It pays to have a specialty in “Aesthetics of Public Spaces” from university, at least if you take the work of Moisés Rodríguez as an example. Minimal, often symmetrical, and always composed perfectly, his photography whispers “less is more” with a subtlety worthy of the phrase.
“I believe in the phrase ‘less is more,'” he told us when we spoke with him this past week. “I think the simplicity in a photograph can intensify and engage the viewer’s imagination so they can be the ones who build a story based on what they see.”
Almost all of Moisés’ images hold to this golden tenet of minimalism, and even the ‘busier’ shots that seem less than minimal conceal a simplicity behind the mayhem of street life.
Moisés’ motivation is easy to pinpoint once you’ve started talking to him: he’s curious.
“[There are] few things I enjoy as much as taking my camera and going for a walk,” he says. “I can lose myself for hours without defining a specific course, watching the people walk, wondering what they do and where they are going—in a few words: what is their story?”
He believes that we are largely the result of the place where we live, and photography allows him to capture this place, “not only a space of recreation, but of reflection.”
Sometimes that reflection happens while an escalator takes you slowly up to another floor, other times while waiting for your flight at the airport; and if Moisés is nearby, you can bet he’s captured it on camera.
We reached out to Moisés after discovering his work through our Best of 2015 series of Top 10s. One of his rare color images made #7 of our Top 10 Street Photos list, and another of his photos snagged the #11 spot.
But for someone whose photos frequently reach the high 99s in pulse, we were shocked to find he uses extremely basic gear: a Nikon D5200, tripod, and 3 lenses… that’s it. And of the three lenses he favors his 35mm.
“The equipment I use is very basic,” he admits, “but with the little I have I attempt to make the most out of it.”
He makes up for the lack of gear with an immediately recognizable, striking black and white style that he says is inspired by the power he discovered in iconic black and white cinema.
“Movies like ‘Citizen Kane,’ ‘Psycho,’ and ‘The Exterminating Angel’ left me clear that it is not necessarily the color that gives beauty to the image,” he explains, “but the harmonic distribution of the elements involved in it.”
That last bit deserves restating in bold… and italics:
It is not necessarily the color that gives beauty to the image, but the harmonic distribution of the elements involved in it.
For all his skill and style, Moisés realizes he still has room to grow. “I still have much to learn, to see, to walk, and so many ideas that I would like to implement that I could not visualize a part of my life without photography,” he told us.
And whenever he does get to those ideas, you can bet we’ll be there to pour over the images… and share them with you:
To see more from Moisés, be sure to visit his 500px profile and click that big blue Follow button. You won’t regret it. You can also find him on Facebook.
