Portrait nominee

I like to create images. I take control of the things that surround me and try to give them a little touch of mystery, a hidden story. This without manipulating them, but through esthetic choices.
Being locked down, I had a limited environment to work with. So I decided to be the main character and create images that originated from my place in this limited space.
I love the silent film notion of a character that we see in different situations, has different backgrounds, and lives in different settings but still looks and acts the same. That is the way I see myself in my self-portraits, as the same character in different stories. I hide my face because this adds to the sense of mystery and ambiguity I want to give to my images, and maybe because that is the way I present myself to the world.
Because I am playing a character, I did not intend to explore my inner self with these self-portraits. However, I found later that the images I create and the character I play reflect my world these days. Always inside looking out.

Born and raised in Venezuela, I have lived in France since 2003. I first came to Paris inspired by images from films of the French New Wave, but since I could not find them, I started creating my own images.
Photography started to be a real passion for me from 2010 onwards. A 365 project and many self-portraits followed. The self-portraits, in particular, allowed me to explore the possibilities of photography in a comfortable and reassuring environment.
In 2012, I decided to test my way of seeing in Lifestyle photography and I stopped doing significant personal work. All changed in 2020. During the lockdown, my personal photography took priority, especially my self-portraits.
I won 3rd place in the self-portrait category of the 2021 IPA photography competition and an honorable mention in the 2021 Julia Margaret Cameron Award.
In 2022, Caro Cuinet invited me to participate in her book Voir la lumière. It features a selection of my self-portraits and my testimony explaining my process.
My first series of self-portraits was exhibited in 2012 in Paris as part of the group exhibition 20 ans, beaucoup, passionnément…
My self-portrait Home was exhibited in 2022 as part of the 6th Barcelona Foto Biennale.