Joaquin Luna

Determined to trap an internal moment, photographer and filmmaker Joaquin Luna captures confessional compositions where the essence of individuals and environments intermingle with the artist’s own psyche. These existential inquiries are investigated through melancholic visual arrangements imbued with ambiguity, where decontextualized settings and isolated personalities delineate notions of disconnection. A sense of complexity is further encouraged by opposing muted and saturated colors, intentional and coincidental configurations, and hiding what is expected to be revealed, altogether gapping information and playing with tensions between reality and fiction. Unsettling atmospheres and liminal spaces are introduced by means of dividing elements such as mirrors, windows, and doors that, along with textures of glass, smoke, and rain frame glimpses of character that reinforce the uneasiness of the images. Suggestive instances stimulate the spectator to complete the fragmented narratives by projecting themselves into the scene. Inversely mirroring the observer’s reaction, photographing becomes for Joaquín a refuge to encounter the self and activate sensations of solitude. Becoming both observer and observed, his work externalizes a faceless self-portrait.