Personal Best: Juan Galán

“The last year of my University degree in psychology in Salamanca (Spain) I wanted to learn something new not related to my previous formal education. The Faculty of Fine Arts is located in the same building where I used to study so I asked the photography professors if I could attend the lessons as a listener. They agreed so this was my first contact with the field.

I became very interested in the history of photography so I started to collect vintage cameras. I learned how to develop B&W and Color film in my bathroom, enlarge prints and so on… I have shot with 1900’s folding cameras, Leicas from WWII, the amazing Rolleiflex 2.8F, Hasselblad and much more, always driven by curiosity to know what a photographer felt in those years, his limitations and motivations.

I met more people interested in photography so the passion was increasing gradually. I always had the support of good friends so this helped me to try different approaches and learn from all of them, portrait, conceptual, nude, weddings, events, and so on.

I would say that my previous approaches have helped me now to integrate all the knowledge acquired into a single approach so that a year ago I stopped the “experimentation phase” and now I am completely focused on street and documentary genre. I work as UX Designer and when I finish my working hours I switch into a photographer mindset continuing with the study of other photographers’ works, art history, editing, and since I never used social media I started to upload content a few months ago. On weekends I grab the camera (digital) and I work on the current projects with a strong focus on composition, geometry, contrast, subjectivity and people’s expressions.”

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You can find Juan Galán on the Web:

Copyrights:
All the pictures in this post are copyrighted to Juan Galán. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.