Femme Love

Laia Abril ist eine spanische Fotografin, auf die wir euch gerne aufmerksam machen möchten. Momentan arbeitet sie als Bloggerin und Fotografin für das Colors Magazine. Viele ihrer Fotodokumentation zeigen eine persönliche Nähe, wirken fast wie ein einfacher Schnappschuss, die einen tiefen Einblick in das Leben und die Emotion der Menschen um sie herum geben. Laia beantwortete uns acht Fragen über ihre Arbeit mit der Kamera, begleitet von der Strecke femme love.

“femme love” is a project that began with the intention of depicting notions of femininity in young lesbian women but which developed into an intimate exploration of a single couple's love. Mox and Jenny maintain a sincere relationship, ignoring the prejudice and prying eyes that the “otherness” of their relationship attracts. Their chosen home of Brooklyn, New York is to some extent a passport to the freedom they crave, but both have experienced long, difficult and emotional journeys in obtaining their current happiness. The narrative focuses on their daily life together, so affectionate and ordinary, they are simply like any other loving couple in their twenties and in love.

Laia Abril im Slanted Interview

1. Why and when did you start photographing?
I studied journalism, but I found photography a stronger tool, which I could use to tell stories sharing other people realities, and not just being rational about it, also provoking strong feelings on people watching at them. 

2. Which topics are you interested in most? How do you choose?  
With my projects I try to approach intimate stories and portray my particular vision of the daily life of the characters I encounter. I'm mostly interested in personal and female stories, where the characters have been struggling to have a 'normal' life. My intention is for people to see themselves in my work, and discover a different point of view of alternate realities that are sometimes too close to us for us to acknowledge, but are also important and worth examining.  

3. How does your equipment look like?
As simple is possible. I used to love 35mm fix lens, and go around with it. Lately I'm trying to open my mind to medium format cameras, and I also like to combine strict photography with other multimedia tools as video and design. 

4. Artist or technicien?
The artist word scares to me as a documentary photographer with journalist background. But technician is defiantly not my definition.

5. Who inspires you? Do you have role models?
I get inspiration from many sources. I try to always watch more photography and read the masters, but I'm very eclectic with my models, I love the work of Nan Goldin, Taryn Simon or Joakim Eskildsen. However, lately, I'm more obsess with design, arqitecture, art books, TED talks, interactive installations.

6. Are there any websites/blogs/portals you are visiting regularly?
www.ted.com
www.itsnicethat.com
www.gupmagazine.com

7. Which magazines do you read?
www.colorsmagazine.com
www.foam.org
www.foto8.com
www.internazionale.it

8. On which projects are you working at the moment?
How does your future look like? After publishing the Fanzine Thinspiration, the 3erd chapter on my Eating Disorders long-term project, I'm working in the next one, slowly. In the meantime I'm still developing my femininity project from different aspects of women's society in different countries. Also, in collaboration with Cristina de Middel, we're working in a photographic project, which might ended up as a book in the next year. Working as a photographer, blogger and associate picture editor for COLORS, gives me time to develop all these personal projects, so the future so far looks very busy and exciting!

Bio:
Laia Abril (Barcelona, 1986) is a documentary photographer and journalist. Her work has been exhibited and appraised in different Festivals and Galleries as Studio la Città (Italy), Caja Madrid (Spain), Winter Festival (Sarajevo), Lumix Festival (Germany), Getty Gallery (London) and the NewYork Photo Festival among others. Her editorial projects have been published in different international magazines such as DRepubblica, The Sunday Times Magazine, Le Monde Magazine, Vanity Fair, GUP, Burn Magazine, ESQUIRE Russia, FT Magazine or COLORS Magazine, where she is a member of the editorial staff since 2009, working as a staff photographer, blogger and Associate Picture Editor when she enrolled at FABRICA - the artists residency of the Benetton research centre.

www.laiaabril.com
www.colorsmagazine.com

Portrait by Piero Martinello