VIVA CHILE PROJECT

When did you get into photography?
My older brother used to take photos with a classic Nikon FM and I remember I really enjoyed the sound when he would shoot..clapfff

Then in 1992 I went with a group of students to "La Tirana”, a 7 days street religious party in the north of Chile full of dancers and lively music. Somebody gave me a camera and I started to shoot....it was pretty cool, I remember I couldn’t stop shooting these dancing "diablos" dressed with such nice costumes...That´s how everything started…I love this memory.


READ MOREWhat do you enjoy about photographing?
I love to capture images, but not every image, just certain places that appears in my way -- as a kind of vision....afterwards I need to capture that, as an obsession. I don’t consider myself as documentary photographer in fact I have a terrible back up of my own history.

I notice many of your photos have a path or a road, what is that about??
That’s what I was talking about before...its a kind of an obsession. I started No Ending Roads series in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. I remembered I was riding a bike and looking for location spots, and suddenly I find these stairs with no end (off course they had an end, but I couldn’t see it from my view point) and that situation made me think about my emotional situation at that point of my life.....it´s a kind of poetry about how life goes and the image of that feeling.

What camera do you prefer using? do you prefer digital or film?
For my artwork I prefer film, slide film is my choice, specially Fuji, Provia 100 or Velvia 50. But in Chile it’s almost impossible to find film, and when you do, it’s really expensive, like 18 dollars per roll. That’s why now I’m working with a medium format digital camera...
Anyway, I still shoot with my Holga, and with my Nikon F90x that takes really nice pictures! And I’m using my super8 for moving images...working with these "old slow formats" makes me just so happy.


Maria Luisa Murillo is 31 years old. She lived 8 years in Barcelona, Spain and then moved to Santiago,Chile almost 2 years ago where she is currently living and working.

Maria Luisa is working on creating a solo show in Chile. Stay tuned for that!

Photo via Maria Luisa Murillo