My career in the arts started as a professional mime, and Marcel Marceau was my acting inspiration. But mime and photography are similar in that they both try to tell a story without words, so the transition not only was enjoyable but made sense to me.
For the last 4 years I have developed a series that I’ve become known for, which is photographing dancers in different parts of the world; mostly in big cities such as Hong Kong, Prague, and Rio. With a background in dance it seemed natural, as I not only could shoot the subjects through the lens of a photographer but as a dancer as well. For this episode, coming back to the US allowed me to photograph my home country, Puerto Rico.
Gear List
[REWIND: Fuji Releases Kaizen Firmware Updates For X-T2, X-H1]
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlDWSeznkNo/?taken-by=omarzrobles
Though I don’t consider myself an ‘activist’, I believe art has a lot of function in society, and while you don’t have to preach through art, it’s aesthetic and wholesome role is useful, and I try to add social justice elements when I can.
I wanted to use photography and dance to highlight the plight of my country after Hurricane Maria, and the political climate given there are still so many people without electricity, debris in the streets, and other hardships happening at the moment. Essentially I wanted to put things in my work that call on people to pay attention to things happening around them.
In the video you will see all the different locations we shot, and many still with the blue tarps people are using as roofs whose homes were destroyed in the hurricane. The dancers are a striking contrast of composure to the disruption around them.
As a Fujifilm X-Photographer it was natural for me to shoot with Fuji cameras. My main daily camera is the X-T2 with a 56mm lens, but for this project with Adorama I used a GFX50S, mostly with the GF 110mm F/2 R, which is close to the 85mm field of view I would normally get with the 56mm . It isn’t the fastest camera and I don’t own one yet, but if I could shoot everyday with that camera I would. The image quality and look of medium format is amazing, and it allowed me to capture the communities we went into in the highest quality.
I hope this inspires you to do good with photography and your community. You can find out more about this project here, and if you’re inspired to help Puerto Rico the following is a charity I would like to highlight:
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/from-tarps-to-roofs-hurricane-maria-puerto-rico
Get More: You can see much more from Omar on his Instagram, his blog, and his site where you can find his images separated via project and prints.
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