Today we’d like to introduce you to Javier Villalobos
Hi Javier, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My mother always handed me the camera at family birthday parties, and get togethers so early on in my life I can hardly recall the first time. I think she was just happy to not have to take photos for a change, the usual family duty that falls on the photography enthusiast, and to be apart of the happenings of the parties for a change. When she started showing signs of Alzheimer’s decades later all of the parties and get togethers I had frequented as a child slowly stopped. She was the glue that held our family together, just like her mother before her. I turned 29, my mother had a stroke and my father and I became her fulltime caretakers. Sometime afterwards something hit me like a hug from an old friend that I hadn’t seen in years– I needed to try my best to remember the small and the mundane little moments that make up my life, just like my mother and her father before her, and I realized I had always been handed a camera to do just that. For me the most important thing about photography is the emotion in images– whether it’s happy, sad, tender, awe inspiring, terrible. Capturing those human moments brings me a sense of satisfaction. There’s not always going to be sunshine and that’s okay. You just have to keep shooting. When you’re sad, tired or unenthused because those moments and feelings are fleeting and sometimes help yield great photographs.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There are major difficulties in photography and life, however, you have to be true to yourself and use those feelings and moments as drive. Absorb as much of the photography culture as you can and determine what you like most and what fits your style. Do your best to learn from the greats in your wheelhouse and see what they did right and how they got to those results. Find that thing that makes your photographs yours and hone that skill. Social Media today is a double-edged sword. It can be extremely helpful to new and professional photographers alike but in the same breath that can precisely be the problem. There are so many great photographers all over the world and because of that same fact it can also bury and stifle great potential due to sheer volume.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My photography focuses on documentary and street photography. Capturing candid moments of people’s daily lives, moments where all that might be interpreted from the image is an emotion or feeling. Capturing these fleeting moments brings me a sense of gratification, and happiness that I’ve captured something so fleeting and immortalized it. I plan on releasing a photobook by February 2025 to put a pin in things, entitled “Your Local Doordasher.” Because I live in the suburbs, it’s often difficult to find people and moments to photograph, so doing Doordash in my spare time forces me into moments with people that I might not find myself in and it seemed like a good photobook idea. When it comes to photographs and taking them– the work is never over, the best thing you can do is bookmark your work with photobooks, zines, and events featuring your work, allowing you to turn the page on a personal chapter. There are a few images with deep stories that I’m very proud of, that leave me thinking about these moments and people to this day. I am just like the others, I’m one of many documentary and street photographers recording life for future curiosities. Perhaps drive, consistency, and love for photography sets me apart from a few but not all, and I find more in common with my fellow photographers than anything.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I’m adopted. It was something I never thought about and it never bothered me. Victor and Rebecca are my only true parents and I have always felt that way. I’m extremely lucky to have had such a good life growing up and I don’t take that for granted for one second.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/iavipavi
- Twitter: https://x.com/javipavi
- Other: javipavi@gmail.com
Image Credits
Javier Villalobos
