“The Sound Of Silence”, with the Fuji X-E2s

I was born in Valdivia, Chile 1990. I started with the passion for photography a few years ago. I started with a Sony H40 that I found in my house, I took a couple of basic photography courses in my city but I never took them into account since I could not configure all the parameters of the camera as I would have liked and I just took the lucky photos without knowing the theoretical part or how I had that result. 
I always wanted a reflex but I did not like the issue of the size and weight of the camera since I liked urban photography and it takes a small body to go unnoticed among people and the photo comes out naturally.

In 2009 I started to study Architecture and graphic design in 2011 but I did not finish the degree because I wanted to make my project “Ciclé” a coffee bike shop. When I started with this project I found an offer on the internet, a small Fujifilm X10. Before buying it, I read a lot about this camera to see if it would be useful for what I wanted. I bought it and I fell in love with it, it was the perfect size and it felt very good quality. At first I had very little time to get acquainted with this if I only used it to take pictures in the cafe or on some trips.

The last years I met many interesting people, among them Francisco Ríos Anderson, I arrived to fix his bicycle and a coffee. Since I entered the cafe I noticed that he had a camera similar to an analog, I asked about the camera and noticed that it was digital. In short, I fell completely in love with it, the perfect size to take it everywhere and with the option to change the optics. It was a Panasonic, I do not remember the model well but I asked everything about the camera, he said that the camera had the quality of a reflex in a compact body cause it was a mirrorless.
 I commented that I liked photography but I still could not find the camera that would accommodate me because of the weight and size, but after seeing that there are completely manual cameras in a small format I felt that I could finally enter in this world.

One night we went out with my sister and I told her that I wanted to be a professional photographer but without studying. 
 I kept investigating about this type of cameras and for my birthday I got a gift, a Sony a6000, my first mirrorless. I spent a year taking photos but I was not convinced since it really did not feel manual camera and you have to put it in the menu to be able to configure it, not like my Fuji X10 where you have a dial for each parameter.

Some time later I found a page in Chile where you could buy Fujifilm. I decided to change my Sony for a brand I already knew. I bought the X-T10 with the 18-55mm, in less than 10 minutes I adapted to the camera. 
 A few months later I changed it for an X-E2s since the body was a bit more compact and I could carry it in my pocket. Currently I’m still with the X-E2s with a 35mm f2 and a Fisheye 8mm. It is a very compact and lightweight equipment that I can take everywhere without having to go with the camera bag. The best thing is that people think that it is a analog camera and does not attract attention.

When I started I created an account on Flickr and instagram where I started uploading my work. I realized that this type of photos do not attract much attention in
 my country since they only look for perfection in the image and if it is not HDR it does not work. I was looking for the opposite, to fall in love with the imperfection of the image, sometimes using broken or dirty filters and only by hand.

For the coffee I met Camilo Arzola Chilean photographer, with him we always talked about cameras, techniques or pages. The first time he sent me a page, “Black and white Minimalism Magazine” and I was very interested in the type of photography, I selected a couple of photos from my portfolio and sent them with very little faith since only professional works were uploaded. 
 One day later they send me an email asking for one of my photos for the magazine, I was very surprised since the selected photo was taken with my compact Fujifilm X10, a neutral density filter cracked and only holding it with my hand.This motivates me a lot and confirms what all said “the camera does not make the photographer”.

A couple of months later I sent my portfolio to a Facebook page “Photographic Mercadillo” The owner of the page Zé Manel Pinheiro contact me and he said that he could upload an album of my work in his page. Thanks to this page I met many foreign photographers including Eduardo Urra Arrausi, owner of “Enebada” art gallery located in Vitoria, Spain. Who told me that he would like to exhibit my work in his gallery. My first exhibition outside the country, with this I realized that my work was more appreciated in other countries.

A couple of months later I made my first exhibition in my city at Galeria Urbana Valdivia, Chile, with the name of “The sound of silence” 
 All the photos with the same technique of blur and movement. At the same time a magazine selected another of my images for the next edition of Black and white Minimalism magazine. In September I went to Santiago, Chile and continued to send my portfolio to different magazines where they selected more images to publish.

One of the themes that I constantly photograph is the relation of the urban, capturing the movement, flows both of the city and of the people who compose it at a specific time of action in relation to the displacement between both motives. I wanted something different, to show the way I see the city, that’s why I continued to study independently. One way of being able to graph my movement in space and in the city is to always walk with my camera, since every moment is important.

To achieve this I use long exposures and a neutral density filter so that the photo does not come out overexposed. In a few words it is the mixture of a long exposure with the intentional movement of the camera. Usually take between F8 to F10 depending on what you want to show in the image, the time of 1 second or a little less depending on the light and speed of people or objects. The idea is just to focus on one person walking, I usually photograph the person who calls my attention to the group or people who walk at a different pace slower or faster than others, stand alone because of their speed. Other images are double exposure that the same camera allows you or you can do in PS combining the 2 images. The filter I use is of variable neutral density since it is easier to manipulate depending on the speed and lighting. The other part of the image is made in PS where I set the brightness, contrast and cropping of the image.


 
 The idea is to change to an X-Pro2 or the X100F. The problem of the latter is that it is not WR and for my city it is necessary because it is one of the rainiest in my country. I think the X100F would be the perfect camera with this system since the 23mm is perfect for urban photography.

This is my first project and it is called “The sound of silence” exhibited in the art gallery Enebada, Vitoria Spain and in the Urbana Valdivia Gallery Chile, Exhibition and sale in Old street gallery Ecuador, full review EYE-Photo magazine that will appear in the next edition of December and publication in Black Magazine November 2017.

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Eduardo Asenjo

Eduardo Asenjo Matus, was born in Valdivia Chile on October 5, 1990. Street photographer, former student of Architecture and Graphic Design, Fujifilm-X Chile and Tripodes.cl ambassador. The Photography love began in 2008, then I studied photography independently. At the beginning of 2017 I started my first project ‘The Sound of Silence’ black and white street photography, the idea was to show the world how I listen to the city. I have hearing problems and I wanted to show that in my work. To listen to someone I need to eliminate all the noise of other people and concentrate in one voice, representing the noise with blur and movement in the image. I share this project in social networks and is exposed in different countries such as Ecuador, Spain, India, Chile and magazines such as Black & white minimalism magazine, Eye photo magazine and Black magazine, DNG Photo Magazine, Soul of streets and Streets Magazine.

www.eduardoasenjomatus.com