Taking street photography to a parallel reality. A different view of Buenos Aires.
by Albano Garcia
(click on thumbnails for full-size images)
Expressing myself in words it’s not my best venue; maybe that’s why I’m a graphic designer and photographer, but I’ll put forth an 
effort. I’ve been taking photographs for about six years. I started experimenting with an old K1000, and soon became trapped, reading any photo-related stuff that passed in front of me, including books, magazines, articles in newspapers, and every website available. I then discovered other formats (6x4,5, 6x6, 6x7), and made all kind of portraits and landscapes. Also I began viewing all exhibits I could. I discovered a new world, full of joy and possibilities for me to express and feel.
I passed by the classic stages as an amateur photographer, taking pictures as books say you should, portraits with short teles, landscapes with wideangles, etc. I used all lenses available. With time, I started focusing in a couple of primes, a normal and a wide-angle.
A “problem” I always had was that I’m a slow shooter; I don’t shoot too many frames, and I usually take one photo and move to the next thing. This made it very hard to finish a roll of film; I usually took only one roll per month. It 
was a bit frustrating, and with time I began wanting a digital camera, in order to get my photos as soon as I took them. With some research, I finally bought a Fuji S5000. The decisive factor was the possibility to shoot RAW files, but the excellent 10x zoom lens and the body design helped in the decision.
It was six months ago, and it has changed my photo experience unbelievably. Digital was a no-way-back for me. My film cameras have seen no use since I got my digicam, and I don’t miss them. I like to adjust my photos in my computer, and get them ready to print or post to the blog in minutes.
Another thing that made me decide to buy a digital was my desire to begin a photoblog; to take photos almost every day, as an exercise, I felt very stuck at the moment, and I got the idea of starting “Flaneur”, my visual diary of Buenos Aires.
Flaneur is a french term from the nineteenth century, which refers to a vagabond who flows through the city, letting himself go, being surprised in every corner with unexpected finds. He walks without plans, without a defined route. It’s something I’ve done all my life, but now I do it with my camera.
My style has changed a lot in the past few months; for the first time I feel my photos are “true”, they express something I want to say, even if I can’t put it into words; they come from an inner feeling. 
I love to take a photo without knowing too much why, just to find the reason with time. I can find traces of this new style in my previous work (like in the Dominga serie), and a couple of isolated shots. But since I started this project, this style has exploded, and has captured my entire photo activity. I’m glad of this, as I feel that my photos now are “my” photos, more than ever. It also happened at a moment of strong changes in my personal life.
I started photographing places I visit in my daily life, but trying not to be obvious, finding my own point of view. I want to show a place, but not give too much evidence of where it is. I like to play with the out of frame space too, creating a weird atmosphere. It’s a must to carry the camera all the time; Murphy’s law is always there, and I’m tired to “see” great photos when I’m without my camera.
I enjoy the way the empty places talk about the people who pass by them. You can feel them there. I also like to say something with as few elements as possible, the famous “less is more”. I like to disappear as much as I can, the photo looking as (falsely) objective as possible. In this regard, a fear I have is to start copying myself, attaching too much to my style, not taking a shot because it doesn’t fit with my work. Being a hardcore neurotic doesn’t help.
I like a lot of photographers (Lartigue, Smith, Salgado, Weston, Moriyama, Sander, Hosoe, Doisneau, Boubat, Pastorino, Arbus, Parr, Chambi, Goldin, Brassai, Frank, Klein, etc) but if I must name one who influenced my current work, it’s Atget. He was the 
master of urban landscape, finding the surreal in the empty streets. Another influence is the Dusseldorf’s School, with their front-view, no persons, style of portraying architecture.
I was often ashamed to show these photos; I thought I was the only one interested in them. But I received good comments, so I see I’m not alone in this way of seeing the world. I also have found it’s hard to be original in this postmodern world. I’m amazed to find photoblogs out there showing photos very close to mine, but taken thousands of kilometers away.
With time, I also started to include more personal photos, of my girlfriend and my friends, in Flaneur. I know they break apart the mood of the site a bit, but I like to give a sense of what’s 
happening in my life at the moment. Photoblogging has an important exhibitionist side, in my opinion, just as photography is a voyeuristic discipline. It’s an excellent way to show your work without waiting forever for an exhibition to come true.
To finish, I can say Flaneur represents myself in the present as good as it gets. It’s me there. My main website is full of beautiful pictures, but I don’t feel they show who I am now.
Flaneur keeps growing, and I can’t imagine my future life without photos; I know I’ll keep shooting for the rest of my life. Flaneur is going to be there for a long time...
