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Alejandro Maestre is a passionate photographer, digital film producer, and teacher. He majored in photography at the University of Cataluna and studied Imaging Science at the university of Alcala de Henares. Maestre has over fifteen years of professional experience. He has taught courses in photography, digital post-production, and prepress at CITM UPC, the Center for Advanced Technologies of Zaragoza (CTA), GrisArt, IDEP, and CEV. Maestre also worked as a professional photographer at various companies such as Contrapunto and BBDO.
I came across this series of portrait photographs El Hombre Que se Crea. Retrato A Julian Canovas (Man is Created. A Portrait of Julian Canovas.) when I was investigating mud art. Over the past couple of days, Erin and have been planning collaboration project. We plan to ask students to bring in dirt from where they live. We will film them making the mud and then ask the participant to paint the mud on their face in a way they think would enhance their appearance. Because the participants will not have a mirror to look into when plastering their faces with mud--they will have to rely on the internal image of self. This whole process/experiment will be documented with video or time lapse technology, and we expect interesting results!
That said, I was thrilled to find this series that uses mud to externalize an internal journey. When I did more research into the piece, I learned that Julian is not only a fellow artist but also a close friend of Alejandro. Julian approached Alejandro about portrait project that could represent his creative capacity and his attempt to understand his own body and spirit. Alejandro admires Julian’s work and passion for his art, film, and writing, and produced this work to illustrate the emotional struggle of the creator as he shapes and discovers himself in his creating. I really love that Maestre edited out all of the figure except what was covered in mud. The negative space and dynamic compositions really make each piece unique powerful and provocative.
I came across this series of portrait photographs El Hombre Que se Crea. Retrato A Julian Canovas (Man is Created. A Portrait of Julian Canovas.) when I was investigating mud art. Over the past couple of days, Erin and have been planning collaboration project. We plan to ask students to bring in dirt from where they live. We will film them making the mud and then ask the participant to paint the mud on their face in a way they think would enhance their appearance. Because the participants will not have a mirror to look into when plastering their faces with mud--they will have to rely on the internal image of self. This whole process/experiment will be documented with video or time lapse technology, and we expect interesting results!
That said, I was thrilled to find this series that uses mud to externalize an internal journey. When I did more research into the piece, I learned that Julian is not only a fellow artist but also a close friend of Alejandro. Julian approached Alejandro about portrait project that could represent his creative capacity and his attempt to understand his own body and spirit. Alejandro admires Julian’s work and passion for his art, film, and writing, and produced this work to illustrate the emotional struggle of the creator as he shapes and discovers himself in his creating. I really love that Maestre edited out all of the figure except what was covered in mud. The negative space and dynamic compositions really make each piece unique powerful and provocative.
