Liliana, the story behind a shot

It was 2014. Liliana, at her first photo shoot, had turned 18 just two weeks earlier.

Liliana - 2014

I was busy with my MEXICANA MAGAZINE. In that year I photographed about ten women a month. With my Leica I even defied the conventions that say not to photograph with wide angle lenses. My vision as a street photographer was an added bonus to my approach for my portraits.

In my references there were (and there are) photographers such as Helmut Newton, Richard Kern and Yone. I wanted my gaze to provoke the observer. And I wanted to give the feeling of being there, of making him participate if not the protagonist of the scene, at least as much as I was in photographing the girls who agreed to be photographed.

Liliana was a little nervous but relaxed within minutes. In any case, I knew that I also had to capture that essence that she had struck me in the beginning. That fear that in my eyes seemed suggestive for a photograph that, in some way, must have been different.

Too many times I see photographs that put too much ease in the viewer. And, in particular, when it comes to photographing models I see classic photos from books that don't interest me for my photography. This photograph is the exact opposite of that approach. Some might even find it disturbing. I don't want to make you comfortable. Rather, I ask questions with images.

Araki and Moriyama were my daily visual supply. But they acted in a subconscious way when I was taking my picture. No Shibari which I have always found boring.

And a lot of people don't like this photo. They don't like how I shrunk the body down because of the perspective. In my opinion, it's not about always photographing as if the women I photograph are perfect. More important is to tell a story.

We did an amazing set that day. The only time I photographed this girl. She was inexperienced, but she posed in an amazing way.

The mental state of a street photographer remains and is always ready to come out, even in completely different genres. I am witness to how much street photography is a school and a form of training that helps me even when engaged in a different work, even the most commercial one. From not being prevented by that idea of a beautiful photo and rather a photo that questions and awakens I feel I am a different photographer, and I certainly owe this to the street.