Today we’d like to introduce you to Uriel Carrillo.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born in the city of Tijuana, although most of my life, if not all, I have traveled on both sides of the border and its nearby areas. I’ve been living here for 25 years, but my history with photography doesn’t have the same time. While my grandfather was an amateur photographer, I never seemed to have the interest and it was not until entering the university in the race of “Communication Sciences”, where I got interested in taking a camera in a very empirical to get out to photograph everything around me in daily life.
My first interest in photography stemmed from cinema, art and everything I had seen before entering a more official form of street photography. It was all these visual influences that I grew up with, science fiction cinema, a little bit of Edward Hopper’s art, maybe there was a little bit of photography’s influence, but in a more general sense, as with the work of some photographers at National Geographic, some Mexican photojournalists and some of the most renowned photographers like Alex Webb.
It was in the middle of the degree where I discovered the so-called “street photography”, although in a very general way it was something that sparked my interest to focus on this type of photography and practice it more. In the beginning, the nightlife of the city was what attracted the most attention. Spaces and people that unfold in various points of the city, neon signs that lit the dark streets, were my first steps in street photography.
With time I had started to read on border studies and I began to notice that Tijuana was a city very peculiar, and apparently has always been under the attention of many photographers, both because of the generality of the city as by the events that have been presented; as the flow of migratión, the multiculturalism, the border wall, and by everything that is already known.
After that, I started to be very interested in the people who live and work in this city, because I believe that the stories from these people can tell the daily life where I live and also what a lot of tijuanenses.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have been some struggles, especially because of the insecurity that people live in the city. It is not very common for a stranger to ask you for a photo, even when the city is very touristy it is sometimes an uncomfortable situation to approach to ask for a photo or just for the fact of bringing a camera in your hands puts you in a focus in which it makes people avoid being around you. But over time I’ve learned a little bit about getting close to people, building some kind of trust, and that’s helped me a little bit.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I´m a photographer, I do specialize o prefer street photography, and everything I photograph is in Tijuana, I find this city so interesting; the colors, the people, the situations, the culture and everything that surrounds it.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Pricing:
- Framing is like $20 to $40 bucks
Contact Info:
- Email: ucarrillom92@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ojos__cansados/?hl=es-la
Image Credits
Serie de fotografías de una Tijuana, (2019-2022)
