Thinking About Photography
Dedicated to expanding our ideas about photography
Nicolás Marticorena
©Nicolás Marticorena
Aridity as a Mirror of the Spirit
When I photograph a landscape, I feel an unconscious impulse—something drives me to pick up the camera and capture. I am drawn to composition, light, and textures, yet beneath it all, the irrational always prevails. Photographer Graciela Iturbide says that when we photograph, we interpret a very subjective reality that somehow conveys our past experiences and emotions. That resonates with me and closely relates to my approach to aridity.
©Nicolás Marticorena
It is difficult to explain, but desert and arid landscapes provoke an ambivalent effect in me. I discover traces and remnants, skin and scars, beauty and ugliness. I find desolation and abandonment, but also resilience. The dusty, barren environment connects me to the past, to something spiritual, metaphysical, and at the same time melancholic. This is something I have come to realize over time.
©Nicolás Marticorena
©Nicolás Marticorena
Five years ago, my interest in climate change and its impacts on life led me to photograph the Province of Petorca, a region severely affected by drought. I began making recurrent trips as an observer, familiarizing myself with the context and atmosphere, and growing accustomed to spending long periods alone, with myself, encountering myself. From an external point of view, this process allowed me to witness nature’s adaptation, the transformation of the landscape, and of those who survive the challenges brought by global warming and water scarcity. Yet from a more internal perspective, it also helped me explore my own emotional struggles, carried by my father’s suicide, the collapse of his paternal image, the damage inflicted upon my family, and the effects all of this has had on my relationship with love and human bonds.
©Nicolás Marticorena
Today, this photographic work has distilled into a more personal and authorial vision. I have extended my experience in Petorca to other environments where aridity and lack of water allow me to connect with my own inner search. Through photography and its creative process, I attempt to link the literal expression of the desert or desertifying landscape with its more metaphorical reflection, which speaks to us of what the wasteland generates in the spirit, and how we interpret it according to our personal experiences. Aridity can project ambiguity from an abstract, self-reflective perspective. It can allude to existential anxiety, to emptiness and the loneliness of the soul, but also to the search for the essential as a hidden source of life and meaning.
©Nicolás Marticorena