LEONARDO RODRIGUEZ in conversation with ABE GOBELLAN
Leonardo Rodriguez, a third-year fine art photography major at App State, discusses his influences, including Robert Frank and Masahisa Fukase. His work focuses on community themes, particularly on recognizable local figures. He describes his creative process as “gut-driven,” emphasizing the importance of personal connection. Rodriguez prefers black and white for its technical challenges and aesthetic appeal. He recounts memorable experiences, like photographing a man exiting a halfway house in Durham. Rodriguez values familiarity in his work and aims to evoke relatable emotions. He reflects on his growth, noting a shift from cityscapes to people-focused photography and his aspirations to explore new subjects beyond Boone.

ABE: Who are some of your biggest influences in the world of photography and the arts in general?

LEONARDO: I would say I have a lot of influences, but lately I’ve been drawn to the work of Robert Frank. I’m very interested in his work. I would say he’s definitely influenced my work for the past handful of months, maybe like four or five months. I love Masahisa Fukase, a Japanese photographer. Todd Hido was my first photography crush back in high school. They’re so different from each other so they influence me in different ways, but I can see bits and pieces of their inspiration in my work.

A: How would you describe your photography style? What themes or ideas do you often explore in your work? 

L: Drawn a lot towards staples of the community. Something or someone that is recognizable to someone in the Boone area. I get a lot of, “Oh, I’ve seen this person around.” Or like, “Oh, here’s a story I have with an X, Y, or Z person you photographed.” That’s the stuff that hits home for me, so I definitely feel like a connection towards people and especially the community. When I first got to Boone, I was drawn to this place a lot (Espresso News). I was drawn to 641, Huzzah, Awesome Space of course, B.A.D. composting right there. You can feel where people are comfortable expressing themselves. Recently, I did a project for a documentary photography class on Appalcart and our uses of it. And I want to continue doing more work like that. That photography showed this concept of the appalcart which we are all familiar with here in Boone, and brought it to the forefront of the conversation. Still, it's just the tip of the iceberg, I feel like there’s so much more for me to do.

A: When you approach a new project, how do you decide which spaces or moments to capture? 

L: I think a lot of what I’ve taken so far is gut instinct, driven by what’s important to me, who’s important to me. I think part of starting on a new project is asking yourself, “why? Why do I want to photograph this? Why do I want to be involved?” Photography is so tricky because it's all about representation. And it’s paradoxical. You can spend time getting to know someone and try to represent them the way they want to be represented, or hide yourself and the camera. Which photo of them is the most honest? I don’t know, but I try to talk to people first.

A: What significance does black and white photography hold for you? 

L: It’s just a different approach. Another challenge, like a mindset shift. With color you can be a lot more liberal in your use of light, you know, because the colors get in there when you have a darker image and provide you the missing data per se. With black and white, it’s all the same color. Just shades of gray. You need to be a lot more aware of how things are lit up. There really is an aesthetic choice to some of it. Full transparency, sometimes I just like the way it looks more than color. I just want it to be black and white so I shoot in black and white. Most film cameras can’t change film mid roll, so when you make that decision to load black and white film into your camera, you start to think of your shots as just light hitting shapes. Like I said, it's a perspective shift.

A: You’ve photographed everything from nightlife to community events to public transportation. How do these different environments and people shape the way you approach each shot? 

L: You know, with community events it’s a lot easier for people to not care. Because it’s like, oh, he’s just photographing the event, and so with that, you can kind of get away with being a fly on the wall. At that point, I recognize some people at events and It’s more fun that way. With the Appalcart project, people riding the bus home, getting any photograph, there’s only so much talking I could do. I wanted to focus on the mechanics, the bus drivers, because then I had time to talk to them, have a conversation. With the commuters, I couldn’t afford to have a conversation with everyone, and I didn’t want staged portraits, so I felt sneaky taking photos that no one knew of. The commuters were always coming in and out, and sea of faces you know. So it changes based on circumstances, you know, on what arises.

A: How did you get into photography?

L: I started in February 2020. When I started shooting on my own, you know, outside of school, I was never like an artistic person. And growing up, I was never super into the arts. I mean, of course, I liked drawing. I liked making comics as a kid. I never would have like, delved into art to the point where I was like, “this is my calling.” It was just at some point in high school, I felt that I could do more with photography than the classes I was taking. I felt so indifferent about those classes and assignments.They were so mind-numbing, just between you and me. That’s how a lot of beginner classes are. Photography is only as good as what you put into it. But they taught me how to sorta use a camera. So I had this desire to go and make something with a camera, but I put it off for months, until one night I had this, like, anxiety dream about a photo I wanted to take but I failed to get it in time, so when I woke up that next morning I decided that I couldn’t put it off any more and started taking photography seriously that week. But it wasn’t like I started off with a clear vision of what I wanted. It is always changing. It’s been, I guess it’s almost been five years. In two months, it’ll be five years since I started doing photography. You know, I started off shooting cityscapes. I never shot pictures of people until like, the third year. Two and a half years, I never took pictures of people outside of very close friends. And then, over the course of moving here, that started to shift.

A: What do you hope your audience takes away from your work? Is there a specific reaction or feeling you aim to evoke? 

L: Not particularly. If I had to put a name to a feeling that I wanted everyone who views my work to feel, it’d probably be familiarity. It all just kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier. One of my favorite things is having people relate to a photo and understand it. I want people to say, “I know this place. I know these people.” I’ve done this a bunch of times. Like, how have I not seen it this way? You know that is always fun for me. I’ve always liked putting people in my shoes, in my place. Not in terms of my exact thoughts on a given moment or image. But being able to see a world through a 2:3 rectangle. In the exhibition I had at the Looking Glass Gallery–shoutout Looking Glass Gallery–I had a camera set up there on a tripod. And that was like, kind of a very nominal addition to most people. But what I wanted out of that was for people to put their eye up to it, because you have this little rectangle of vision, and cameras have these eye cups that block light out to make what you’re seeing clearer. So then all you can see is what the camera sees. What you see in the rectangle. For me, being in that viewfinder, that’s an awesome feeling. I want people to understand this. 

A: Is there anything else you want to say about the exhibition you had in the Looking Glass? Anything you want to include from the exhibition that you felt was important for you, or your experience with the gallery? 

L: Looking Glass, they were super. I mean, they were very nice. The people there worked with me a lot. I had a lot of ideas, so they helped me explain and put together all of my thoughts. Helped me kind of find a medium between everything I wanted, and the time constraints that I had, because I just had a less time than I anticipated having. There’s a process that goes into all of this. It’s all very curated. I go through rolls and pick out images. I think the point of the negatives being in the gallery with the final prints was to show it’s a process, I don’t want to be like, “These are the images, be amazed!” It would be easier to do that, but I want to show, I care about this a lot, you know. I took, you know, seven pictures of this one thing, and only one came out. That part is really important. If everything just came out well, easy peasy, what would be the point?  I don’t want it to seem like it’s easy, I want people to know that what they’re looking at is edited down for their viewing pleasure, but the closer they look at the negatives, the receipts of the time put in, the clearer the big picture becomes. Art is a process.

A: What has been one of your most memorable moments behind the camera? A specific shoot or interaction with someone that impacted you? 

L: There was this man. This was in Durham. I walked by him. We’re across the street from this brewery that’s holding a puppy fundraising event. There are puppies there, people are drinking, it’s a good time. And he’s just watching the event and I look over at him and he looks at my camera, and he says “You take photographs?” And I say “Yeah.” And he’s like, “You should go take photographs over there. You’ll make money. People are drunk and stuff.” I said “That’s not really my thing.” And he was like, “What would you rather take photographs of?” And I was like “I’d rather take photographs of you.” And he’s like “Okay.” And he hands me his phone. He’s like “Make sure you get the whole outfit.” I thought he was joking. He was not joking. He asked me to take his fit pics, on the street. I was talking to him and he was telling me he’s about to graduate from a halfway house. He was telling me this, and meanwhile I would show him the pictures on his phone, and he’d be like, “That was okay, but could you zoom in a little bit more?” Eventually, I took pictures of him with my camera, but I think about how serious he was when he handed me his phone and it never fails to make me smile. That was a good shoot. The pictures I took didn’t come out very well but it didn’t matter, people will really surprise you in the best way.

A: If you could capture any event, person, or place, what would you photograph?

L: Leonard Cohen. I like looking at photos of him. Throughout his whole life, his eyes never changed. I would like just one portrait in a diner, just somewhere calm.