I initially got interested in photography during grad school. I always had some interest in it, often taking fun snapshots on my phone and badly editing them for instagram, but it wasn’t until 2019 that I got my hands on a “professional” camera. My Nikon D3400 was my pride and joy, as it introduced me to a new practice in taking portraits. Being completely self taught, and also being the cheapest model, I would practice my skills by taking self-portraits. From there I would develop my own artistic practice and photography style. These skills would come in handy when starting my archival journey.
My initial exposure to archival work was the process of digitizing physical objects into a gallery’s database. In this instance, the objects were postcards and personal correspondence between an artist and their partner. The process of digitization was new for me, as I was previously more familiar with working with paper and physical material, but digital photography has become more of the standard of archival work. A digital archive is not ment to replace the physicality of the material, but offer a alternative to broader access and ease of organization. One archive I worked with previously, Visual AIDS, started their archive on just images of artwork. In my work with Belén’s material, my overall goal is make the ease of access the priority. By photographing her studio objects, I believe we will be able to show the whole process and steps in her artistic practice.
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