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| From the series UNO (One) © Fernando Di Sisto |
Jaime Permuth, Eleonora Ronconi and I are collaborating to explore contemporary photography in Argentina. We're looking at trends and how they relate to traditions; events, institutions and venues; as well as pursuing conversations with curators, academics, gallerists and photographers on what's happening currently. This collaborative project will feature a variety of posts including interviews, book reviews, published letters, portfolios of images and more.
Jaime Permuth is a Guatemalan photographer living and working in New York City and a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts. Eleonora Ronconi is an Argentinian photographer living and working in the Bay Area, California whose work explores themes of memory, identity and uprooting.
Posts in this series on Argentina include Jaime Permuth's interviews with Fabián Goncalves Borrega, Jorge Piccini and Sofía López Mañán and his review "From Bauhaus to Buenos Aires:
Grete Stern and Horacio Coppola at the Museum of Modern Art"; an interview with Guillermo Srodek-Hart by myself; as well as Q&A's with Karina Azaretzky, Sebastián Szyd, Gaby Messina and Marcela Magno. We also featured an interview by Jessica Hubbard Marr of the artist Ananké Asseff.
Today we continue the series with a Q&A with Fernando Di Sisto.
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| From the series "UNO" (One) © Fernando Di Sisto |
The interview is presented first in a translation to English, and is followed by the Spanish original.
Fernando Di Sisto: I've been living in Buenos Aires for a few years now. I am a computer systems consultant.
f: How did you get started in photography?
FD: My first vocation was music, even though I secretly started using my father's camera when I was a child.
By the time I was 17 I was a music teacher, but I could not formally teach because I was not old enough.
When it was time to go to college, I decided to continue my music studies. As I had to move and leave my parent's home to go to college, my father told me he would not support my decision. That meant I would not have any financial support.
He explained his position clearly. He was a virtuoso pianist, and he paid for medical school playing at cabarets and popular bands. He told me about the hardships and difficulties his colleagues went through. He did not want that life for me.
At a crossroads, I decided to study systems analysis, an emerging career that made me very curious. I decided to quit music altogether the first day of college as I was afraid of leaving everything at college and picking it up again.
As years went by, the need for expression became unbearable. So, with my first salary, I bought one of the latest manual reflex cameras. That was my refuge.
FD: My first vocation was music, even though I secretly started using my father's camera when I was a child.
By the time I was 17 I was a music teacher, but I could not formally teach because I was not old enough.
When it was time to go to college, I decided to continue my music studies. As I had to move and leave my parent's home to go to college, my father told me he would not support my decision. That meant I would not have any financial support.
He explained his position clearly. He was a virtuoso pianist, and he paid for medical school playing at cabarets and popular bands. He told me about the hardships and difficulties his colleagues went through. He did not want that life for me.
At a crossroads, I decided to study systems analysis, an emerging career that made me very curious. I decided to quit music altogether the first day of college as I was afraid of leaving everything at college and picking it up again.
As years went by, the need for expression became unbearable. So, with my first salary, I bought one of the latest manual reflex cameras. That was my refuge.
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| From the series "UNO" (One) © Fernando Di Sisto |
f: When and what made you begin producing photographic work to explore your personal concerns?
FD: In 2004, I moved back from Brazil. The financial crisis that my country suffered in 2001 had forced me to look for new horizons. But in 2004, I was invited to work in Argentina again.
The disappointment of coming back was overwhelming. Despite the fact that the economy had noticeably improved, I saw the social decline, after 15 years of a government full of empty promises and people feeling hopeless. Words like "solidarity," "effort" and "sacrifice" were no longer part of the Argentinian dictionary.
In that state of depression, a friend of mine registered me for a workshop in Documentary Photography. I went to the interview unwillingly and I met Daniel Merle.
At Daniel's workshop I started searching for my own interests, using photography as a tool of expression. It was truly a way to release.
f: Tell us a little bit about your projects and the topics you approach on the images we are presenting.
FD: The inability to love, family, keeping things to oneself, a sense of belonging and not belonging are recurrent topics in my projects.
My project "UNO" was an investigation about how to overcome the feeling of being a foreigner everywhere.
For example, when I'm asked where I am from, I don't know whether to say the city I was born, the city I grew up in or the one where I live at present. In Brazil I was Argentinian and at the same time, in Argentina I was Brazilian. Also, due to my work, I can usually take vacation when everyone works and the other way around.
So, even if in "UNO" I photograph places where I usually move around in a contemplative way, those portraits of landscapes are a construction of my second skin.
While some people feel comfortable wearing clothes they like, when I rediscover the places I frequent daily, I feel my perception of my daily life gets better.
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| From the series "UNO" (One) © Fernando Di Sisto |
FD: I think that being Argentine is an indelible mark on my work.
My personal and family history is traversed by all historical facts that crossed through my country. The nostalgia of the European who left their land, the acceptance of losing everything and starting again are nuances that can be perceived in my work as in the work of any colleague from my country. The same is true, and perhaps it is even more evident, in other areas such as music and literature.
Geographically, most of the surface of Argentina is dominated by vast plains (the best known is the Pampas). So the horizon and the magnification of the sky as a landscape influence the perception of things, time, distances and even the way people talk.
f: Can you find any relationship in topics, form or any other aspect of photography between Argentina and the rest of Latin America?
FD: Except for melancholy, I think that Latin American photographers are more visceral and we push ourselves to work with issues involving our own people.
Although in some countries a documentary style predominates and in others there is more staging, in all cases one can detect an attempt to build mirrors that question what happens to us.
f: What are the issues being addressed in contemporary photography in Argentina and outside of Argentina that interest you?
FD: Personally I'm interested in the issues that have to do with the search for the identity of oneself and one’s family and social identity, sometimes as a construction and other times as a reconstruction.
In this regard I follow closely contemporary Argentine artists like Florencia Blanco, Alejandro Almaraz, Federico Marión, Santiago Hafford, María Jose D'Amico, Claudia Presentado, Mariela Sancari, Lorena Guillen Vaschetti and Jesús Antuña among others.
I also keep track of and admire Cristan Kirby and Francisco Bermejo (Chile), Roberto Fernandez Ibañez (Uruguay), Jorge Panchoaga (Colombia) and Ricardo Cases (Spain).
f: Do you think that creating work in Argentina benefits you or creates a problem? Can you talk about any of them?
FD: I remember once when I am exhibiting in Houston, I sold five prints at $800 each in less than an hour. It was immediately suggested to me that it was selling very cheap.
In Argentina this would be impossible because there is no market and almost 100% of photographers can not live through their personal work. They teach, do photographic work on demand or, like me, make a living doing something else.
For this reason, time is key factor when it’s the moment to produce.
Before, I regretted not being able to devote myself 100% to photography. Over time I realized that this way of life, working in an office during business hours, is the generator of my work.
Today I can not imagine producing outside of my country.
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| From the series "UNO" (One) © Fernando Di Sisto |
fototazo: ¿Dónde vivís y a qué te dedicás?
Fernando Di Sisto: Hace unos años que vivo en Buenos Aires. Me dedico a la consultoría en Sistemas
f: ¿Cómo te iniciaste en la fotografía?
Si bien desde niño usaba la cámara de mi padre a escondidas, mi primera vocación fue la música.
FD: A los 17 años ya era maestro de música, pero por mi edad no podía ejercer.
A la hora de ir a la universidad, quise seguir con la formación musical. Como me tenía que mudar y dejar el nido familiar para estudiar, mi padre me dijo que no me apoyaría en esa decisión. Eso significaba una falta de apoyo económico.
Él me explicó claramente sus motivos. Pianista virtuoso, se pagó sus estudios de medicina tocando en cabarets y en conjuntos populares. Me contó del padecer y los sacrificios de sus colegas. No deseaba esa vida para mí.
Puesto en esta disyuntiva, decidí estudiar Análisis de Sistemas, carrera incipiente y que me daba mucha curiosidad. Desde el primer día en la universidad, decidí dejar música por completo por temor a abandonarlo todo y volver a ella.
Con los años, la necesidad de expresión se me hizo insoportable. Entonces, con mi primer salario compré una de las últimas cámaras réflex sin ningún automatismo. Encontré ahí un refugio
f: ¿Cuándo y por qué comenzaste a producir trabajo fotográfico que explorara tus inquietudes personales?
FD: En 2004, regresé de vivir en Brasil. La crisis económica que sufrió mi país en 2001, me había obligado a buscar nuevos horizontes. Pero ya en 2004, me convocan a trabajar de nuevo en Argentina.
La desilusión al regresar fue total. Si bien las condiciones económicas habían mejorado notablemente, pude percibir el grado de deterioro social, producto de quince años de gobiernos que vaciaron de ejemplos y esperanzas a un pueblo. Las palabras “solidaridad”, “esfuerzo”, y “sacrificio” ya no eran parte del diccionario argentino.
En ese estado depresivo, una amiga me inscribe en un taller de Fotografía Documental. Fui a la entrevista sin ganas y lo conocí a Daniel Merle.
En el taller de Daniel comencé a indagar en mis propias inquietudes, utilizando a la fotografía como herramienta de expresión. Realmente fue una válvula de escape.
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| From the series "UNO" (One) © Fernando Di Sisto |
f: Hablanos un poco de tus proyectos y los temas que abordas en las imágenes que estamos presentando.
FD: El encierro interior, la incapacidad de amar, la familia, el sentido de pertenencia y no pertenencia son temas recurrentes en mis proyectos.
Mi proyecto UNO, fue una indagación sobre cómo sobrellevar la sensación de ser un forastero en cualquier lado.
Por ejemplo, cuando me preguntan de dónde soy, no sé si nombrar la ciudad donde nací o la ciudad donde crecí o donde vivo actualmente. En Brasil era el argentino y a la vez en Argentina era el brasileño.
También, por mi trabajo, generalmente puedo tomarme vacaciones cuando todos trabajan y al revés.
Entonces, si bien en la serie UNO fotografío los lugares por donde transito habitualmente de forma contemplativa, esos retratos de paisajes los considero como una construcción de mi segunda piel.
De la misma forma que alguien se siente mejor con ropa de su agrado, al redescubrir mis lugares de paso cotidianos, siento que mejoro la percepción sobre mi vida diaria.
f: ¿De qué manera pensás que el ser argentino, y la historia de este país, influye en tu trabajo o los proyectos que elegís?
FD: Creo que ser argentino es una marca indeleble en mi trabajo.
Mi historia personal y familiar está atravesada por todos los hechos históricos que transitó mi país. La nostalgia del europeo que dejó sus tierras, la aceptación del perderlo todo y volver a empezar son matices que se pueden percibir en mi trabajo como en la de cualquier colega de mi país. Lo mismo ocurre, y tal vez de manera más evidente, en otras áreas como en la música y en la literatura.
Geográficamente, la mayor parte de la superficie de Argentina está dominada por extensas planicies (la más conocida es la llanura Pampeana). Entonces, el horizonte y la magnificación del cielo como paisaje, influyen en la percepción de las cosas, del tiempo, de las distancias y hasta en la forma de hablar de la gente.
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| From the series "UNO" (One) © Fernando Di Sisto |
f: Encontrás alguna relación de temas, forma o cualquier otro aspecto entre la fotografía Argentina y la del resto de América Latina?
FD: Excepto la melancolía, creo que los fotógrafos latinoamericanos somos más viscerales y nos esforzamos con trabajar con temas que involucran a nuestra propia aldea.
Si bien, en algunos países predomina el estilo documental y en otros hay una mayor puesta en escena, en todos los casos se aprecia un intento de construir espejos que cuestionen lo que nos sucede.
f: ¿Cuáles son los temas qué están siendo tratados en la fotografía contemporánea en Argentina y también fuera de Argentina que te interesen?
FD: Personalmente me interesan los temas que tienen que ver con la búsqueda de la identidad propia, familiar y social. Algunas veces como construcción y otras como intentos de reconstrucción.
En este sentido sigo de cerca autores contemporáneos argentinos como Florencia Blanco, Alejandro Almaraz, Federico Marión, Santiago Hafford, María Jose D'Amico, Claudia Presentado, Mariela Sancari, Lorena Guillen Vaschetti y Jesús Antuña entre otros.
También observo y admiro a Cristan Kirby y Francisco Bermejo (Chile), Roberto Fernandez Ibañez (Uruguay), Jorge Panchoaga (Colombia) y Ricardo Cases (Spain).
f: ¿Sentís que el producir trabajo desde Argentina, te beneficia o te crea problemas? ¿Podrías hablar de alguno de ellos?
FD: Recuerdo que cuando estuve exponiendo en Houston, vendí cinco copias a 800 dólares cada una y en menos de una hora. Inmediatamente me sugirieron que estaba vendiendo muy barato.
En Argentina eso es imposible porque no hay mercado y casi el 100% de los fotógrafos no puede vivir de su obra personal. O dan clases, o hacen trabajos fotográficos a pedido o, como yo, trabajamos de otra cosa.
Por este motivo, el factor tiempo es clave a la hora de producir.
Antes, lamentaba no poder dedicarme el 100% a la fotografía. Con el tiempo me di cuenta que esta forma de vida, trabajar en una oficina en horarios de comercio, es la generadora de mis trabajos.
Hoy no me puedo imaginar produciendo fuera de mi país.