by Head Editor Yvette Depaepe in collaboration with Joe Cancilla

Camera in hand, guided by his intuition, walking the streets, observing, reacting and creating:  
that's Cristóbal Carretero Cassinello 

 
'The kiss. Dialogues'

 
Hello Cristóbal, thank you for accepting that we will now get to know you much better!
As a look at your bio, something strikes me. There is a before 2017 and an after 2017. You have a mind divided between business administration, economics, web and graphic designer and photographer! Lets begin with before 2017, who were you and where are you coming from?

First of all, I would like to thank 1X for the opportunity you give me to show my photographic work to the entire community and to be able to tell you about the intention that I have when developing my photographic work.  I was born in Ferro (La Coruña) in 1976. I have lived in Almería (Spain), "The city of light" for more than 30 years. I am an economics professor, photographer and graphic designer. I have a diploma in Business Administration from the UAL and a Bachelor of Business Administration and Management (ADE) from the UMH.

'Yin & Yan. Dialogues'

'The Monk'

'You'

From 2017 onwards, you have received numerous photo awards and have been published in some wonderful magazines.  I read, as I was searching your story, that you are a self-taught photographer since 2017. So,this is all very recent.
What happened, one day you woke up and said to yourself I will buy a camera and become a street photographer!?

The truth is that all this recognition makes you feel very good with the satisfaction of a work well done. If there is something beautiful and interesting in photography, it is its quality as a universal language, it is that you can reach the minds of all people equally, without language barriers, something fantastic that fills you with satisfaction.

It is great to see all the acceptance of my work nationally and internationally in different media, such as photography and cultural magazines, specialized websites, international photography, international competitions, press and television. In Spain my work "On the edge of the real" was broadcast on LA 2 | TVE (main Spanish television channel) in February 2021, EL PAÍS newspaper (most important newspaper in Spain) published an exhibition of my work "Dialogues" in July 2021 and I was selected in Discoveries Photoespaña 2020.

At an international level I have been fortunate to exhibit in different countries of the world, highlighting International Photography Centres such as the Portuguese Centre of Photography. Port. 2018 (PR),
Los Angeles Centre of Photography (LA). 2021 and at the New York Art Centre (New York). 2020.

During my career as a photographer I have been awarded in different international photography competitions such as the prestigious Magnum Photography Awards 2017 (USA) of the Magnum Photos Agency, selected up to 11 times in the Lensculture Awards (USA) in different modalities and I have published in online editions from the magazines: Street Photography Magazine (USA), Vogue (Italy), and National Geographic (USA).

 
Happy wake up!
All the important decisions that one makes in life usually have an important reason behind them, before being an economics professor, I worked for more than 20 years in the advertising sector as a creative designing campaigns at a national and international level. For this reason I did not want to abandon the raw material with which we designers work: "the image", "the irony", "the composition", "the balance", "the colour", "the perspective" and I decided to overturn all this creative experience in my camera, in order to portray the way of seeing the world and finding my own photographic style.

'Black angel.  Dialogues.'

'The shipwreck'

'The shower'

Why is your shadow in several of your photos?
Are you a witness or an actor of the scene captured?
For me the shadow is part of the identity of a subject, a projection of the soul and the personality that in its interaction with the living environment, provides us with intriguing readings about the human condition itself, returning to the observer a renewed, sincere and anthropological vision of the world. From this point of view, I participate as an actor and observer in some of my projects. See projects like "Teleport", "Metamorphosis", The invisible man "or" No places ".

'Metamorphosis'

'Metamorphosis'

'Teleport'

 
I see several of your images including two very different photos side by side, sometimes even three. Why do you do this? Storytelling? You like the design it creates? Is this your graphic design background or are you making another statement?
I think that the path of the new photography goes hand in hand with innovation when it comes to telling stories crossing the limits of the image, in a continuous stage of reflection and search for connections between photographs, which give us a new reinterpretation of our environment .

"There are other worlds but they are in this one". Paul Éluard.

In this sense, I use the creation of diptychs, as a valuable tool to go beyond the conventional reading of images as a unit, in this way, I articulate a set of apparently disjointed images that dialogue with each other and that together reach a new dimension. evocative and expressive about a story that I have previously conceptualized in the project. In this way, I develop bodies of work with solid conceptual narratives that give coherence and strength to the images of the works. See projects such as "Dialogues", Positrónicos, "Teleport", "Cosmovisiones" or "Surrealist Analogies".

'Barrio Plaza de toros. Dialogues.'

'Memories of Africa. Dialogues.'

'Minimal Almería'

     
What kind of street photographer are you? Spontaneous? Staged? A mix of both?
I see a few photos that seem well thought out.
I also see a photo in which I think you noticed the potential for a great shot, placed yourself there and waited for it to happen?
As a street photographer, I always like to look for the spontaneity of the moment in photography, applying different techniques such as visual trompe l'oeil, perspective effects, superposition and understanding of planes, which in many cases end in surreal juxtapositions that lead the viewer to question how they observe the reality of things. On other occasions I imagine the scene before it happens, having a series of elements already fixed in the viewer, like a waiting game, in which skill and patience are essential to solve an image.

'Babel'

'Revolution'

'The cone man'

In several of your photos, you have captured peoples backs, without showing their faces. I have done street photography myself and sometimes I worry about not having the authorization to publish faces without their official written permission. It can be a major legal issue is some countries. Is this why you do this? But you managed to make those hidden faces images very artistic and creative.  Please explain it to us?
From my point of view you cannot limit your work to a legal restriction when shooting, you have to let yourself be carried away by the moment, regardless of the subject's position, after shooting and capturing the essence of the moment, you can ask for approval of the person. The portrait from the back tends to have a more artistic component due to the powerful interaction of the subject with the environment, since it returns to the observer different readings of the same image that sometimes makes them more suggestive.

'Beyond the mirror'

'The abyss'

'The Oracle'

 
If I walk the streets and see cigarette butts and ice cream on the pavement, I say YUK and move on....you take out your camera and snap a photo... Why?
Of course, and why not?
I think that the intentionality of a photographer is decisive at the time of the photographic act, it is very valuable to photograph what is important to you, what catches your attention, there is always an unconscious reason in the shot, when you frame that ice cream or that object you are giving your focus and a value to the object that can transcend an evocative, poetic story or be a key context photograph in a photographic series.

'God's shower'

'Summer 2021'

'Popart'

 
In conclusion, will you always remain a street photographer?
Without a doubt, for me it is a way of looking at the world, being and being in it.
As a photographer I have learned to know myself more and see the world from the inside out, cultivating the look as a form of expression. I understand photography as a catalyst of emotions that allows us to interpret our own reality and helps us to understand through its own visual and narrative language the identity of human beings and their interaction with the world that surrounds them.

 
Any interests in other types of photography?
Yes, as an author I develop conceptual photographic projects applying a melting pot of photographic styles; minimalism, street photography and conceptual photography, seeking a new vision of evocative stories of our existence, taking photography to its limit by juxtaposing fiction and reality. On my website you can see different projects that I have developed during the last 4 years.

www.cccassinello.com

Thank you!

'Cabo de gata. Almería. Dialogues'

'Minimal Almería. Dialogues'

'Life & Death. Dialogues.'

'Silent'

'Dialogues'