Darkrooms Uncovered - Xavi Buendia

A peek into a photographer's mental creative darkroom

What does your creative ritual look like? Do you have specific habits or conditions that spark your creativity?

Coffee first! No project, assignment, or photo walk begins without coffee. Then I like to start photographing early in the morning, at sunrise, and no later than 10 am. The qualities of the light during bright sunny mornings are part of my visual language. I also like to see how cities wake up. I do these meditative walks where I'm having a conversation in my head while I get a feel for how the local communities have adapted the urban landscape to their needs. I stroll, finding scenes and characters that I feel like photographing. Sometimes I get one or two decent pictures, most often nothing, but this is my favorite thing to do photographically speaking.

When you're feeling creatively blocked, what's your go-to method for breaking through?

That's a fun one! I put everything down that relates to my creative process and consume a bunch of junk that I wouldn't on a normal day. I'd watch a superhero movie, hit the pub, or attend a networking event, watch a football game, or a TV drama. I'd get saturated with all the things that I feel add no value to my creative process in order to get some balance. I've learned not to force creativity and to accept that cycles are OK and healthy; I let creativity come and go as it pleases.

Describe a moment when your creative perspective shifted dramatically. What triggered it?

Great question! Three things Marcel: Perspective, being present, and owning being different. Just recently, we went whale watching. It's not something I'd choose to do; it was my wife's birthday. Everyone on the boat was on their phones doing their thing. I preferred to sink into the thought of being in the presence of such magnificent animals. Thinking about how small we are and putting my existence into perspective. That moment will be my go-to thought when negativity and self-doubt come knocking on the door.

What recurring themes or elements do you find yourself naturally drawn to capture?

So many things! I'm not the kind of photographer or artist who only does one thing over and over again. What I'm finding as a common subject in my work is the human potential, what we can achieve with our minds, bodies, and emotions. I like to go out on the streets and photograph empty spaces, architectural details, and people doing their thing, as I mentioned before. Some think is street photography, but it's not, I do photographs on the street. I'm constantly observing and intervening on my scenes and directing my subjects so I get the photos to be as I want them to. I guess my style and voice keep evolving into a more solid direction.

What non-photographic influences (books, music, films, etc.) most impact your work?

Philosophy, ideas, concepts, quirky stories, music, architecture, painting, art, history, history of art, design, podcasts, more recently... You name it. I keep my eyes, ears, and senses open; You never know where an idea can come from or develop from.

What photograph of yours feels most personally revealing, and why?

The photograph of a man turning a corner early in the morning in a village in the middle of nowhere in Mexico. That morning, I realized that I'm generally drawn to colour and architecture, my brain has a structural way of thinking photographically, and I was drawn to a particular corner with yellow and red details against the bright blue sky of the early morning. I saw this man walking across the street, and after a brief conversation, I asked him if he could walk back fast and turn the corner. We did it a few times, and I got my picture. It was the first time I asked someone to act for a photo and that solved a lot of problems!

Find out more about Xavi Buendia

Website: xavierbuendia.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xavogram/

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