We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Greg Goyo Vargas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Greg Goyo, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I enjoy shooting a project with a series in mind. Starting in 2015, I spent five years shooting a series titled Shoes and Souls. The location was in Downtown Los Angeles. I shot the people sitting at a bus bench, located in front of the historic Broadway Arcade Building near 5th and Broadway. Oddly enough, the “bus stop” was not an active bus stop. I am certain a bus once stopped there, but when the bus line was discontinued or rerouted the bench remained on the sidewalk. What intrigued and fascinated me was how people would continue to stop at the bench, sit, rest, and sometimes talk. A person could be alone or joined by others creating a small group. Some would talk to each other and some remained silent. When I would walk around downtown Los Angeles, that bench became my starting point and my first shot of the day. I knew immediately when I took the first shot at the bench I would be returning to shoot more. The series began. What I like the most about doing the series is the framing of the shot. Most would think I was shooting directly at the bench and the people. However, the perspective is taken from behind the bench. Faces are rarely seen. You see shoes, bare feet, canes, bags and packages, backs of heads, hair, hats and caps. You are presented with fewer visual cues than you are normally used to seeing when picturing someone. The back of the bus bench obstructs the view of the bodies of the people. Not seeing the faces and bodies allows for one’s imagination to fill in what is not seen and to create one’s own visual imagery about the people of the city we see going about their day, as we go about ours. This kind of thing happens all around Los Angeles, and we participate in this kind of experience daily, most of the time unwittingly and without realization. So many internal thoughts and stories can be created and be told about people we see daily. Serendipitously, the bottom edge of the back of the bench had a long horizontal line of squared holes resembling a roll of film’s sprocket holes. I completed the series with around 60 shots or so (shooting many times more). The series ended naturally when the bus bench was removed from the sidewalk. I was fortunate enough to present the images and talk about the series at the Pasadena Photography Arts’ Open Show in 2020.

What’s particularly meaningful about this project is how it acted as a personal springboard in crafting what I believe to be my overall personal style I call “What I Let You See.” Additionally it allowed me to shoot a single location over a long period of time and observe the changes. I had been wanting to do that since reading Paul Auster’s short story “Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story.” The character, Auggie Wren, would shoot a photograph from the same street corner at the same time of the day every day. He was photographing time. My project was to bed be an emulation of at character.

Greg Goyo, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I picked up camera late in life. I was fifty-five years old. A good friend, knowing of my long-time desire to pursue photography, suggested I enroll in the photography program at Santa Monica College. The theoretical and practical training was just what I needed to provide the motivation, direction, and focus of the craft while concurrently streamlining and amplifying my interest in photography. And now for the most part, I consider my particular work a stylistic convergence of the street, documentary, and fine art genres of photography, hopefully implementing what I have learned over the years.

For the most part, I shoot what is considered street photography. But, I do not limit myself to that genre. I have shot events, food, industrial, social documentary and photojournalism, fine art, portraits and head shots. I have a handful of personal projects still in the works that I continue to work on and refine.

The biggest challenge is building an audience and holding someone’s attention and eyes on an image for a few seconds, hoping that viewer sees something in my photographs. And when that happens, I am satisfied and it is then that I am most proud.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Over time, I developed a deep and personal appreciation for the 1950’s and 1960’s monochrome photography rooted in historical and social documentation. Those images spoke to me in a significant way previous to my interest in photography. My intention became to participate in that tradition of photographic expression and to become a contributing member of that lineage, even in some small way. My subject matter may not be what one most immediately and notably thinks about during those named decades, but my style and internal motivation are forever present in my artistic emulation and appreciation of those photographers that I admire and who have influenced my work and photographic perception. I hope what I do photographically, in even the smallest of ways, is honor those who have provided me with the inspiration to shoot.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I am not particularly fond of NFTs.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.goyocorvair.photography
• Instagram: goyocorvairphotography
• Facebook: GoyoCorvair Photography
• Twitter: GoyoCorvair
• Other: Threads: goyocorvairphotography

Image Credits

Portrait: BongHung/BongFilms
All others: GoyoCorvair Photography