Olmo Domingo Madrid, Spain
Olmo Domingo was chosen by photographer Fabiola Cedillo
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Laatikkomo’s interview with Olmo Domingo December 27th, 2017.
L: Where are you from? What cities, and/or countries have you lived in – or what places have influenced you?
OD: I’m from Madrid. I lived my childhood and adolescent in a peripheric city, now in the center of Madrid. I lived a little in Ascoli (Italia), just college practices. I love to travel. I think I learn a lot from my travels to Nigeria, India, Nepal, USA, Brasil and around Europe with my little van. My favourite place is a little natural park in Andalucia (Cabo de Gata) I stay very calm there.
L: What is your earliest memory of photography?
OD: My earliest memory with photo, probably is the slideshows with my family after holidays. My father was a very prolific one. Landscapes and landscapes eating popcorn. I remember playing with my father’s camera too.
L: You use a variety of styles and chromatics in your images. In addition some of the images on your website seem to come from different and/or older sources. What attracts you to a certain style and/or what determines your choice of technique?
Yes, I like the techniques, the cameras, old processes. I love to try things in my little darkroom, is a very big world, and I’m learning all the time. That part is really fun. I don’t know what determines each technique I use, they appear instinctively. Now mostly I’m using instant cameras, it is so magic. And starting with pottery. Its going to be fun mix both worlds.
L: Portraiture seems to be the common ground weaving through the different themes and imagery of your work. In your opinion what are the most important traits that make a portrait?
OM: Well, making portraits is very difficult. I think I only do well if I have a small or big relationship with the subject. For me it is necessary to make a truth portrait. Very difficult anyway.
L: Photography is often used in an attempt to preserve time: capturing fleeting moments, remembering the past. Is memory or time something you are conscious of when you work with photography?
OM: For sure, it is the most important thing about photography for me. Make my memories, conserve the moments, of people I love. It is incredible to look at old pictures.
L: You website displays several series of images without any text or explanation. What is your relationship to text: does it have its place among photographs, or should it be kept apart?
OM: In my website I only have pictures, but I haven’t uploaded any new ones in long time. I would like to do so, but lately I don’t like to show. I think we are saturated by images, I don’t know if mine are relevant to people. They are a lot for me. Fabiola invited me to participate in this event and I am very very grateful, nevertheless I’m not into contests, exhibitions etc. I consider that I am still in the learning phase, which seems to have no end.
L: Could you list five or more words related to the work you are showing in Laatikkomo?
OM: Love
Memories
Photography
Fun
Autotherapy
Thank you so much Olmo!!