People
by Pablo Abreu
As the years pass by, seeing it with the perspective that the times give you and making a deep introspection, I have noticed that since I was a child I have always liked observing people. At first, it was the curiosity of a child, that everything which surrounds him is a new world, a discovery, new experiences.
At the same time that that child was growing it was also growing inside him that curiosity for people, for human beings, that was always there.
As time went by I discovered photography and it gave me the opportunity to reflect as something permanent everything that was inside my head unconsciously all my life.
When I go along the street with my camera I am always looking for that something that distinguishes a person from the rest, that spark, a rough beauty, of those pronounced features which show signs of the path to make me see that just in front of me there is somebody whose soul deserves being photographed, real people, overflowing with a story. I am not interested in standardized beauty, those that seem to be like a stone, like a sticky copy which doesn’t say anything to me, but only those features, those scars that are like different layers that represent the life of that person and the union of them shape what it is the instant which is being photographed.
Reaching this point and continuing with my introspection I tend, most of the time, to pay attention above all to elderly people, that with their expression say it all about their thousands of battles and the marks left as time goes by, which transmit me better than anyone all those layers and deep down is a way of discovering myself, I was, I am and I will be in future while I am photographing an instant of the life of other people.
I like to be unnoticed, not to take part in the scene, so I can shot the exact authentic instant, which makes any interest in that person to be full, not getting his attention, showing himself to me as he really is, without filters, without making faces or poses, his only rough soul.
People most of the time don’t notice or actually continue with their life as if I didn’t exist. Sometimes they ask me and at that moment I take the opportunity to know a little more about them and to show my gratitude for giving me that instant that becomes part of me, not only of my photographic files but also of personal files.
I am finishing this text as I began, talking about introspection and reaching the conclusion that there has only been a part of me photographing. Consciously I have noticed that unconsciously photography has always been inside me, taking photos with my mind when I didn’t have a camera, looking for that spark, that moment, ever since I was a child.
