English
DeutschEquipped with the new Leica SL2, Alvaro Ybarra photographed women hunting for shellfish in Galicia, Spain. Between cliffs and ocean, the women are subject to the harsh and unpredictable conditions of the Atlantic. Both Ybarra’s pictures and words confirm how well the SL2 performs during such an extreme undertaking.
Photographing Galician women is completely different to your war and crisis reportage photography – what led you to produce these photos?
The Galicia project began with an editorial proposal from a magazine, that suggested I present a project on Leadership for it. When the magazine came up with the idea, the first thing I thought about was my mother, and the leadership she always demonstrated throughout her life until her death. In that sense I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity this magazine was offering me, to photograph an example of the leadership role that millions of women in my country take on, and which unfortunately has not been given the recognition it deserves. Among all examples of leadership, an especially significant case is that of Galician women within the shellfish industry. I’m still working on it and I’m sure it will end up being one of the projects that will mark me the most throughout my life – as a person and as a photographer.
Could you describe the difference between these two photography genres? How is your personal approach changing?
I honestly always work the same way. I don’t change the way I work depending on the project I’m working on. What does obviously change between projects is the context. It’s true that most of my career as a photographer has focused on work of a more documentary nature, and specifically more on issues related to armed conflict; but I have never catalogued myself as such. That said, the project on women in the seafood industry in Galicia is very emotional on a personal level, like many others that I have had the opportunity to photograph during my career; however this project doesn’t have that negative emotional weight that many other of my projects have.
Does a project like this help you get back to “normal”, to restore your belief in human beings?
I’ve always considered myself a normal person, and I consider photography something very personal that responds to individual decisions that each person makes, like any other decision in life. What each photographer wants to photograph is a personal decision. In that sense, I’ve always tried to be very consistent with my photography and assume the consequences derived from those decisions. On a personal level, the project on women in the seafood industry in Galicia is helping me regain my faith in humanity. It seems that human beings have taken the firm decision to destroy everything they love, such as life itself, and the truth is that this project is helping me recover some peace of mind and faith in ourselves as human beings. For me these women are an example of overcoming the odds, and I will be eternally grateful to them for letting me photograph them and meet them.
How is the women’s working situation, and how did you adapt your way of photographing? Please explain about the conditions, such as humidity, lighting, etc.
These women work under very hard conditions. The sea is always unpredictable, and they go into the sea to work every day – regardless of the weather conditions.
As a photographer, you have to adapt to the whims of the sea and the weather. Here you work on foot, you go into the sea and need to be aware of the tides of as well as the currents. You are usually submerged up to the chest, more or less, and the sea water splashes the camera and the lenses. This implies that you spend a lot of time cleaning the lenses. In order to work like this, you need to work with equipment that can withstand the very harsh conditions of humidity, rain and seawater. All this without mentioning the reflections of light on water, and the continuous changes of lighting – be it night or day. The times you work at night are the most complicated. As a photographer you get used to working in waters that are usually very cold; but this is how these women work every day. They are incredible.
How did the Leica SL2 perform?
The Leica SL2 has been a real discovery. It’s an amazing camera. I’ve spent 90% of my career working with the M system and the Q system, but I have to recognize that I have fallen in love with the SL2. It’s a camera that becomes part of your body. You forget that you’re looking through a camera, you forget that you have a camera in your hands, and it allows you to focus on the most important thing – taking pictures.
I say this because it is an ergonomically perfect camera. I’ve never had a camera in my hands that conveys the sensations the SL2 conveys to me. In addition, the electronic viewfinder is brutal: it has such quality that you think you’re looking through an optical viewfinder. It’s also an indestructible camera. I sank with it and it continued to function as if nothing had happened. It’s a camera that will undoubtedly become legendary in the history of Leica.
What are the advantages of this camera type?
In addition to everything I said before, as well as its more than obvious image quality, which is superb and more typical of a medium format camera, the SL2 has many advantages that make it a unique camera. On the one hand, its simplicity: it’s uncomplicated and intuitive in both design and interface. If you already work with a Q or M system, you’ll immediately feel very comfortable with the SL2’s interface and the menus, because they are very similar. On the other hand, it’s a camera that can be configured, until it pretty much becomes a camera tailored to the needs of each photographer. This is fundamental, because each photographer works in a unique way, and with the SL2 it’s the camera that adapts to the photographer and not the photographer to the camera. What’s more, we’re talking about two cameras in one body. A unique photography camera, on the one hand, and a professional camera for the film industry, on the other. It’s not a camera that records video, it’s a camera that films in cinema format. This offers you two spectacular tools in one single body. In my case, I work at times as a cinematographer and I’m entering the film industry, little by little: the SL2 offers me a quality and characteristics that did not exist previously on the market.
And finally, the camera connectivity, which is very important for my work protocols. With the new 2.0 version of the app Leica FOTOS and the SL2, I can edit and send work to my editors in a way that exponentially simplifies my work protocols. Now I can view, edit and send my work, in professional quality, from any corner of the world.
Why would you recommend it? What kind of photography would you recommend it for?
Without a doubt, it’s a camera I can recommend to any professional photographer and film-maker, as well as any photography lover. You can work with it with all your M lenses, the new SL lenses, the S lenses, the R lenses… so, counting the L-mount lenses as well, we’re talking about a camera compatible with more than 170 Leica lenses; plus L-mount lenses not produced by Leica.
As I said before, because of its ability to be configurable, it’s a camera that adapts to the needs of any photographer, therefore it’s a camera that works perfectly for any type of photography: documentary, nature, fashion, portraits, landscapes, weddings, children; it’s a very versatile camera.
At the same time, it’s a very simple and intuitive camera, which any photography lover – even though not dedicated to professional photography – can enjoy, turning the SL2 into a great companion for any experiences, memories, moments or trips.
Which lenses did you use und why? How did it work out for you?
I had the opportunity to work with several lenses during this project. A number of them are part of the SL system, which, without a doubt, has spectacular lenses with incomparable image quality. I refer to the APO-Summicron-SL 35 f/2 ASPH and Super-Vario-Elmar-SL 16–35 f/3,5–4,5 ASPH. That said, it’s true that I photographed most of the project with the Noctilux-M 50mm f / 0.95 ASPH, definitely the lens I feel most comfortable with. I consider the Noctilux-M 50mm f / 0.95 ASPH the perfect lens: it exceeds the perceptions of the human eye and works perfectly with the SL2. Using this lens on the SL2, you can reach a level of precision that allows you to work in situations of movement with an aperture of f / 0.95, without losing any precision in the focus on any photograph. It is brutal. From my point of view, the versatility offered by the SL2 with its lens compatibility, makes it a very complete camera.
Alvaro Ybarra is a documentary photographer, film-maker and storyteller who has worked in over 40 countries on key assignments for TIME magazine, the New York Times, Le Monde, Libération, Newsweek, the Sunday Times Magazine, CNN, Vanity Fair, XLSEMANAL, and many others. Born in Spain in 1979, he took up a career in photography while at university, joining the Agence Vu in 2005, and the Reportage by Getty Images roster in 2009.
He has published five books, including Macondo, memories of the Colombian Conflict (2017), Apocalypse (2010), and Children of sorrow (2006). His work has been exhibited internationally, and he has received numerous awards, including the Over Seas Press Club, the Alexia Foundation Jury Special Prize, the World Press Photo JSMC, the Getty Grant for Editorial Photography, and a Photo of the Year.
At present he is head of the Leica Gallery Madrid and the Leica Akademie Iberia.
Find out more about the photography of Alvaro Ybarra on his Website.
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