Gervasio, you were born in Cordoba in 1959, and have led a long and brilliant career in photography. How did you begin?
G.S : I started taking pictures during the first trip I took as a student. I went to Turkey and Greece with a camera in hand and started taking pictures. They were pretty bad. I never took a photography class.
So you’re self-taught?
G.S : That’s right. I don’t even know how to develop a negative. I shoot most of my work on black-and-white film, but I don’t know how to develop or print a negative. If I’d taken a class I‘d know how… And well, over time, I got better… I was also lucky to find myself in places alongside the best photographers in the world.
Like who?
G.S : For example, Gilles Peress of Magnum. I was able to see how they worked. They gave me advice and I began to understand that, well, the most important thing in photography is to find a way to tell stories.
Interview conducted by Lola Fabry
Read the full interview on the French version of Le Journal.
The complete interview is also available in Spanish: http://escaleradeincendios.com/
