Step into the captivating world of Remon Diaz, a photographer whose lens captures the essence of observation, balance, and visual poetry. Steeped in a background rich with poetry, theater, dance, and cinema, Remon’s journey into photography has been anything but conventional. With roots in Cuba and a soul steeped in the vibrant culture of Spain’s Canary Islands, Remon’s lens offers a unique perspective shaped by his diverse artistic journey. Affectionately dubbed “The Deaf Cyclops,” his deafness only amplifies his keen sense of observation, culminating in the concept of “The Decisive Metaphor” – a fusion of Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment and Erwitt’s art of observation. Join us as we delve into Remon’s artistic evolution, familial influences, and the profound philosophy behind his photographic vision. Welcome to an exclusive exploration of “The Decisive Metaphor” through the lens of Remon Diaz.
The formula for doing a good job in photography is to think like a poet.
– Imogen Cunningham
Firstly, could you please tell us a little bit more about your background in poetry, theater, dance, and cinema and their influences in your approach to photography, particularly in your concept of “The DECISIVE METAPHOR”?
The beginning of everything was writing. I always loved reading. Thanks to my mother, who instilled in me a love for reading at a very young age. That’s how I smudged my first pages, attempted poetry, short stories. At the same time, in those initial years, I founded a dance group, of which I was the choreographer and director. The group lasted for approximately 5 years. At university, I started with theaters and achieved my first mention in a narrative award from the University of Havana. The story was titled, ‘Don’t Ask the Devil to Cry’. I am also part of an anthology of Cuban stories about AIDS, published by EdicionesLa Palma.
Cinema comes to me from my cradle. Thanks to my father who is an renowned director in Cuban cinemas, I began to watch great works at a very young age, and over time he started showing me the scripts of his works for us to discuss and debate. Currently I am collaborating with him on two projects from poster designing and still photography perspective. I also have a small role in a few movies.
The conception of ‘THE DECISIVE METAPHOR‘, I think, was forged while I was imbibing and developing all my learnings. Poetry is an alchemy that materializes with everyday words and gives it a new dimension. That idea always overlapped with my approach to photography. Basically the idea is an intermediate point between ‘THE DECISIVE MOMENT‘ by Henry Cartier Bresson and ‘PHOTOGRAPHY AS THE ART OF OBSERVATION‘ by Elliott Erwitt. It is to condense both paths in a snapshot, taking everything important, the light, the concept, the composition and all of these, creating doors that only a keen observer can decipher according to his life experiences. In my head every photograph is a decisive metaphor.
Your online expo titled “The DECISIVE METAPHOR” suggests a significant thematic focus. Could you explain how this concept manifests in your body of work?
It really is a summary of something that I have been doing for a long time with its achievements and failures. But basically, it is creating a visual metaphor with the plus of the art of observation. Which creates a round poetic entity, images that need to be observed and read according to the preferences and knowledge of the observer.
You’ve mentioned being drawn into the world of art despite studying engineering. Can you discuss the pivotal moments that led you to pursue a career in photography?
I was attracted to art at a very young age. I owe my great love of reading to my mother. I grew up with a big bookshelf that had a lot of stories and that was crucial. My move to photography was a bit of emotional and conceptual necessity. I realized that I was observing non-stop and I began to frequent the work of Man Ray, Cartier-Besson and Elliott Erwitt. I also visited any photography exhibition in the city and I told myself…well now I’ll start, because I have something to contribute. As simple as that.
Your self-proclaimed nickname, “The Deaf Cyclops,” is intriguing and your friends refer to you as “The Beethoven of photography. How does it resonate with your artistic identity?
Here you have to start from my name. I adore Fernando Pessoa and his heteronyms and from that admiration Rem(o)n was born. It is the name of a character from a short story that I wrote when I was 22 and I took it as a name when I started in photography. Then a kind of association and definition of the Remonian style began in the forums where I grew up artistically and technically. The Deaf Cyclops thing is a metaphor that I invented to define my essence, the eye is observation and deafness is prioritizing silences, which helps you not feel distraction and focus your attention on what you observe. The Beethoven thing was a joke from a great friend but that’s all.
Your photography series, “Serie de kube and souls” is amazing! Tell us more about your thoughts behind this series/project.
It was an idea that had been on my mind since 2017, until at the end of 2018. I decided to make a cube with mirrors. The idea itself was another metaphor anchored in that interpretation that we are what we see. Curiously, a friend also did this practice with a cube but in a theatrical performance and one day we decided to do the series. It has nothing to do with what he does, it’s just my interpretation of an idea that I had already been working on (I had done another one previously with another good friend).
How do you reconcile the principles of observation from Elliott Erwitt with the balance and visual poetry advocated by Cartier-Bresson in your work?
I think that in this aspect, it is my search for the punctum defined by Roland Barthes in his book, ‘The Lucid Camera’ (a book that I recommend to everyone). It is the discovery of that intermediate point that opens the door to telling your own story from a photo that I show you. Synchronizing both elements is not an easy task, but I have tried throughout my photographic life.
Could you elaborate on how your experiences with deafness contribute to your obsession with observation in photography?
There is a belief that when one sense is missing, the others become more precise. I suppose there was some of that, but in my case, it was a mixture of love for great cinema and my perpetual desire for art in various forms. What I can assure you is that living among silences generates a more accurate observation of everything.
How has your Cuban heritage and your time spent in Spain, particularly in the Canary Islands, influenced your artistic vision and the subjects you choose to photograph?
In reality, from the Cuban side, I only had the love for cinema and literature. Photographically I started in Spain and Portugal. Tenerife always encourages you to look for landscapes because of the light and the excellent national parks and mountains that it has. The climate differs greatly from north to south and that is always an incentive. As for city photography, La Laguna is a small city with a beautiful old town and universities. Which generates nightlife and city hustle and bustle. Already in Lisbon, it was the definitive shot.
As the son of a film director and nephew of a novelist, how have your familial influences shaped your artistic journey and your understanding of storytelling through imagery?
Curiously, I differ from the hackneyed theme of telling stories with images. I think that in reality, except for journalistic purposes and information of all kinds, photography has nothing to do with telling stories. It is more about a balance, a conceptual force and poetry captured by the eye of the photographer. As for cinema and literature, both have influenced but I would not dare to specify how. I only know that in my love for art everything has influenced my photographic path.
Tell us a little bit more about your book, “NOBODY”, and what inspired you to come up with this one?
Basically, it is an approach to the very common way that we all have of approaching reality these days. Anonymity is perpetual despite all the connections, in fact what catches my attention is the fact that since everything is virtual, the ignorance of the person themselves is conceptually the essence of this flow of profiles and interaction. That idea has always been around in my head as a metaphor. The text with which the book is promoted is a summary of his attempt to approach photography without any uses, only the contemplation of the proposed visual and conceptual balance in which the book is apparently about nothing but in reality it is about everyone.
Lastly, one piece of advice that you would like to give to budding and amateur photographers starting their photography journey?
I would give them a few, but the bottom line is that they should know that pressing the button is the easiest part in photography. And yes, you must read a lot, practice a lot, experiment a lot, watch the great Masters, learn to take almost all types of photos. Along the way, they will find his voice. Get away from those current thesis that the camera does not matter, that any camera is useful for everything, come to the mobile phone after knowing everything in photography and if you want to start, it is preferable to have a bridge camera that teaches you and helps you interact with real focal lengths and manual control. They will have time once they know about photography to choose what they want.
Creative Genes 