Interview • 078 PH

Tristan Martinez

Chicago, Illinois, USA

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

My name is Tristan Martinez. I am a multicultural Photographer/Artist, born and raised in Los Angeles California, and currently living in Chicago, Illinois.

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

Growing up I was always around Art. From going to museums with my parents to watching skate videos with my older brothers I was aware of the importance of it all. My brother sort of handed down my Dads Canon A1 to me right around when I graduated from high school. This is when I started to realize the potential in a camera. And once I got knee surgery at 18, I couldn't skate so all I did was shoot.

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

A majority of the time it is intuition, that gut feeling of having to capture something. Of course there are images in your head that you plan to make in order to perfectly connect a project, but typically it comes down to keeping my eyes open.

What is the story you want your pictures to tell?

I want to encourage my audience to think. Out of the ambiguity in my images, ideas of solitude and the longing for something more should stick out, allowing my viewer to put their own lived experience into the work that meshes with the narrative arch in each of my projects.

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

Its a toss up! I'm really stuck between Paris, Tokyo, and Berlin. Each city has such a complicated and interesting history. Not to mention just how photogenic each one is in their own way.

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

I've always been a city kid. Growing up in Los Angeles, the urban sprawl allowed me to enter every pocket of the city and helped me learn and experience the different types of life that a city holds. Generally speaking, cities are at the crux of culture and awareness, making them full of knowledge and secrets for you to seek out.

What is the driving force behind creation?

Wanting to tell a story by showing you what I see and how I feel. I think boiled down, maybe opening up another perspective for people to see.

Which project did you never finish?

I think that every project I've worked on is still in progress. I can put out a book containing a final curation for that time, but in the end everything is building on-top of itself and morphing together towards my photographic practice as a whole.

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

I've chased so many photographs after getting negatives back that weren't right! There's too many to mention just one, but something of equal significance will always come back around.

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

If I could travel back in time, I would say buy a digital camera and make a film photo and a digital photo. If the film photo doesn't work out at least you have the digital one!

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

«Make a Photograph» it is more intentional. I feel that I am doing more than just taking. There is a consideration of photo history, my lived experience and technique. I think the difference in saying one or the other differentiates what you want to get out of photography as a photographer.

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

What is sticking out the most to me right now was this past March in Iowa. I was on a one lane road in the middle of nowhere pulled over making a photo in the snow. 3 people passed and each asked if I was okay or if I needed help. It is just very memorable to me because of the care people had just to make sure all was well. More of a good in humanity moment I suppose.

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

If it wasn't for Photography I most likely never would have moved from Los Angeles. I would think that I would be doing something in the Skateboarding Industry, based on my work from 17 up until i left LA.

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

For some of my «Heads» images, I would describe them as common place objects juxtaposed with a head, something we all have. Similarities based on shape in a solitude space with a subtle and quiet feeling of familiarity.

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

I am currently in the midst of a project regarding late stage capitalism and the idea of the so called American Dream. The work is titled For Name Sake and takes a satirically deadpan approach to the subject matter. Aside from that I am taking my talents over to New York from Chicago, making my way from coast to coast I guess.

Thank you, Tristan!

Editorial Notes:

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Photography: Tristan Martinez (2021)
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Links: Website, Instagram, Book

Chicago, Illinois, USA

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