We feature many talented artists. Nevertheless we are defying and like to find the edge of things. Keeping an open mind, without being pragmatic and understanding the transcendental elements of art in any form. But still, we aren't going to do the thinking for you.
His name is Norberto Baruch or as he likes to be called "El Norbi" and has passed through various Argentinean newspapers; ClarÃn, Página/12, La Razón and La Nación. Has also been art director at McCann-Erickson and taught at the Palermo, Austral and at Morón Universities in Argentina and at the Andes and Católica Universities in Chile and at the Ort University in Uruguay. He is responsible for Jornadas Universitarias de Diseño de Información (Information Design Universitary Workshops). And keeps himself very busy with diverse online publications. Among others: Visualmente and Hotel Visual.
This multifaceted old timer in the world of journalism, infography and journalistic illustration has for a while been experimenting with another contemporary medium and his art can be viewed at SantaCarne.
We are not going to discuss or challenge the validity of any medium here at CFYE, but one thing has to be said, evolution and experimentation are all in our humble human condition.
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Above all, to understand their interior beauty. Their body inspires me and their intelligence makes me believe in God.
Can I be on familiar terms with you?
Of course.
Because you have done so many things, we didn't want to take a too big of a bite and since you've been interviewed before about Visualmente, let's start with SantaCarne. Tell us how and why it was started?
The Santa Carne blog is born from the necessity to separate this new form of doing something visual, photography. Since my other blogs showed other activities of mine as visual journalist (Visualmente), my activities as illustrator & infographist (Bar Visual) & my magazine (Hotel Visual), I needed an exclusive blog for my nude pictures. It is as well born as the necessity to show the beauty of Latin women. I sometimes hold visual journalism workshops (Visualmente-Edu) in several newspapers in South America & I see that the Latin woman is very different from country to country. Santa Carne wants to show this feminine diversity.
Who takes the pictures?
All pictures in Santa Carne are taken by me. They are taken at the hotels I stay in between workshops.
When does something vulgar become elegant? Let me explain; as they say, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. At first sight some pictures can be quite vulgar. How have you done it to create that mistery? Not showing the model's faces sure helps! Is that a conscious choice or a requirement to keep the model's anonymity?
The whole thing with vulgarity & elegance is an eternal discussion. I think the important thing is how a woman feels when she gets photographed by me. My productions always respond to a visual concept, where the flesh is an anecdote to tell a story. My models are common women, Latin women, that know no plastic surgery scars. They are young, vital, that have accepted the game of image. Without being victims of aesthetics, these women submerge themselves in a role of model wich they think is funny, because they lose their clothes without losing their intelligence. The photographer is necessary. The woman is always unique. The fact of not showing -in most cases- their identities responds to the thought that anybody could be a model to be photographed. Coming back to the vulgarity issue, I think that black & white helps avoiding the ordinary.
We see a lot of black & white in your pictures. What makes you photograph on black & white or on color?
I work in digital and in colors. Then when I edit the picture, I find the best final framing. That framing tries to take details from the surroundings where the picture is taken. As I said above, the black & white is key in the refinement of a take. Because black & white takes that vulgarity that flesh could have.
What are your favorite things to take on the road?
I write what I see down on loose papers, while I gather locations on my iPhone. I make a summary of the production in the email I send myself.
What and who inspires you?
The woman inspires me. All I've learned in my life I own it to women. They taught me to see their physical beauty, but above all, to understand their interior beauty. Their body inspires me and their intelligence makes me believe in God.
What do you think about the following statement?
Digital work looks 'digital'. It's analogous to synthesizers and pianos you don't perform Bach on a synth because Reality, and the intimacy of relationship between the pianist and his instrument, is tidied out of the process. - Julian Flynn
I understand Flynn's position, but I believe that the discussion about art can't go through the issue of medium. When acrylic-based paint appeared, the defenders of oil-based paint assume a position similar to Flynn's.
But you could be an ironical Flynn & even relativize your own affirmation. A more complicated thing is the intrinsic relationship between the artist & his/her tool. That matter of training, befriending with the new medium, it has to do with forming oneself in the new available tools.
Therefore someone that was born under the reign of electronic keyboards & synthesizers could play Bach on them, without losing its essence. Moreover, Johann Sebastian Bach never played the piano, but he stood out as a baroque musician by his brilliant style of playing the organ and the harpsichord.
Why do you think black & white photography takes vulgarity away from the flesh?
The flesh is so full that many observers of this kind of photography have remained in the threshold of porn. Bare skin has been referenced by pornographic sites that don't see that something else can be done. For that reason, in the news items done about me the first thing that comes up is that feminine nudity has to do with the vulgarity associated with pornography. One simply has to paint the skin black, so that -how Jagger would say in his Paint it black, nobody will have to turn their head when seeing the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes.
If you answer to the thought that anybody can be a model to be photographed, why not photograph a model with small breasts? Or a heavy-set model?
I insist that any one can be model to pose for my pictures. In fact, in my photographs you can see women with smaller breast size & bigger in their hips. I don't pursue one sole ideal of woman, impossible thing to achieve in Latin-America. Its women fascinated the conquistadores until madness mostly because of their devilish forms than for their ethereal nature. My eye tries to find this register & the post-editing will never serve as digital surgery on their bodies. Big breasts, small breasts, can't take the shine away from the Latin woman. Not obesity either. The only matter with this is, how comfortable are women that don't like to show what embarasses them, thanks to the bad media that hurts her telling her she's fat. My photographs have to first adjust to the model.
Don't you think that photography is more authentic if it's taken with an analogue camera?
Let's then talk about the limit of the human perceptive thresholds. There are differences beyond the human eye's perception, just as certain sounds that the human ear can't hear. If the definition of photography is good enough, to the human eye it's irrelevant if the picture was taken with a digital camera or an analogue.
What is your weapon of choice?
A good pencil with a very sharp point.
Picture credits:
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