BORN: Zaragoza, Spain
RESIDENCE: Barcelona, Spain
NATIONALITY: Spanish
OCCUPATION: Photographer and Filmmaker
PROFESSIONALLY TALKING
After studying law while traveling the planet, he graduated as a lawyer and only needed a few months to realise that it was not his thing. Camera in hand, he continued to travel and did his first job as a photographer for Nomad Goods in California. It was then that he discovered his true vocation.
He founded the non profit association The Water Van Project, together with three of his great friends, with whom he toured Latin America in caravan during 2016, providing water purification filters in disadvantaged communities, documenting the whole trip. Soon he and his friends will create a documentary and a photo book about the project. Stay tuned!
He directed “From Lost to the Desert”, a surf exploration documentary project through the desert of Western Sahara. Developed by him and Nico, and produced by them with Aljaz, the film has already been chosen in 11 major surfing festivals around the world. Now he is working in a few more surf film projects that will be released soon…
For his awareness of the world and his desire to reach people through photography, last year he was invited to join the DGTL Art & Revolution program and create an awareness photo exhibition during the festival in Barcelona, in order to help their audience to better understand how plastic plagues our oceans and the small steps we can take as a society to remedy it.
At the end of this past year 2018 and along with Mareo Rodriguez and Franco Mendez, they presented the project "DESERT SKINS" at the Islamic Arts Festival, in the Arab Emirates. Using video mapping inside of a dark room, they installed an audiovisual journey on the sculpture of the series "Mantos" of Mareo, representing the layers of the earth, from its creation in the cosmos to the relationship with the human being.
Chechu believes that small moments are what make life great. His future? "To keep on collecting those moments and continue working with passion for what he loves"
WITH LOVE:
Since I was very little I was very interested in photography. I was always fluttering with a camera in my pocket. On each trip, each party, on each family reunion, there was my little camera clicking photos as if there was no tomorrow. Years pass and memories become less clear. The years pass and photos are the only way to remember many things. To relive those summers when we were a pack of crazy monkeys, and the only thing that mattered was having a good time. I became obsessed. I became a maniac to freeze and preserve every moment non stop. I admit, it was hard at times! Thanks to that though, I began to observe the world in a different way, to see things from another perspective. I learned that it is the small moments that make life great. As a result of my obsession, I came up with the question that maybe to always walk with the camera wouldn't let me experience the essence of things, the magic of moments in which I should perhaps forget about the camera, forget everything. How to fully feel the sunrise if you´re always pending/ready to take pictures? I tried to forget about it but especially in these moments missed something that I would have liked to capture. It did cost me a lot, but I ended up learning how to shoot while being completely present...
And then, boom! I fell madly in LOVE.
Watching those moments again made me relive some of the best moments of my life. Mentally going back to that place, and meet those people again... feels so good. In a way, photography has taught me to appreciate more everything that surrounds us even more. The world is awesome, people are amazing. What happens today will never happen again. Take photos! It doesn't matter if it's a mobile potato, a cheap camera or the most expensive one in the market. Photography is not about the camera, the resolution or the sharpness... Photography is the moment, the feeling, the fact of freezing small unrepeatable moments that will one day thrill you again more than the day they occurred!