We spoke with María Viñas (1997, Madrid), a photographer and art director from the capital who stands out for the sensitivity with which she captures and immortalizes moments. Femininity, detail, and color are the three aspects that resonate in María's photos, through which she seeks to stop time and memory to appreciate each moment.
Tell us: where do you come from and why photography?
I don't remember very well when I started taking photos. I always remember feeling the need to take them: whether with the family camera, a disposable one, a mobile phone, or a compact camera. Be it to treasure moments, to slow down the passage of time, or to store thoughts. I think a lot about the finitude of life and moments, and photographing has always been a good method to help me stop, look, and pause life.
In fact, a few years ago, I switched to analogue precisely for this reason: while with digital, I obsessed over a result, with film, contemplation and detail are paramount. And it helps me a lot to value every moment.
How would you describe yourself as María (person and professional)?
A 27-year-old from Madrid, with a passion for writing, art, and photography: everything that leads me to analysis, contemplation, and pausing. I always say that design taught me to solve problems and fine arts taught me to see. A music lover, a dancer for pleasure, a professional walker, and a creative in advertising agencies for the last six years.
How has your work evolved?
I started by taking self-portraits. Not for any particular reason, but because I barely left the house as a teenager and I began to explore with my body and with the small details I found on some walks. Little by little, my photography left home, seeking the details that make me feel alive. A while ago, I realized that, unconsciously, if I photograph something, it's because it matters to me. Now, I mostly photograph my friends and moments exploring and resting with them.
What is most important to you when capturing a photo?
To preserve that moment and feeling in my memory. With all the sensitivity that entails.
Photography is a very vocational pursuit. One connects with it either from an early age or as years pass, and one develops a special connection every time a photo is taken. What does photography hold for you that no other practice does?
The superpower to stop time. To be able to choose what you love most in the world and archive it to remember forever: storing sensations, details, and memories.
Your work has a certain analog and ambiguous treatment. There are blurs, undefined lines, and a lot of grain in some of your photographs. What format do you work in and what do you seek to convey with the image treatment you use?
For personal work, I usually work in analog because it allows me to stop and pay more attention to detail. I don't obsess over the result; instead, I think more about the moment. When I work with digital for more specific campaigns, I sometimes play with the format, printing, scanning, and touching the images. Being an entirely digital process makes me feel a bit disconnected from it.
Let's talk about color: What do you base and inspire yourself on to choose the predominant color palette in each session?
I've realized that they tend to be simple palettes, and that, in some way, they remind me of specific sensations or natural elements.
You introduce touches of color. Whether consciously or unconsciously, you create a balance of contrasts by introducing a pair of trousers, a cloth, or a piece of fruit, and suddenly that element takes on total prominence. How important and weighty would you say color treatment is in your image?
In a way, I've realized I do it unintentionally now. I've always liked to simplify tones and have few color blocks, so that forms, gestures, and empty spaces take center stage.
But there has been a transition in your work. In 2018 and 2019, it seems you worked much more in black and white. Why that transition?
It was a time when I was exploring form more. Color seemed like a distraction. Also, I was doing more photography in the city, and the city's colors, as a general rule, strike me as sad and unevocative. In general, it was a sad time. From there, I started to have more contact with nature and with people who gave me space to stop and appreciate my sensitivity, and I returned to color.
All your work has a common thread that seems to be becoming your signature. Whether it's a portrait or a landscape image, there is a sensitive, transparent, and feminine character in all of them. How do you portray from your perception of the feminine and femininity?
I consider sensitivity a virtue. And I try to surround myself with people who value it and perceive the world from that perspective: that's what I think gives grace to life's narrative. I like to photograph what is vulnerable, what is at rest, what is fragile, what is distracted, because I feel that is what is most natural, authentic, and human. Perhaps that's why, relatively recently, I realized that I have a lot of photos of my friends sleeping: that's when they are most serene and real.
It seems that in your work, sex and gender dissolve, and only identity remains. What about the queer community in your work?
I don't think I look for a space for gender in my work, at least not consciously. I mainly focus on the contemplative: I look when they don't see me. I like to watch people just be, without pretensions. But without entering into any specific attitude, discourse, or identity.
There have been some sessions I've done that are more deliberate and could be identified with a more queer image, so to speak, but they usually respond to a more intimate and personal narrative: for example, the Helena session, which talks about sexuality stemming from a particular concern, and Transformation, which takes as a reference a goddess card reading that Soraya did for me, which is why she is the protagonist of the session.
If you had to choose one type of photography (music, landscape, etc.), which would it be?
Landscape and portraits of my friends in nature. That's what gives me life and fills me with love.
A color?
Teal
For those unfamiliar with your work, you have collaborated with brands like Kling and artists like Russian Red, and your photos appear in catalogs for various companies like Nada. Which project do you remember most fondly, and how was the experience?
I particularly remember the session with María de la Flor with affection. Lucía (the stylist), María, and I prepared the session with great trust and beautiful fluidity. Also, the photos of Russian Red were especially exciting for me because I was a big fan when I was a teenager, and it meant a lot to me. The turns life takes are fascinating.
A dream portrait?
Patti Smith
Future steps?
Starting this month, I'm embarking on my freelance adventure as a photographer and art director. If photography gives me life, it would be good to dedicate more space to it, wouldn't it?
