Interview: Daniel Agra
Luca Curci talks with Daniel Agra, one of the winners of PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE MONTH – MARCH 2021.

From a very early age I have been attracted to expositions and art books, photographs and art in general. Although my first real experience with photography took place when I was 25 years old, when I bought my very first Reflex camera with my first savings. I’ve always been an autodidact and I began to explore this universe making my way through different stages. Including one stage in 2005, when I decided to take a break, obliged by several circumstances in my life. In 2010 I felt I could contribute in a stronger way and it was then when everyone who surrounded me, knowing what I had done, convinced me to go ahead and publish my work. In my case photography means a unique language, a personal perspective within a theme diversity. My preference is Nature, Urban, the conceptual model I followed in my initial steps. Mostly I try to tell stories, reflect ideas that come to my mind, looking for images to queries, beliefs, thoughts and develop concepts through photography. I don’t decline any technique but to me it is a main priority that my actual digital photography should be as similar as possible to my first analogue stage. Therefore my image process remains as standard as possible, always making language and the composition my priority. When certain manipulation is necessary I only use optic filters of my own development.

Luca Curci – What is art for you?
Daniel Agra – Feelings . Every human being from his individuality has the freedom of expression and creation, as well as whoever is perceiving it has the freedom to interpret it through the visual stimuli generated and normally related to their knowledge and their emotional state, however to create that feeling is to create art, whether it is painting, sculpture, photography or any other artistic expression, everything has the same importance.

LC – What’s your background?
DA – What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
I started in photography more than 25 years ago, always self-taught and constantly learning. For years I have been linked to the textile-fashion world, surrounded by creative designers, which has marked my evolutionary process in photography, leading to a creative and visual
dialogue of perceptions and sensations.

LC – Which is the role the artist plays in the society? And contemporary art?
DA – Artists are essential to change the world and provoke a reaction, an evolution of society with the particular vision they have through: their talent, creativity, innovation, technical display and ability to move, fulfilling a didactic social role which is essential in the changes that are expected of a society. His reflection provokes an update of his tools, tests of new conceptual constructions, referring to what happens in our time, what coexists and which generates incessant experimentation.

LC – How would you describe your style?
DA – Personal and without guidelines, with a deep force of expressive feelings, always in the permanent search for answers to questions, beliefs or thoughts, saying things that I cannot express in another way, many times because I cannot find the right words and that in visual terms sometimes, it materializes in different results, transforming, adapting or interpreting a
reality.

LC – Did your style change over the years? In which way?
DA – Undoubtedly, we all start in the search for a specific style or discipline, but over the years and as we have other knowledge, we position ourselves where we best believe we can maintain our dialogue. I have gone through practically all the disciplines of photography and at present where I feel most identified is in the abstract and conceptual.

LC – How do you feel when you see your work completed?
DA – Happy