Interview • 053 PH

Sebastian Aguilar, Tarif Banlieue

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

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

My name is Sebastian, I’m a photographer and artist based in Atlanta, Georgia.

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

My relationship with photography is a very defined and passionate one. I look at it as therapy really, it keeps me motivated, it keeps me happy. I first got into photography during my early teens. The introduction of social media sites like MySpace and Facebook made me want to photograph my day to day, outings with friends, etc..

It wasn’t until high school that I started to think of the medium as a means of expression. It made an even bigger impact on me as I started to become more enamored with films over the years and discovered film photography.

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

It’s really a mix of both, one more than the other. I’ve been drawn to street photography more and more over time which feels like it depends on intuition. It’s really taught me how to capture candidly in what’s usually a familiar or formulated landscape. 

Most of the planning that goes into my work focuses on location above anything. Once I have the background for the shot, the foreground or subject comes naturally. I shoot when I feel like I see a moment that’s fleeting, like a scene in a movie. Sometimes I’ll recreate it if I don’t have my camera on me as it happens.

What is the story you want your pictures to tell?

I want people to look at my work and feel like it all takes place in the same world, they all share a narrative taking place in my memories. It’s obsessive really, sometimes I’ll look at something and I’m so eager for others to see what I’m seeing, to experience it how I’m experiencing it. I want my photos to recreate that experience.

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

I’d really like to visit any city in Northern England. I have a very romanticized idea of finding myself in an austere industrial town, somewhere in the English countryside; someplace with smokestacks and bay windows. A lot of my favorite photographers are remarkably British—Rob Bremner, John Davies, Martin Parr, John Bulmer—so I want to visit some of the places they lived and shot in.

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

Cities are our identity. I’ve become my surroundings, my city personified, at least that’s how I see it in my head. I grew up in an industrial suburb of Atlanta, full of distribution centers and office parks, lower class being the ruling class.

The city I grew up in has become the star of my work. I photograph a lot of landscapes of the places I came-to- age in. They’re like self portraits to me, a core character in the narrative of my pictures. There’s always something to show in the city where you live. Documenting mine [city] has become a job for me.

Regarding your project Tarif Banlieu: What was your intention, and how did you come up with the idea?

The prior question really ties in with why I created Tarif Banlieu. I wanted to share all of the sights of my surroundings with the world. My slice of America where the mall is now dead. 

The idea came to me via the neighborhood I grew up in. All of the places I frequented as a young boy, like the city library which stood at the entrance to my neighborhood, the gas station I use to walk with my grandfather to get snacks at in the summer heat; they’re all gone now, replaced by something else. 

I wanted to create a sort of journal where I could document the places I’m so used to seeing, on my way to work and back, while I run errands, en route to the grocery store. There’s beauty in the most mundane sights, I wanted to blow up that plainness and make it grandiose.

Which project did you never finish?

I was going to shoot one roll of film this year but that easily went out the window after the 2nd week haha. That’s the only one I can really think of specifically. There’s a lot of projects I’ve started and have put down over the years, too many to even count, however the overall ideas behind most of them have stuck around with me.

I think that in all the haze I’ve eventually grasped the best parts of all of them and I’m feeding them into something more concrete.

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

I’ve had a lot of ideas involving my favorite brutalist buildings in the city. They’ve all either been covered up or demolished. It’s quite sad, it’s all happened too fast. Cities are so eager to «modernize» themselves at the moment. What about the actual modern buildings?

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

To a younger me, trust yourself more; trust your vision.

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

To «take», it’s mine, I stole it from the space time continuum, and it’s not getting it back ☻︎

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

I really enjoy shooting on my Rolleiflex, I always meet people when I’m shooting with it. People are always so curious about it since it’s such an old model. I usually end up asking to take their portrait so they can see how it works.

It’s always interesting to see how they react to the picture once I email it to them. This one time this gentleman gave me a whole tour of the city and all the places he grew up, it was a really nice experience.

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

I try to dabble in all the things that interest me. but I’d like to really get into sculpting/ceramics, also graphic design work.

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

I’m very influenced by sounds when I’m shooting, so I’d probably describe it through a song; it feels like grass, concrete, and it sounds like highway traffic.

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

I’m working on my first solo exhibit at the moment, it’s been in the work since this year started and I still have a bit to go on it. The project itself is a semi-autobiographical narrative of growing up in the American south, it’s a multi-medium effort that’s going to consist of a lot of moving parts.

I’m really excited to finish it and put it out, it’s been really hard holding on to the material, in the age of Instagram.

Thank you, Sebastian!

Editorial Notes:

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Photography: Sebastian Aguilar (2019)
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Links: Website, Instagram, Journal

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