“Being a photographer, a gift of life” is the new book by the veteran Puertollan photographer Cristina García Rodero, 74 years old. In it, she captures 50 years of career in 155 photographs.
“Being a photographer, a gift of life”, by Cristina García RoderoJdJ Editions
García Rodero reflects on the arrival of mobile phones and their impact on the photography profession. He considers that he has made his work worse.
Cristina García Rodero:“It is true that cell phones have taught people to see, to look and count, but there comes a time when they are abused”
“It is true that cell phones have taught people to see, to look and count, but there comes a time when they are abused“People don’t know how to go through life without a cell phone, they use it for everything, from where you’re going to eat to where you’re bathing… there are so many of them and sometimes the opportunity to live is lost,” he explains.
García Rodero recognizes that this sometimes hinders the work of professionals. “Really, for photographers who want to make books or publish in a newspaper, to inform, it is very annoying, because there are herds. It is not one or two, but many, and many times it is done because you want to have those images without put to use,” he laments.
A defender of photography as “a democratizer of the image, because before only those who had the money to pay for portraits or miniatures could access it,” the artist does not see herself working with Artificial Intelligence, which has already reached her field.
Cristina García Rodero:“I think they can be very beneficial or they can be very harmful, it all depends on who is behind that (artificial) intelligence and what you want to do with it, because it can destroy us”
In any case, it is not opposed to its use. “It will depend on how things are used. I think they can be very beneficial or they can be very harmful, It all depends on who is behind that intelligence and what they want to do with it, because it can destroy us.“, alert.
In ‘Being a photographer, a gift of life’, the National Photography Prize winner tries for the first time with uA new experience: leave your comments on your own images in writing. “I think that words should not tell everything about the images, give you so much information, and let one look be enough to draw many deductions from them,” she acknowledges.
Goya or Velázquez, among his teachers
For example, in the book García Rodero recounts his beginnings and also talks about his work that made him “known”, ‘Hidden Spain’.
He also recognizes in this book lhe influence that painting and visits to the Prado Museum have had on his work to contemplate the works of his “admired” Goya, Velázquez or El Greco. “I feel indebted to everyone who does his job well, no matter how humble,” admits García Rodero.
Cristina García Rodero:“I feel indebted to everyone who does their job well, no matter how humble it may be”
Student of Fine Arts and student of Antonio López — “he was the first person who taught me how to put colors on the palette, because I had never picked up a brush” — the artist from La Mancha claims to continue feeling like a “painter.” “I still go to exhibitions and I always say ‘someday you will paint, Cristina, someday’. But I think that at the rate I’m going, I won’t do it anymore, because I won’t stop,” she jokes.
war reporter
In the new book there is also space for their war worka lesser-known facet of the author.
Cristina García Rodero:“I have never wanted to be in a war, I was very clear about it and I always said that what I want is to see people live with joy”
“I have never wanted to be in a war, I was very clear about it and I always said that what I want is to see people live with joy,” he stated. In ‘Being a photographer, a gift of life’ she shows her images of both herself in Georgia and Kosovo, two conflict zones at the time.
EUROPA PRESS
