Andy Fabrykant

Argentina/France

website

What did you last take a picture of?

The last picture I took was of two workers climbing two huge ladders at the same time. They were repairing some cables that passed through the city of Barcelona. When I wanted to take that picture I was heading to the airport and I had to search my camera, because it was deep inside of my suitcase. This was probably the only moment that I didn't carry my camera around my neck, because that's what I always do when I'm travelling. I was lucky they didn’t notice that I was around, so they kept on doing their work in a natural way.  

What mostly catches your eye?

I think that what catches my eye is when something somehow seems to belong to the background. The relationship between the space and the object is what interests me the most. Like when there is a recognizable contrast, where something or someone doesn’t belong at all, and seems to be out of context.

Very recently, an aspiring photographer told me she regarded choosing to be or being a photographer would be a question of “lifestyle”. What do you think about this?

I completely agree with her point of view. I think some people are viewers in this world, just like musicians are listeners. The moment we feel the need to capture those moments in life is when we become photographers.

What has art to do with talent?

I think we can develop our talent. But as I said before, if there is no need to make art and if it isn't in your guts, it will be really hard to be 'talented'.

What has helped you most in getting attention for your work?

What helped me the most was making exhibitions and people like you helping me to show my work.

You also make films. What are you working on right now?

One year ago I started a production company here in France called ILKINO. We have been doing some ads, music video clips and films for companies. Still, I am writing two feature films and hope to shoot a short film in a few months.

What is ‘Fanzine’ about?

Fanzine is about showing my work in a different way. I have all these framed negatives and copies that I have to take care of. I was looking for a way to destroy this idea of untouchable objects so I decided to make cheap prints to give away every time I make an exhibition.

Which magazines - art related or otherwise - do you frequently read?

Normally I see many things on the Internet and on Facebook. I just bought “The American Cinematographer”. But rather I try to see as many exhibitions as I can.

Where do you go to unwind?

The beach is a place where I can really relax, and if not the beach, then my garden. 

When looking through your work, I got the feeling that you often seek to portray persons ‘embedded’ in their surroundings, or point towards their traces. Is this something that interests you?

In the beginning, I tried to go to different places every day. It became an automatism, and the only goal was to cover the largest portion of an area so I could go to the next one the following day. At the same time my pictures where 'methodical'. I was looking for elements that could be found repeatedly in different areas or even cities. You could say that I even became an image collector. And just like any other collector of any object, pictures gain value when we have a large quantity and we can categorize them.

After working in this manner for some time, I realized that I had spent a lot of time looking for repetitions and that inevitably, my method had reached its limits considering there wasn't any human activity involved.  My pictures became cold and predictable. I wasn’t really feeling the places anymore and couldn't relate to the cities any longer either. But that exactly had always been my starting point.

Even if it took me some time to realize, the obvious next step for me was to get lost. Instead of continuing to follow my previous system, I simply started to do the complete opposite thing, which felt like a situationalist game. I started to wander around without destination, as a 'flâneur', so to speak.

Once I did that, I unconsciously started to realize that somehow my pictures began to have a new feeling to them, on a completely new level. Instead of being an automatism fulfilled of repeated objects they became more lively and full of what I like to call “unexpected finds”.

What I am doing mostly now is following someone on the street. I don’t take pictures of him or her. I just use her or him as an excuse to get lost without being me, and without deciding where to go.