Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gabriel Acosta . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gabriel , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Taking photos and carrying your camera with you motivates you to look for unusual things, but going to unexpected places often involves taking a risk of not knowing where you are going and what you are going to find. As part of my photography journeys I decided that it would be good to explore the Baja California desert but this time my approach was going to be different, I would decide to travel to Mexico and explore many parts of the Baja California desert by foot (my favorite way to photograph a place).

From Tijuana to Mexicali my journey took several days and I, who had never known Baja California or the desert, found myself walking on the long desert plains, letting myself be seduced by the wind and a hundred kilometers of sand and unknown cities that seem lost in time, something very different from what I was used to. After a long week of traveling I was able to see and photograph an unknown side of Mexico and the little-known and ignored Baja California, in the end I was able to take images of something that had always caught my attention and I had not been able to find.

Among the rocky mountains, the factories and the houses in the middle of the sand were my companions in the middle of this trip that allowed me to discover a new world for me and delve deeper into new projects to have different photographs that show the “other California”. In the end, heeding the deserter’s call was the best risk I could have seen taken.

Gabriel , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

“To photograph is to place the head, the eye and the heart on the same axis.” (Henri Cartier-Bresson)

I have been in photography for more than 5 years, during this time the phrase Cartier Bresson has been my reference when capturing images and making them more than “photos” for me and for whoever looks at them. My interest in exploring the world through what it offers has made me interested in photography as a medium of art to capture the beauty of things and the intangible, through photography I have been able to freeze moments, feelings, places and my ideas.

I feel proud to be able to recreate my own artistic vision in the photos I take by drawing inspiration from my dreams or memories and looking for it in the things around me. As a photographer I always like to offer creative and aesthetic solutions in the photographs I take, preserving a memory or creating an image are some of the most rewarding tasks for me, whether in my own work or those of others.

When taking photographs there is no challenge too big nor a sacrifice that is not necessary, I believe that taking good photographs also requires commitment and discipline, my passion for creating makes me follow these principles beyond my own work.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Nowadays my main objectives are to be able to take personal photographs of my family archive and to be able to explore myself through the photographs that are and speak about me. In my project “UIO-LAX” I explore my relationship and emotions between living in Los Angeles and having my family in Quito (Ecuador).

Apart from this I am also working on a new series “Visual Explorations”, inspired by the great mix of nature and city in California that has motivated me to photograph the urban landscape. Factories, housing complexes, big cities, borders and the desert. This project consists of searching for beauty in the midst of everyday life and showing how photography can give new life to things.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

My advice to every photographer or artist is based on being open to knowing yourself and not being ashamed of what you are. When I started on my creative path one of the things that was most difficult for me was thinking “outside the box”, saying it sounds easy but doing it is another story.

Starting to pay more attention to what things I like, what ideas I have, who I am and who I would like to be has helped me a lot to accept myself in this journey of not be ashamed to explore the world. Day by day this helped me to be more confident outside in the world as well as inside with my ideas and motivations. I would also have liked to buy some good shoes that would have made it easier to walk for many hours and long journeys. Stay active, stay curious and stay wild.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/g.acosta.journal/
• Other: https://shoutoutla.com/meet-gabriel-acosta-photographer/

Image Credits
Amère Blackwell, Devam Shah and Ruixue Chen