We were lucky to catch up with Chino Pabón recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chino, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

At the end of 2012, I had a dream where I was standing on one side of a road and saw myself on the other side. It wasn’t a mirror; it was another version of me, and we were both holding the ends of a yellow rope. I felt an overwhelming emotion seeing myself and wanted to run over and embrace me, but I didn’t. I simply raised my hand in a “hello” gesture, and the other me did the same. I started to feel the emotion of that other version of me at the same time, and the sensation of fear became so intense that I woke up.

I spent months reflecting on the meaning of that dream, and the more I thought about it, the sadder I felt: why didn’t I run to embrace myself? Why did I feel distrust? Why such fear at the end? I concluded that it was deeply sad not to know myself, not knowing who I was, or loving myself.

However, on December 1st of that year, I woke up with a series of images that felt like a certainty: I bought three meters of a yellow rope like the one in my dream, prepared my cellphone, and packed a very light bag for a trip. I called that journey The Yellow Broken Line, and it became the project that took me through all of South America—25,000 kilometers in a year—taking portraits of people I interacted with so deeply that they helped me find the answer to the most essential question: who am I?

I returned from that journey with more than 5,000 photographs and the answer within them. Today, this story and some of those pictures make up my first book.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am self-taught; I didn’t finish high school or go to university. I know how to read and write, and I can paint, illustrate, and take photographs, but above all, I am a storyteller—a natural-born narrator. Commercially, I am a communicator. I started by illustrating children books, then moved into the advertising world as a creative director, working for major multinational advertising agencies in four countries. In 2018, I decided to leave that career behind to focus on creating books and telling my own stories.

However, as an independent professional, if a brand needs my skills as an illustrator, I do it. If they need my conceptual work, I do it. If they need my photography, I do it. That’s how I make a living, provide for my family, and secure the time and resources to continue pursuing my personal projects.

Communication must be understood in a profound, energetic, symbolic, and even mystical way. Arriving in life with such an understanding placed me in valuable positions for the needs of brands, people, and projects that seek to communicate with the world. These positions are valuable because they offer different perspectives—highly creative, with sensitive yet practical developments.

With experience, I’ve come to understand that when you offer a communication service, what you’re really solving is a system of simplification, allowing everything you seek to express to flow naturally. To achieve that, you must deeply understand human beings. Beyond the act of selling them something, when you have that awareness, you will always tend to communicate in a profound and sophisticated way.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

William Blake said: Art is just a way of doing things. And I completely agree. At some point, we are all artists. However, staying an artist full-time requires letting go of things that not everyone is willing to release. An artist is, above all, a mystic: an individual who finds themselves in everything.

A true artist does what they do without expecting rewards. A true artist creates because they burn with the desire to do so. Their reward is that fire, that light. An artist illuminates, and that is enough for them. Money and fame may or may not come, but those aren’t the focus anymore. An artist communicates through their light, multiplies it, and inspires light in others. That is their role in the world. Whether through books, paintings, a meaningful and profound advertisement—it doesn’t matter.

It could be through cooking, washing dishes, or driving your children to school. That doesn’t matter either. What matters is giving light. There is always a way of doing things that illuminates this world. Choosing it is what makes you an artist.

The question is, are you willing to let go of what keeps you from shining?

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I grew up watching my mother sew. That’s why I write, paint, and take photos. I have memories of her at her Singer machine, sitting for hours, absorbed in the details, always smiling amidst terrible and violent surroundings. “People need to love themselves just a little more,” she used to say, “and clothes help with that.” And indeed, they do.

Once, Doña María came by with one eye half-open, purple like a hydrangea. She told her story while trying on the dress, and as she left, she smiled: “With this outfit, no one will ever lay a hand on me again in their damn life.”

I found that, together or apart, documentary photography, the editorial world, and fashion offer me a chance to play a game I played throughout my childhood: telling stories in the most beautiful way possible.

To forgive them.

Being an artist and dedicating yourself to it means always expressing yourself—with pain and joy, in the most poetic way possible. Resilience lies in never tiring of being yourself and preserving your most essential and authentic self.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chinoomanifesto/

Image Credits

© Chino Pabón