Interview

Andrés Vargas

075 PH • Guatemala City, Guatemala

AK: Please introduce yourself: What is your name, where are you from, what do you do?

AV: My name is Andrés Vargas, I'm a photographer based in Guatemala City.

AK: What is your relationship with photography and how did you get into it?

AV: I got into photography when I started documenting punk shows in Guatemala. Later I took a couple of darkroom courses and got instantly hooked!

AK: What do you think triggers you to photograph in a certain moment? Is it planned or solely driven by intuition?

AV: I'd say I'm 95% driven by intuition. Planned projects and commisions are an important part of my work but I think the best work I've made is a result of an organic process and chance.

AK: Which city would you like to visit the most, and why?

AV: Probably Mexico City. It's like Guatemala but in a much larger scale. Super hectic and unpredictable. I always enjoy making work over there.

AK: What is your personal relationship to cities and how do you perceive them as places in general?

AV: Cities carry the weight of history and are shaped by it. The y play a crucial role in my work, which is ofthen driven by their social dynamics and the impact of globalization (especially in Latin America).

AK: What is the driving force behind creation?

AV: It's an uncontrollable urge. I feel it's almost a responsability with the time and place I'm living in.

AK: Which project did you never finish?

AV: A project about the Belice-Guatemalan border. I plan to finish it next year.

AK: What is that «one thing» you have never managed to photograph and is now gone for good?

AV: Probably my neighborhood the way it was ten years ago. It's so changed now.

AK: If you could travel back/forth in time, what advice would you give your younger/older self?

AV: I would tell to my younger self to quit school sooner and assist more.

AK: What do you prefer saying: «to take a photograph» or to «make a photograph», and why?

AV: Take a photograph. I've never made a photograph. ☻︎

AK: What is the most interesting experience you have had while photographing?

AV: One time a military officer destroyed all of my film in front of me while I was making a personal project in a neighborhood called El Gallito in Guatemala City. I almost cried.

AK: If it wasn’t for photography, what would you be interested in doing instead?

AV: Probably trying to become a chef or a professional soccer player.

AK: How would you describe one of your pictures to a blind person?

AV: Like George Michael's Careless Whisper

AK: What are you currently working on, and—if there is—what is your next project or journey?

AV: I'm currently working a series of portraits and still lives in my studio which I intend to publish as a book in the near future.

AK: Thank you, Andrés!

Editorial Notes:

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Photography: Andrés Vargas (2020)
Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala

Links: Website, Instagram