un ejército de uno, ondeando apasionadamente la bandera puertorriqueña frente a la barricada de policías, porque la verdadera lucha aún no había acabado. Una barrera de cemento y una fuerza uniformada separa al Pueblo de su líder. De puro cansancio pero sin darse por vencido, se acostó sobre las vallas, con el Gobernador aún adentro. Las huellas de las manos de personas que no son escuchadas en el muro. El hombre representa al Pueblo cansado, herido y vulnerable ante el Poder y que añorando soñar un mejor mañana. Puerto Rico es un territorio de Estados Unidos y los ciudadanos no gozan de plenos derechos.

“Ejército de uno” (Homenaje a “La Buena fama durmiendo” de Manuel Álvarez Bravo), (c) Isa Abislaimán, julio de 2019.