Images of Latin America: The Street Photography of Federico Alegría

"I'm convinced that Photography is
the most universal means of communication worldwide."
 --Federico Alegria

When I first got involved with social media I found it fascinating how accessible people and artists from other cultures were. It must have been 2008 that I first embraced Twitter and began interacting with, and interviewing, artists from various countries around the world. Eventually I discovered the richness of our own community here in the Northland, but I've never tired of exploring abroad. 

More recently, through Quora and later Medium, I had a renewed awakening to new people and new ideas. Federico Alegría is one of these, a photographer who shares work on Unsplash.com and who is active on Medium. His website is a window to another world. I immediately fell in love with the evocative imagery and power in his work, and wanted to share it here. (To best appreciate, click photos to enlarge.)

EN: How did you come to take up photography as an avocation?

Federico Alegría: It all started as a creative need in my life after picking up writing as my creative discipline. After a while writing, I still needed something visual, and that's how photography came to my life in 2009. After learning the basics of exposure and composition, the practice began. I stumbled into street photography in 2010 during a field trip, and the passion towards people and social topics hasn't stopped since then.

EN: You seem drawn to photography featuring people. What do you look for when choosing who to photograph?

FA: Nowadays I like to isolate subjects within their context in order to capture the moment as clean as I can. This is highly subjective, but I think that clean shots with isolated moments of the everyday life can trigger some pretty nice aesthetic experiences in the viewer's minds.

EN: B&W photography can be incredibly evocative. What do you personally like about B&W?

FA: I love shooting in color, but it is pretty hard to get the colors to get along when shooting in the streets. Black and white development empowers me (and many other photographers shooting similar topics to mine) to reduce the distraction colors can give in the viewer's mind when they aren't a match-made-in-heaven.

EN: Who have been your chief influences as a photographer?

FA: Whoa...
- André Kertész
- Gerda Taro
- Josef Koudelka
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
- Mary Ellen-Mark
- Helen Levitt

EN: Your blog identifies a number of photography collectives that you recommend following. How do these collectives form and what are their aims?

FA: Every collective has its own mysticism, but everyone shares at least one thing in common, the community's sense of belonging. This encourages the whole thing to grow in a uniform way, and I believe that hanging out with other photographers is one of the best experiences you can have as a photographer to grow.

EN: What kind of photography do you specialize in?

FA: I've been highly attracted to street photography, but in the last year I've been more drawn to essays and documentary. Without a doubt street photography will still be my passion, and it has been the best school I could have ever imagined.

I've given my life to photography, and it has totally been worth it. Said that, all I can say is that I'm a Photography Writer and Educator. Such disciplines help me out into funding my own photographic documentary projects. I write about the deep ideas that can be developed around Photography beyond gear.

My enthusiasm for such topics have given me the opportunity of working as a columnist, a critic and a curator as well. I'm also a PhD student, and I'm concerned about the current state of photography from a sociological and anthropological stand-point.

I'm convinced that Photography is the most universal means of communication worldwide.

EN: Where can people find more of your work?

FA: You can find my work at:
https://www.federicoalegria.com
https://medium.com/@federicoalegria
https://www.fiverr.com/federicoalegria