Where are you based?I am based in a little town in the mountains of Basque Country. I hate cities, I prefer to live and work in a more nature environment.
What is your gear?I use everything that I think that it is interesting to express what I am looking and feeling. All digital cameras, two Nikon D750 with fixed 35mm lenses, a lot of batteries (to take more or less 8K pictures), a Leica M6 with a (of course) a 35mm lens, Iphone SE 2020, Hasselblad 500CM with a 80mm Carl Zeiss and a Holga. I develop and print my own black and white film in my studio. Also I have an old laptop, a pencil and a notebook. With my Leica M6 and the Iphone I can do the 99% of my work.
Is it true that more than a half of your work right now is done with Iphone?Yeah. I am not a technofobic or techno hater. But I only use the technologies that works for me. I don´t like to be used by technology. I am not a tool; the tech is my tool. So, if my Iphone is working for me, why not to use it? I even use it to scan my film taken with the Leica M6. Love the combination of both tools.
Why you don´t have Social Network?Almost all the photographers that I know think that it´s a essential tool to show your work and picture. Maybe in the beginning they were, but not know. I have a lot of reasons and I explain them in my
blog called Diaries.
Why your pictures are usually in black and white?Because I prefer black and white instead of color. I take color picture but only because magazine and newspaper prefer it. I love black and white photography.Are you the first conflict photographer in your family?No. In 2016 I discovered that I was the third member of my family that take pictures in a conflict. I did a personal project about it called "Rif diaries". I am working in the second part of this project called "Spanish Civil war family album". I also wrote about it in my blog and it appeared in many webpages.Have you got a "Media Kit"?No. But you can use all this webpage as a media kit to speak about my work. You can´t take pictures of my work to put them on your articles and are not going to speak about me. What is your best advice for a young photographer?By the cheapest camera that you can use in manual mode and also a cellphone with a good camera. No laptop, no expensive lenses. By a good pair of boots and a ticket to a place that it is interesting to you. The rest will come with effort and dedication. Why are not you using Google system?Google is changing the world, you think that it gives you more freedom but it makes you an asshole. I explain it in my blog.Why you signed the "no screen manifesto"?The answer is very simple "Life is what happens when you are not looking to a screen". I am not telling you that I am not looking to screens during the week (I am editing this text in my laptop) but I try to use them as aware as possible. I only read email once per day and always after 17:30, no social network (as you may know), and not even looking the screen on my old digital camera. How can I have news about your work?I recommend you to follow my blog in this platform and
subscribe to my newsletter where I speak about my projects and work.
Can you help me in my career as a photojournalist?Yes and no. I will not help you one to one. You can always read my blog where I write about interesting things about my work as a freelance photo reporter. With very reputed photographers I have a collective project that once a year we are giving a masterclass with Ronak Press NGO. Stay alert.How do you help people in conflict and in crisis zones?I have a social project called
Ronak Press where with other colleagues we try to show how to be a journalist, photo journalist and videographer to people who are living in war zones.