212: It started as a therapeutic process
Isabel Tirado
Can you PLEASE tell me the area code for Caracas, Venezuela?
The area code for Caracas, Venezuela is 212.
Our school educates, researches, promotes, and shares. "212" is a virtual space focused on photography based in Caracas, featuring the work of both local and non-local artists. This platform aims to bring together various photographic genres, age groups, techniques, and perspectives, all connected by a shared love for photography.
©herencia viva
- what do you think is your responsibility as a photographer and artist?
My responsibility as a photographer and as an artist is to convey my message through photography, giving visibility to topics that are of interest to me, such as human rights, and the perception of women from social, colonial, and deconstructed criticism. My responsibility lies in being able to transmit my reflections on these paradigms that are still in force. As a black Venezuelan woman artist, my goal is to be able to create a space where there is a dialogue between artists in the country and that this initiative mutates into a community with different and contemporary points of view creating a confluence of points of view and at the same time a responsibility with myself of sharing the knowledge that I have acquired over the years in this career.
©herencia viva
- What role does color play in your photographic work?
The importance of color in my photography is very notable. Color, for me, is a vehicle to create an atmosphere, an atmosphere created through the color blue. Which primes in all of my work, it is a resource that I use to create this parallel, almost dreamlike universe where I develop my photography. Color is a tool that serves as a narrative thread; it helps me tell a story. For example, the use of red. Red and its nuances are a color that often appears in my work. If we talk about the psychology of color, red not only represents love and passion but also blood in the most visceral and metaphorical sense of the word. For me, it is important where I place the color. Because depending on where I place it, its meaning changes depending on what I want to communicate. I use gold and yellow when I want to highlight an element that I find interesting on an aesthetic level, that one thing within the photograph that is precious to me. Another color that I use a lot is green, in fact, it is my favorite color. I associate it with my childhood, specifically the green of mango bushes. It reminds me of my origins, my family, and of the coast of Aragua. The colors I use are the visual representation of the things that I feel identify me.
©cenicienta
- how do you define your work?
I think that based on the work that I’ve done recently it’s all about research, about becoming more acculturated. That is a form of reflection, rapprochement, and self-discovery. it’s about identity and history. It is defined as a photographic work that wants to go beyond the apparent and the superfluous.
©personal
- what meaning does photography have for you?
photography is a way of self-discovery for me. it started as a therapeutic process. it was encouraged by my psychologist at the time, and it helped me understand myself and let off some steam about the things I worried about in the form of art.
SELF PORTRAIT
ISABEL TIRADO:
Isabel Tirado is a 26-year-old photographer and creative director native of Maracay, Venezuela. She graduated from Social Communication in 2019 and has dedicated the last five years to photography, fusing her interest in Afro heritage in Latin America and aesthetics. Her work explores themes such as African representation, family, and memory, focusing on gender identity and freedom. Currently, she lives in Caracas, where she runs her independent production company 1once, creating audiovisual content.
