From the light, to the lens, to the photographic gaze behind.
Between the torrent of information we face and the fleeting nature with which it is presented, media such as photography seem to contradict this imposed nature of the expressions that surround us. From family gatherings framed by the BBC (weddings, baptisms and confirmations), until the photo burst of those first three songs in the show that changed our lives.
Thus, we must look beyond the lens to understand this iconographic center shaped, for more than ten years, by views such as that of David Barajas.
“I started going to concerts to take photos.”
The Mexican was taking his first steps among the venues capitalinos during his second year of high school. Debuting, first as a writer, among the sounds of Carla Morrison, Torreblanca, Commissioner Panther either Swarm.
After that brief stint in the editorial trenches, and driven by a first approach within CECATI 108, the photographic intentions of Barajas They would take him to the nearest university. This amid family concerns and bittersweet uncertainty.
“Music has always been my driving force, I knew I wanted to dedicate myself to something related to it. My initial idea was to be a DJ, from vinyl to vinyl, DJ Shadowand without acetates like Girl Talk either A-TrakWhen I told my parents about it, they told me that I should study something that would give me money and security. Between listening to them and what I told myself, I started to distance myself. That's when I fell into Communications and Electronics Engineering, with the idea of specializing in acoustics.”
View this post on Instagram
The daily routine of engineering would soon become an increasingly unbearable burden for the creative. The constant comparisons with his colleagues, combined with nights of study with little results, pushed the photographer to a point beyond his sensitivity. He would end up leaving university to continue his paramusical path.
“Emotionally, I never felt like I was in the right place, so I dropped out of college and started going to the Central Photography Workshop at the same Polytechnic. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I chose photography because I saw it as a bridge to all these other branches of the music industry. I wanted to know what it was like to be a manager or a producer before I decided on something. I ended up enjoying photography in every sense and… I stayed.”
Back in the classroom, but this time with a camera in hand and under the tutelage of Miguel Mendoza, Barajas would lay the foundations for his artistic work. Standard practices were converted into backstage field practices, band portraits and a constant search for the next show.
After growing in experience and relationships within a certain niche, the national began to test himself in areas far beyond any stage. Fellow graduates of the workshop made room for him to take photos in the studio, at family events or NASCAR days. All in favor of the versatility of the photographic edge.
“One of the things I learned in the workshop was to take photos in any situation, not just focus on music. Specializing is good, but you should test your technique in different fields, other environments, different lighting conditions, etc.”
The technical challenges came to the photographer, accompanied by his sensitive relatives. The doubts ranged from honest doubts about accreditation to the bitter side of comparison with peers.
I would come to class and ask the professor why my photos didn't look like Toni's, Aceves', Chino Lemus', or Feli Gutiérrez's. His general response was: 'There's a lot of work to do.' He would mention the type of lens they used, the access they had, being in the right place, knowing the right people, things that in the end are part of taking photos.
The following era led the creative to develop a work ethic beyond the musical, adopting public relations as an extension of his Canon 5D Mark IV, aiming criticism beyond envious reaction and leaving behind comparisons with more experienced professionals.
After this series of practical notes, Barajas describes the next step in his professional growth as follows. “What took me the longest to come was to be at peace with myself. My teacher told me '(…) you need inner peace, haven't you seen Kung Fu Panda' and I didn't understand what he was talking about. At the time I ignored him and, despite the advice he gave me, I ended up getting frustrated, feeling envious, angry for nothing, crying because things just didn't work out. That's when I decided to watch the movie many times and I understood that he was referring to this connection, internal and spiritual, of why we do things. It's difficult to reach that tranquility because of how life works in general and how we have to live it.”
The existential note seems impossible without the proper political-social content. Remembering the additional effort that artistic dedication implies, without the support of privilege, is necessary to understand views such as those of Barajas. In addition to the national panorama in terms of cultural development.
Without this focus on the initial conditions, it is easy to be overcome by frustration at the lack of progress towards common ground. The paths are different for everyone, but having the inner clarity to be able to see them is not an easy task.
I have gone through many lines trying to meet different standards. But, in the end, what has worked for me is to stick to what I believe, think and feel. I try to maintain all of that when taking photos, starting with how I see the artist and his music.”
Currently, the Mexican artist focuses on the invisibility of music in his philosophy, focusing his photographic efforts on that performative translation of dance, attire and corporality in each performer. A reflection of this is his constant intention to take a different frame, accept the unpredictability of the stage and trust in the words of figures such as Enrique Segarra.
“What am I going to do to have a different photo? Move, be aware of space, I started using filters, capturing movement, working with those errors, playing with chromatic aberration.”
View this post on Instagram
David Barajas has established itself as one of the benchmarks for concert photography in Mexico, opting for low-quality lenses in favor of chromatic aberration, imagining himself under the piano of Thom Yorke to take pictures during your In The Basement and at the edge of a 70-200mm telephoto lens, a 17-40mm wide angle lens, prism filters, stars and a copper tube. The scope can only point towards the future, with all the music that that means.
“I would like to take photos of bands that I haven't seen live, work with Radioheadwith David Byrnetake pictures of Björk. Photography took me to the processes that make music reach our ears, being in a studio, on tour, all those things that you can't see but that matter. I'd like to live in other countries and capture bands in those venues, travel, travel a lot. I'd like to not have to worry about doing things I don't like in order to do things I do and… lead a fairly quiet life. Have a place to sleep, eat well and listen to music. Maybe at some point be a DJ (laughs).”
