To explore the latent possibilities that shimmer just below the veneer of ordinary perception
Introduction
While the movies grew out of the technical processes of photography and the narrative forms of theatre, they have evolved to become something distinct with their own visual syntax and sensibility. The cinematic has a sweep to it that fuses spectacle and intimacy, shared experience and private emotion. In the latter part of last century, when artists such as Gregory Crewdson, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, and Cindy Sherman began to harness the language of cinema in their still imagery, it set their images in a fresh context that suggested a quite different way of reading them. They spoke of something beyond what could be seen, leading the imagination to build a narrative backstory or speculative denouement.
It is this quality that the Puerto Rican artist Larry Gonzalez evokes in his scenes of the Latin American night. A professional cinematographer and a photographer, he understands the language of both mediums, blending them to create nocturnal imagery pregnant with narrative potential. The people in his images become characters whose story seems to be fleetingly suspended, a moment of contemplation or indecision, of apprehension or regret. One can feel the listless undercurrent, the sultry night air inducing a melancholy torpor spiked with a shot of latent danger… like the build-up before a storm.
It is this skill with atmosphere that marks out Larry Gonzalez’s imagery. His images do not simply harness atmosphere as context but as the material of storytelling itself. Like the faint aroma that triggers a memory one though forgotten, his images wrap around the imagination, beguiling our eyes in an act of complicit involution.
Alasdair Foster
Interview
Although you have travelled widely in the Americas, you speak of the importance of your native Puerto Rico in shaping your work. What are the particular qualities that you draw on creatively?
All my work is deeply rooted in memory. My work in Puerto Rico has a particularly intimate significance because of its connection to my early life. I spent most of my childhood in a rural town where the two most distinctive sounds were the bell calling you to church and the bell that announced a movie would soon begin at the local cinema. That little movie theatre was my window onto the world. It was in that darkness flooded with images and stories that my creative mind began to flourish.
I grew up with three women: my mother, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother. They all worked, which meant that there was nobody to look after me during the day. Built in the early 1930s, our wooden house was old and dilapidated. This environment contributed to a very imaginative and creative childhood, but also a very lonely one. Being an only child, I lived a lot in my head constructing imaginary narratives and characters. My grandmother nurtured that imagination further by telling me stories of the spirit world and of family histories.
[Left] © Larry Gonzalez ‘Muerte #12’ 1997 from the series ‘Muerte de Papel’
[Right] © Larry Gonzalez ‘Muerte #22’ 1997 from the series ‘Muerte de Papel’
Tell me about the series called ‘Muerte de Papel’ [paper death].
In 2001, I did a one-year stint as a photojournalist for a newspaper in Puerto Rico. My assignment was to cover violent crimes in the southern part of the island. The majority of these were murders associated with gang and organised-crime activities, but it also included crimes of passion and accidental deaths. The job required me to be on call 24/7. As a result, I developed a serious sleeping disorder and a nasty little self-medicating habit just in order to cope with the violence that I witnessed. By the time I left the paper, I had produced a significant number of these crime photographs. I began combining those newsprint images with my photographs of landscapes, creating collages that I would then re-photograph.
How did the project evolve?
I had wanted to reconnect with the medium in a more artisanal way. At that time, I had begun to lose touch with photography as a vehicle for self-expression. Witnessing the violence on the island forced me to re-examine my perspective and relationship to the human and geographical landscape of Puerto Rico. There are times in an artist’s evolution when you go through periods of confusion and need to re-adjust. And for me, photography has always been an instrument of reinvention and redemption. Working on this group of photographs re-kindled my love for the photographic process at its most intimate level.
[Left] © Larry Gonzalez ‘Migdalia’ 2019 from the series ‘Nocturnal Portraits’
[Right] © Larry Gonzalez ‘Cool Raul’ 2018 from the series ‘Nocturnal Portraits’
Your more recent work is all shot at night. What is it draws you to the nocturnal?
The night is a period of introspection, contemplation, quietude. Distractions are minimised, allowing for a deeper connection with one’s thoughts, emotions, and surroundings. The night transforms. Spaces that seem mundane by day become something more like a theatrical set in the light of the streetlamps. To me this seems magical. A fresh lens through which to perceive the world around me in a more intense way.
Meanwhile, I moved from analogue to digital, which gave me the freedom to experiment with low ISO exposures, colour, and a faster lens. Digital is an incredibly forgiving technology when mixing colour temperatures. And one of the benefits of also working as a cinematographer is the way it helped me develop a better understanding the importance of colour and its relation to character and narrative. While this involved many new ways of working, one of the technical consistencies throughout my career has been focal length. I have used the same lens in all my work for the past twenty-five years.
How did the ‘Nocturnal Portraits’ series begin?
Organically. My initial focus had rested on the enigmatic allure of night-time landscapes and urban spaces – exploring the interplay of colour, light, and shadow. However, a serendipitous encounter with a homeless man gently pushing a grocery cart along a dimly lit street proved transformative. The convergence of ambiance and character conspired to elevate what could have been a transient moment into an emotionally charged experience.
I evolved this initial idea to encompass both strangers and familiar faces seen within ambiently illuminated nocturnal environments. This trajectory reached a pivotal juncture during my first professional experience as a cinematographer in Argentina. During a month-long shoot, I found myself immersed in the interiors of antiquated colonial homes. It set the stage for a breakthrough, informing the spatial compositions and lighting configurations through which I crafted nocturnal portraits of those intimately linked to the production of the film.
[Left] © Larry Gonzalez ‘Salvador’ 2018 from the series ‘Nocturnal Portraits’
[Right] © Larry Gonzalez ‘Stephy’ 2018 from the series ‘Nocturnal Portraits’
One indelible memory etched in my mind is that of a child seated at the edge of a bed, bathed in a soft blue radiance. What began in Argentina continued upon my return to Puerto Rico where I embraced these cinematic lighting techniques in my portrait compositions.
In ‘El Espacio que Habito’ [the space I live in] you extend the field of view, situating the individual within a specific environment.
As I ventured through the southern and western landscapes of Puerto Rica, a profound shift began to unfold. For me, these terrains held a tapestry of personal memories, each thread intricately woven into significant life events, urging me to reinterpret the past through the prism of metaphorical narratives. To breathe life into these narratives, I embraced collaboration, enlisting the participation of friends and actors who would step into roles as avatars of my own self.
These collaborative interactions flourished into immersive conversations with my subjects that brushed against the canvas of my own history, distilling those resonant moments to their photographic essence. In this way, I found myself donning the mantle of cinematic auteur, crafting visual tales that resonated not just with my own journey, but with a broader human experience.
Can you give an example?
Throughout my photographic journey, it’s the juxtaposition of adversity and creativity that has set the stage for my images. Take, for instance, the photograph titled ‘Ana y Flores’ [Ana and flowers]. Ana is caught in the act of spilling her flowers, but was this an accident or intentional? What thoughts pass in her mind as she regards the scattered blooms? The image is enigmatic, yet, amid the uncertain darkness, her road is briefly illuminated by the rare and powerful light of hope. For me, the flowers serve as a metaphor for my photographic vision, something I had once carelessly neglected. Each time I revisit this image, it reminds me of the way in which the most challenging and equivocal events in my life contain within them the potential for redemption. If we remain resilient, we have an innate capacity to transform chaos into the foundation for future endeavours. To bring forth beauty from the unpredictable.
[Left] © Larry Gonzalez ‘Field of Dreams’ 2019 from the series ‘El Espacio que Habito’
[Right] © Larry Gonzalez ‘Ana y Flores’ 2020 from the series ‘El Espacio que Habito’
Then again, in ‘Field of Dreams’, I added another layer of allegorical depth that resonates through my work reaching back to my grandmother, a spiritual diviner and clairvoyant. Fireflies weave luminescent trails through the approaching darkness, becoming emissaries of wisdom, beacons of hope, and guides through obscurity. A guidance that spans the realms of uncertainty, offering profound insight along our journey.
These visual narratives pay homage to the trio of women who moulded my childhood – the women who wove their influence into the fabric of my memory. They are integral to my creative genesis, and these images stand as a tribute to their enduring inspiration.
The final series I would like to discuss is ‘Sur: A Journey Through Intangible Landscapes’.
This is a work in progress. It was inspired by my experience collaborating on a film about the victims of the military dictatorship in Argentina. I felt compelled to return there to begin work on a project that drew its inspiration from the enduring imprint left by the political era of the seventies and eighties, both psychologically and on the landscape
[Left] © Larry Gonzalez ‘Cruces’ 2023 from the series ‘Sur’
[Right] © Larry Gonzalez ‘Ilya’ 2023 from the series ‘Sur’
Building on ‘El Espacio que Habito’, ‘Sur’ represents a metaphorical journey, interpreting my personal connection with the city of Rosario and other places in Argentina. Through collaboration with local people and communities, their personal stories and shared reflections became an integral part of the project, adding depth and authenticity. For example, in this photograph [above left], a woman’s pilgrimage to a shrine assumes the form of a reimagined portrayal – a mother visiting a mass grave. This is a direct allusion to the powerful Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo movement, in which I seek to encapsulate a narrative of mourning and resilience within a single image.
There is a pervasive air of solitude and anticipatory tension threading through many of the images in ‘Sur’. In the photograph titled ‘Ilya’, a scene unfolds in which a partially unclothed man feeds a red-eyed crow. Within this frame, nakedness emerges as a symbol of fragility and susceptibility, poised before the inexorable spectre of death embodied by the crow. But this imagery extends beyond mere symbolism; it’s a commentary on humanity’s perpetual struggle to wield control over its destiny. In its construction, it reflects my growing interest in the art of layering multiple strata of meaning within a single image.
Some of these images also look with a more contemporary focus. I am thinking, for example, of the panoramic photograph of the man seated in a paddling pool situated on a rooftop…
A notable facet of the social tapestry woven by the people of Rosario is their tendency to convene upon rooftops. This distinctive perspective connects them with their environment while preserving an element of privacy. Through this image of a man contemplating his existential place within the urban expanse I wanted to capture a sense of unity, suggesting a shared identity within the wider fabric of the city.
As I say, this is a work in progress and these are the initial fragments of my Argentine odyssey. In each photograph I want to capture a moment, a narrative, or a perspective that reflects the complex mosaic of experiences and emotions bound to Argentina that contribute to this collective memory.
What, for you, are the underlying themes that underpin these three nocturnal series?
My primary interest lies in crafting a narrative that resonates through a robust aesthetic experience. As the complexity of the concepts and themes within my work deepens, I’m driven to be meticulous in my technical execution, leveraging the fullest potential from the resources I have available. Looking back, I can recognise a gradual process of evolution, both in terms of the complexity of the images and their thematic diversity. This has enabled me to achieve more universal observations that possess the capacity to engage a broader audience. An audience that spans geographical boundaries and reaches out beyond Latin America.
[Left] © Larry Gonzalez ‘Daniela’ 2023 from the series ‘Sur’
[Right] © Larry Gonzalez ‘Hotel Murphy’ 2023 from the series ‘Sur’
What excites me most are the boundless creative possibilities that lie ahead. It’s this creative anticipation that propels me forward, urging me to explore the latent possibilities that shimmer just below the veneer of ordinary perception. It’s a quest for the unseen and the unexplored that beckons, guiding me along a path of continuous discovery and innovation.
In making this work, what have you learned about yourself that you did not previously know or understand?
It has been a journey that has rekindled my appreciation for collaboration. I’ve discovered a profound truth: that the insights and contributions of fellow artists serve as indispensable catalysts in one’s own creative evolution. This realisation has revealed the self-imposed boundaries that once hindered my growth. I’ve matured artistically in ways I could not have foreseen a decade ago, transcending my previous limitations.
In turn, this has revitalised my faith in my individual creative process. Amid the flux of life’s uncertainties, photography remains my steadfast companion, an unwavering source of redemption. Through my engagement with a diversity of cultures, I have come to understand the virtue of humility and interconnection. It has nurtured within me a more profound understanding of what it means to be a storyteller.
Biographical Notes
Larry Gonzalez was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1962. He holds a bachelor’s degree in fine art from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston (1992), and a master’s degree, also in fine art, from Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT (1996). Since 2015, he has been Adjunct Professor of Photography at Sacred Heart University, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and in 2018 he was also Adjunct Professor at the College of the Sequoias, San José, Costa Rica. He has undertaken a number of documentary and humanitarian projects in Dominican Republic and El Salvador, and taught literacy through photography at public schools in New York city. He currently works as a fine-art photographer and documentary cinematographer.
The photographs of Larry Gonzalez have featured in twenty solo and group exhibitions in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, France, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the USA. He has won several awards including a JGS Fellowship for Photography in 2023. He has published two monographs: ‘Tiempo Muerto’ (2006) and ‘The Secret Life of Stick Figures’ (2012).
Photo: Bill Mead
This interview is a Talking Pictures original.