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By María del Sol Tamargo Hernández
For years, I chose a wide-angle lens almost instinctively. I wanted everything to fit: the beauty of the place, the movement, the story taking shape in my imagination. My enthusiasm found room in the frame. In time, I began to recognize something more personal in that choice: my speed, my desire to show, and my need to be seen.
When I looked back at my photographs, I found my own story.
That search became El Artista · El revelado del alma a través del lente, my book about self-knowledge through photography. I wrote it to share what I learned about myself while learning to create.
The camera gave me a way to connect
When I was about ten, I borrowed my father’s camera and went to the park to photograph other children. The camera was empty. Those images existed in play, yet the encounter was real: holding a camera allowed me to approach and take part.
At fifteen, my uncle Litos gave me an SLR. My mother enrolled me at the Instituto Cultural Cabañas, where the available workshop was in developing color slides. I remember the excitement of seeing what I had made. There was beauty, and I had helped make it visible.
Years later, a sunken ship brought me back to another darkroom, this time beneath the sea. Orange corals were growing on its structure. Life had found somewhere to flourish. That encounter gave rise to La Catrina Sirena and an artistic investigation that changed the way I lived.
Four lenses, four teachers
The distance from which I photograph changes what enters the image and my relationship with what I see. Along my own path, four focal lengths became teachers:
- 14 mm · The Helper. Breadth, the impulse to include everything, and the speed with which I wanted to take away an entire scene.
- 35 mm · The Bridge. Versatility and the passage from the wider world toward the person.
- 50 mm · The Wise One. Choosing, letting go of what is unnecessary, and looking inward.
- 85 mm · The Heart. Staying, giving the encounter time, and going deeper.
These names describe my experience. Each reader can observe their own preferences and discover what happens when they try a different distance. From 14 to 85, my gaze found another rhythm.
Earth, Water, Fire and Air in the creative process
The elements give me a language for exploring what happens as I create. I recognize Earth when I need support, structure and patience to finish a work. Water reminds me of the sensitivity and listening that make a relationship possible. In Fire, I find the desire to begin and the will to continue, together with an understanding of my limits. Air opens imagination, play and new perspectives.
In the book, I share this map through my training and artistic experience. The stories of La Catrina Sirena bring it into the body: what I felt, the decisions I made, and what I understood when I returned to my images.
Attention can be practiced
While photographing, I can notice my breathing, the haste with which I decide, and my ability to listen to the person in front of me. Choosing a lens becomes an opportunity to recognize how I arrive at an encounter and explore another way of being present.
This is how I approach self-regulation in El Artista: as a practice of paying attention to my inner state and my choices. The relationship between lenses and emotional experience belongs to my artistic method; each person explores it through their own experience.
With a camera and through your gaze
You can follow this path with a camera, a phone, or through another creative discipline. The book offers two routes, With a Camera and Through Your Gaze, so the exploration can meet the tools you have.
Two series accompany the journey: How I See Myself, devoted to self-portraiture, and I See You, I Appreciate You, devoted to an encounter with someone who chooses to participate. The work and the relationship grow together through listening and agreements about the images.
Begin by returning to a photograph of your own that still calls to you. Remember how you felt when you made it, what you wanted to express, and what you chose to keep within the frame. Give the image room to reveal something more.
Read El Artista in your language
The complete digital edition is listed for sale in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
María del Sol Tamargo Hernández
The Godmother