It has been over twenty years of intense, constant travel through Chile in pursuit of extreme light. The light emerging from storms, clouds, fog, and rain. The light barely intimated by fleeting, unique, irreproducible moments.
That is the light that keeps me forever on the alert. The light that compels me to walk for hours just to lie in sometimes patient, often fretful wait. To rise in the dark after a sleepless night in a tent, taking no notice of the cold or fatigue, to wait with bated breath until that wondrous instant is caught on film.
I do not pursue great vistas or landscapes. On the contrary, I strive to steer clear of the obvious, and focus on the abstract. Forsake breadth to scrutinize the minimal –as minimal as lines and textures– without ever eschewing reality. For reality is what lies out there, and I am just only an interpreter of a reality shaped by geography, matter, texture, and a particular instant. A reality that my personal regard helps turn into sensations. Into that precious second granted me every now and then that moves me so very deeply and makes me feel ever so grateful to be a photographer.
That extreme light. The light amongst the fog.
WRITTEN BY PABLO VALENZUELA VAILLANT
Pablo Valenzuela Vaillant