We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Juan Coronel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Juan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Taking a risk, I have always thought that from the moment we are born we already take the biggest risk of our entire life, learning to live, walking, learning to love, wanting and all those great things that lead us to the great risk of living, bringing all this to my present, I think that today and after so many setbacks I have found something that I am passionate about, starting from nothing and without knowledge and today knowing how little a risk and an adventure that I myself had to take was.

I visualize the world in a different way, I see colors and shapes where no one sees them, I think that any place can be a beautiful setting for an incredible photo. I am not sure if it is a gift but what I am sure of is that every person who looks at my work likes it much more than I like it.

Juan, 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 consider myself an emerging artist and my work is slowly but steadily growing. Every time I do a photo shoot, I feel and see the satisfaction on the clients’ faces. That surprises me and fills me with pride. I think that so far I’m doing everything right. Since I first came to this country, I’ve worked on countless things, but I always felt like a piece that didn’t fit. Today, photography and editing are what I want to dedicate myself to full time.

Many of us believe that things are unattainable, perhaps because of those around you who tell you that you won’t be able to do it, or because of yourself who tells big ideas to small minds. It happened to me many times, but I always had a clear mind about what I wanted to do. I advise all those who have a project not to throw it away just because some detractors make a comment that demoralizes and lowers your expectations. Close your ears and just let your mind make the noise you need to move forward.

Feeling proud of myself falls short when I think that what I have is complete satisfaction with myself, doing something you like is reason enough not to look at the clock when you are doing it. I would like to leave this nice message and simply tell you to believe in yourselves, you do not know the capacity that the human being has.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Not long ago, I thought I had everything figured out in my life, a nice house, a beautiful wife, a relatively stable life working in construction, in which I acquired a lot of knowledge but I always felt that it was not my place so I embarked on a new path without knowing anything beyond the camera on my phone.

I began to soak up knowledge, editing and photography and that is what I do currently.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The most important resource that I must have known long before was to believe in myself more, many times we doubt our abilities and that makes us lose ourselves, if at that time I had believed in myself more, today this would be much further than where it is now.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reymox01/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Stecagonzalez
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jcor_01?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

Image Credits

Photograph JUAN CORONEL @reymox01 in Instagram

Edition Stephanie Gonzalez @stecagonzalez in Instagram and TikTok