Text and Images by Eduardo Asenjo Matus
Eduardo Asenjo Matus, October 5, 1990, Valdivia, Chile. A former student of Architecture, Graphic Design, and Street Photographer.
The sound of silence.
The project started in 2015 when my family gave me my first camera, a Sony a6000, I commented to my family that I wanted to be a professional photographer but I never thought I would go that far.
I always wanted to reach this result and study independently to achieve it.
Everything started with my favorite movie “El efecto mariposa”, I was very impressed by the last scene where the protagonist comes out among other people, I liked the idea of taking pictures like that but I don’t have a camera.
In 2013 I started a project “Ciclé” coffee bike shop, at the same time I started using a hearing aid for hearing problems, it cost me a lot to adapt to this. Before photography, I liked to paint but I don’t have much time and I left it. I took the camera and I try to represent my problem in the photography, how hearing affects me.
For this, I mixed two techniques to achieve representing the noise in a conversation, the long exposure with the intentional movement of the camera, something like a panning.
The main thing is to focus on one of the voices and follow that person. Some photos I take them in a movement from my bicycle. The music helped a lot in this process like the song “The sound of silence” by Disturb. I live in one of the rainiest cities in my country and it is usually very gray and depressing.
At first, I found it very difficult to reach the technique because it did not reach the “perfect” result I dreamed. After a year I achieved my first dream photo and reach the technique. Most of the images are from my city, Valdivia. The process was very difficult cause I studied independently, they are different photos and most of my friends only laughed at my movement and blur, they don’t understand the concept.
Everything changed when I met Ze Manel creator of Photographic mercadillo, a Facebook page where Ze uploads work of photographers who are starting or some with more trajectory. Thanks to this, Eduardo Urra from Vitoria, Spain contacted me, he was interested in my work and proposed to me to exhibit in his art gallery “Enebada”. This was my first exhibition outside the country. This helped me a lot to continue with my style and improve it. I started to send my work to different magazines and I got 6 more exhibitions and many publications in different magazines and pages.
To create the images, I use a Fujifilm Xe2s with a Fujinon 35mm f2 with a variable neutral density filter. (I take the photos directly in black and white) In the city I have my favorite spots where I can spend a day waiting for the moment and the perfect person, I usually use an opening between 8 and 11 depending on the time of day and what I want to focus on the image, exposure time ranges between 1 and 30 seconds, I use the neutral density filter to compensate for the light cause it is impossible to take a photo with a slightly slower exposure during the day. The movement is in the hand and takes a long time to control it but with practice, everything can be done. In the city Its very hard to listen the people, I try to eliminate all the noise but it is still confusing, that is why some images are not well focused on the person I try to listen, for this, I focus a little bit further on the person.
in most of the photos, I don’t use a tripod, I only use it when I need expositions with more than 30 seconds for landscapes.
I have future projects with a couple of photographers friends like Rene Stuardo and Carla de la Fuente, I am working on portraits with the same technique, also to mix techniques with others photographers to assemble exhibitions in my country. Now I go to all the marches to show another point of view of these. At this moment I am creating my website cause I only use Facebook, Flickr, and Instagram to share my work.
The idea is to reach more people with the same taste for photography and one day travel and work in a magazine related to design or photography.
Now it is much easier to share photos, with social networks you can reach many parts of the world without leaving your country. It is always good to share experiences with different photographers and receive advice from those who have more experience. Another important thing is not to accept negative comments about your work when you are starting cause the only thing that will happen is confusing you and you will not know if you are well focused.
I never imagined that I can publish or exhibit in other countries, thanks to photography I got many friends in different countries like Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Argentina, Ecuador, Portugal, USA, etc.
See the complete series on Flickr
