Fares Micue Photographs

Stories within a frame – Fares Micue’s photographs are surreal, symbolic narratives inviting us to wonder at worlds within…

I think my creative side as a child was mainly visible in my writing. I have always had a wild imagination and a good way with words so I would often write stories and I still do, and now thanks to photography I can bring most of them to life.

Since my childhood even though I had always lived in relatively small towns they never had that countryside feeling, so I never really had the opportunity to experience that connection with nature until I got older and had the chance but once I was able to spend time in nature I felt lighter, calm and happy. Since then more of my inspiration came from nature and I love to include natural elements in my compositions, elements that existed even before mankind.

I wouldn`t say that the specific environment of Gran Canaria influenced my work but what I would say is that the fact of living on an island did. When I was younger I didn’t really enjoy the idea of living on an island because it gave me a feeling of isolation, a sensation of being apart from the world. I wanted to experience how it was to live in a big city so when I was 23 I decided to move to London for a couple of years. Even though London is also an island the feeling was completely different, it was a frenetic and fast paced city so I kind of lost connection with myself and my true feelings.

It was also during that time that I visited South Korea for the first time in 2012 and that trip changed my perspective about life, and how I was living it. I started to reflect on my interests and my passions and how I actually wanted my life to be, so I decided to go back to Gran Canaria and reevaluate my life, but after coming back I started to appreciate the slow passing of time that occurs on the islands and in the countryside because it allowed me to concentrate on what’s important for me instead of just living by default. In my work you can often find solitary figures lost in big colourful fields, that is the way I see islands now, full of possibilities and beauty in their natural solitude.

Like I always say I am naturally positive and I always find possibilities to learn and grow in every situation, especially in moments like this, people should practice looking ahead with hope. Instead of thinking of catastrophic outcomes we must see this situation as a way to reinforce our community ties, our capacity for cooperation and empathy and get stronger as a nation and as humans. Water always finds a way out, even through a hard rock, and so too our human nature, our brain is naturally prepared to make us survive and overcome any circumstance, we just need to be connected with our inner self.

I would tell them not to be afraid of criticism since this is the main reason that we hesitate. Before putting themselves out there they must work on their self esteem, they must be sure of their value not only as an artist but as a person and accept that everybody’s taste is different in order to avoid taking criticism personally. Sharing your art is both liberating and rewarding so I will always encourage artists to put themselves out there, but not before they feel mentally prepared so the criticism doesn’t discourage them to keep practicing and growing.

Actually my original dream was to be an actress so I am a big movie fan and I do find some of my inspirations in movies. I like to describe my work as stories condensed in an image. I do have a short story or poem about every single one of my images, like a script, that I later capture in an image so in a way I sort of use a filmic mental process of creation. But for now I choose to stick to photography as the medium to share my stories since it makes me feel fulfilled and motivated but… hey, who knows.

I am not by any means an expert in Photoshop but I think that I have learned to kind of master the tools I need to create the art that I want. So what I would recommend to any artist out there looking to improve their editing skills is to first have a clear idea of how they want their art to look and start building your photoshop/editing skills and resources around that. Thankfully in today’s era they can easily access the kind of tutorials in their own area of expertise, where they can master their own style, instead of wasting time learning things they may never need.

It would be a huge pleasure to hold a solo show anywhere in the world but my dream location would be Kukje Gallery K2 in Seoul. My connection with South Korea is really special and over the years my most life changing decisions have come after a trip to Korea, those decisions have been responsible for who I am as a person and artist today. And the reason why I want this specific gallery is because I admire its founder Lee Hyun-Sook. I like the history of the gallery and last but not least I love the space and the location and I would love to see my work hanging on their walls some day.

It is really hard to choose only one since I like a lot of artists but if I must choose it would probably be a painting by Polish artist Zdzislaw Beksinski I love the post apocalyptic look of his paintings, they make me think and they always trigger my imagination. When it come to art taste I am pretty eclectic, I can love from happy bubbly art to pop surrealism to gothic art. My main focus when it comes to art is to navigate different emotions, learn to process and get familiar with each one of them so I can later use these feelings in my own work.

Thanks so much to Fares for the insights into her work and practice. All photos are available at Saatchi Art, follow Fares latest work on Instagram.