Gemma Gonzalez

Gemma Gonzalez

By Arden de Raaij

Catalonian photographer Gemma Gonzalez had our attention since the first time we saw one of her self-portraits, several years ago. We immediately realized that there’s much more to her than a pretty face; her conceptual self-portraits always seem to capture the right mood, which she achieves by her own facial expressions and poses. But also her styling, composition and post-processing add towards very personal and intimate picture. Omnipresent is a touch of darkness, adding a haze of mystery to both her persona as her photography.

As she’s a wonderful person, a great photographer and one of our earliest crew-members, this interview was long overdue. So we’re honoured to properly introduce you to CFYE’s first-lady: Gemma Gonzalez

As I look back I feel that photography has always been not only a passion but a way of killing my demons, some kind of therapy.

Gemma Gonzalez
Gemma Gonzalez
Gemma Gonzalez
Gemma Gonzalez

What made you pick up a camera?

Well, actually it’s hard to answer that question because I don’t exactly know what made me start taking pictures and took photography more seriously. I’ve always been interested in photography, since I was a child I loved playing in front of the camera with my sister’s old Yashica.

I’d say that my love affair with the art of picture-taking started when I was studying film and TV directing….long, long ago, haha, almost 6 years ago. One of the lessons we had to take was the basics of photography and its history, especially cinematography. I started to become way more interested in capturing moments, feelings or anything that could catch my attention through photographs, I realized that what I really loved was freezing those ‘feelings’ instead of filming.

As I look back I feel that photography has always been not only a passion but a way of killing my demons, some kind of therapy.

Gemma Gonzalez
Gemma Gonzalez

We always knew there’s some kind of dark-side to you,  how do you think that expresses in your photography?

I think the music (that I listen to) is a big influence.  I get a lot of inspiration from the lyrics, most of the times just a single quote or metaphor from a song inspires me to take a picture. Some of the music I listen to: Katatonia, Type O Negative, HIM

Has Flickr been an influence at all?

Yes, because when I started to be more interested in photography the first place I discovered while I was surfing the web was Flickr. It has been a quite big influence and also a school to me. It has helped me a lot when I was learning the basics of photography and specially some cool techniques for self-portraiture. There are a lot of really talented artists on Flickr, like Jim Herrington, Patrick Shaw, Petra Collins, Helen Korpak and Micmojo.

Gemma Gonzalez
Gemma Gonzalez

Do you have any plans or aspirations with your photography or is it really something for ‘yourself’ ?

I’d love to do some exhibitions, collaborate with other artists and magazines. Conceptual self-portraiture can be a big challenge but some days you just get tired of seeing the same face in your pictures. I want sexy subjects to shoot! I’d love to be some kind of Ellen Von Unwerth or Camilla Akrans in the future, they’re my favourite female photographers, I love their style, soft and extremely sexy at the same time, you know. They work for the best magazines and even though they still have that very personal and intimate touch.

Gemma Gonzalez
Gemma Gonzalez
Gemma Gonzalez
Gemma Gonzalez

Your self-portraits seem so up-close and personal. Are there times where you hesitate to put them online?

Well, I must admit that sometimes I’ve been a bit doubtful about certain pictures but I like to hear and read what others think about my works, so I believe it’s worth it.

If there’s something that makes me hesitate to show my pictures is all the perverts and porn-seekers that I had to deal with every single day at Flickr. That’s the only negative part but I keep track of all the visitors. Sometimes it can be pretty annoying but I rapidly block them. I’d like to leave a note to all of them: ‘No, I’m not an Asian teen and I’ll never reply to any of your messages, please don’t waste your time and don’t make me waste mine‘.

Gemma Gonzelz
Gemma Gonzelz

What is your preferred camera set-up and what is on your wishlist?

I don’t like to change my camera settings a lot, I basically shoot in manual mode, paying special attention to the aperture, which is my obsession. My dream camera is the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III but I’ll just keep on dreaming.

We also saw some analogue experiments of you. What intrigues you about analogue photography, and what would be on your ‘ analogue wish-list’ ?

Yeah, my sister gave me her old Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 and since then I’ve been falling in love with analogue more and more. Analogue photography has that nostalgic feeling and the surprise factor that you’ll never have with digital photography. My analogue wish list is way longer, haha, Canon AE-1, Leica M6, Yashica Mat 124G, Hasselblad…

Gemma Gonzalez
Gemma Gonzalez

What about lenses? Word on the street is you’ve got a nifty fifty 1.4?

Haha, I was looking for the 0.95 Canon dream lens but it’s damn hard to find so I got the 50mm f/1.4 and I’m quite happy with it, cool lens for portraits, though I’d like to get an 85mm now for outdoor photo-shoots. I’m not a big fan of zoom lenses.

Gemma Gonzalez
Gemma Gonzalez

Any last words?

Hmm…well, I’m not good at talking about me. Just would like to say thank everybody at Flickr and CFYE for their support and feedback… and if someone’s interested in my photography or doing some collaboration they can always send me a message on Flickr or here at CFYE.

Gemma Gonzalez rocking the CFYE T
Gemma Gonzalez rocking the CFYE T