5MINS with Adrian Morillo‏

Hi Adrian, tell us a bit about yourself and your photography background.

Hi,

Well I am European, originally from Spain. I got interested in photography a bit “late”, when I was around 25 years old. Before I was more interested in cinema and film making, but over time I realized that it was easier for me to develop projects as photographer than as videographer.

I studied Audio-visual Communication, specializing in video. When I finished my studies I developed my first photo project, which was the final project of a Master of research and investigation in Art, which allowed me to get a grant to study photography at a photography school in Madrid.

After getting the grant, I started to take photography more seriously.

You photograph a lot of architecture, is this one of your favoured styles of photography?

Not at all. I used to work on concrete projects. Every project is focused on a topic, and depending on the topic and the visual approach that I decided to have, I focus my camera on to different elements.

In this series Architecture is really present because these pictures were taken in Montreal in the first months that I arrived in to the city and in my first experience in the American continent. Architecture was one of the things that really took my attention. It is really different to Spanish architecture.

Your photographs from Hi Montreal also include very bold colours and focus on light, is this important for you? Have you been influenced by photographers to do this?

Yeah it is true. Well, the more I shoot the more I think that the main part (at least for me) of photography, is light, at least when we talk about photography just as an aesthetic thing.

The light in Montreal is so different from the area where I live in Spain (the south area of the country), so I was really interested in to catch it. There is influence of other photographers for sure, but I can’t specify concrete names for these pictures.

Not being an American do you feel that Montreal has become a new home for you?

Yeah, Montreal it is a city that is very easy to make yours. Is something that I felt after only living here for one year and something that other people who are not from the city also feel.

I guess that some of the reasons for this is the mix of European and American culture and the high level of immigrants that live in this city. You find that everyone is from the city; it doesn’t matter where they come from.

You’ve said that Hi Montreal was a product of a daily diary. By photographing the city everyday, is this what made you feel comfortable in the city?

No, I photograph when I am comfortable and also when I am not. I focus a lot on my personal photo diary because as immigrant in a new city, there’s always a lot of stuff that impress you and that you want to photograph.

I produced so many pictures from Montreal after only being here a year, that I realized I could make an interesting photo series. Usually I need more time to have a selection of pictures, but this case was different.

Do you look to capture people in your photographs or is it more of a natural occurrence?

I try not to think too much into things like that (and is not always possible). If something excites me, I try to get a picture. It doesn’t matter if there are people or not.

This body of work feels like it tells a narrative of life in Montreal, would you work in this way again?

As I said, it depends on the project that I am doing and the circumstances. Hi Montreal was published because I have the impression that Montreal has lost it’s freshness to me after living here for a while. If not, I would still be taking more pictures before publishing the series.

Months after publishing it, I continue taking pictures around the city, so who knows, maybe there will be a second part or I’ll make a revision of the project.

Would you encourage people to keep a daily visual diary to explore their surroundings?

I don’t think that something that works for a person could work for another, but of course, you don’t lose anything doing that and having that experience.

The daily visual diary has been very useful to me in a moment of my life, I don’t know for how long I will continue working this way.

What’s next for you in terms of photography projects?

I have two projects in mind that are focused on portraits, something really different to this project. I also have a photobook that I want to self publish.

The only thing is that I don’t find time for developing these projects!