Flickr Showcase: David Velez

David Velez, a sound composer/artist turned photographer caught the eye of Dazed Digital as part of Dazed's Flickr New Photographer Search.

Dazed Digital: What's your background as a photographer?
David Velez: Since I was a kid I have always been fascinated by images, I started to draw at a a very young age and was a big fan of Belgian comics Tintin. Later I became a huge fan of films mainly of directors such as Woody Alllen and Werner Herzog. I went to college to study advertising with emphasis on graphic design (which is what I do for a living) and later I went to film-school: both fields have strongly influenced my approach to photography. Finally around 2006 my girlfriend at the time happened to be a photographer and we started to take photos together and this is how my interest on photography finally developed into actual photos. Later I bought a camera of my own and ever since I have been taking pictures regularly and uploading them to my websites.

DD: How do you find the locations for your outdoor shots? What do you look for?
DV: I usually go everywhere with my camera looking around for interesting objects and situations to shoot. Sometimes when I travel I try to go to places like natural parks, buildings and in general places where I feel I could find interesting stuff. I look for details and short moments where a larger truth is revealed.

DD: What equipment/film do you use? 
DV: I prefer to keep that information for myself, I feel it is not about what you use but how you use it and the result you obtain.

DD: Are you inspired by any particular films? Art? Literature?
DV: I find big inspiration on certain painting styles such as mannerism (El Greco) and hyperrealism (Chuck Close).

Film clearly has an enormous influence over my work; the work of directors such as Luis Buñuel, Alejandro Jodorowski, Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkowski, Woody Allen, Werner Herzog and Harmony Korine has an enormous impact on my perception of images. Some people say that many of my photos look like stills from a movie which I find quite interesting as the person who is looking at the photo could create a movie on his own mind based on one single frame.

Even though some people know me for my photos I am actually a sound artist, and I believe sound itself is visually very influential for me. I do a lot of field recordings and the process of recording those sounds and taking photos are quite similar; sometimes I go to places and explore them both visually and sonically.

The music of people like Joy Division, Minor Threat, Slayer, New Order, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, John Fahey, Rameses III, Ludwing van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Sergei Prokofiev, Gustav Mahler, Morton Feldman, Arvo Part, Talk Talk, Brian Eno, Genesis (with Peter Gabriel), Biosphere, Fennesz, Phill Niblock and more recenly Richard Garet, Juan Jose Calarco, Seth Nehil, Seth Cluett, Jgrzinich, Pablo Reche and Christopher McFall, not only influenced my sound work but my photographic work as well.

DD: What about other photographers?
DV: I would point out the photographic work of british design studio Hipgnosis (Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and Peter Christopherson) as one of my biggest influences when it comes to photography. Hipgnosis did cover arts for some of the most important bands on the UK between the 1970's and the 1980's.

I am a big fan of he work of people such as Silvia Von Grafenstein, Mando, Jens M Windolf and Christian Brunnström; their work is extremely professional but has the spirit, attitude and motif of amateur photography. Amateur photography is clearly my biggest influence.

DD: Where would you most like to shoot next?
DV: I would love to shoot on India, Mexico, Russia, Korea and Brazil, countries that are supposed to be the next superpowers in he world. I would also love to take photos of Bogota, Colombia (where I am from) as by the time I lived there I wasn't into photography at all so I want to capture many images that remain vivid in my memory; I bought my first camera when I already moved to NY.