Ernesto Sampons: I was born and raised in Valencia. Both of my parents were teachers, and they have tried since my early days, awakening my taste for art, architecture, history and music. We always went to museums as a matter of routine on weekends, a custom that I sometimes hated as a child but that I now deeply appreciate. I have always been attracted by the great mythological and narrative significance that was conferred on blocks of carved stone. For me, they were like stories that narrated adventures, gossip and exploits. If I extrapolate this vital experience to my work, I realize that I always seek to give meaning and a narrative to everything I do, even if it is a single photo. I enjoy creating stories and translating them into images, it is one of the things I like most about photography. It allows you to create fantasies from reality.

I must say that I did not start by focusing my work on fashion. I felt much more attracted to architectural photography, which is why I usually see myself transferring architectural compositions to the acting of the model. I remember when I was living in Barcelona for a while, I visited the Sagrada Familia for the first time. Much of the majesty and impact that it generates in the visitor is due to the mastery with which Gaudí used light as a tool to convey his personal bond with God. My parents were obsessed with going to visit all the churches and cathedrals in the cities we travelled to. It was there that I understood the importance of light, that intangible entity, which is nothing, but at the same time, is everything. It connects us with the heavenly, life and death.

Ernesto Sampons: Being born in a Mediterranean city made me understand light in a certain way. The golden skies of Valencia are incredibly rich, full of different colours and shadows. I started to see a language in them, how light and shadows were changing and playing between them. A unique spectacle that gets lost in the long distant horizon of the sea. That was definitely fundamental in my pictures.

Ernesto Sampons: Product design is a discipline that I love and that I do not rule out returning to at some point in my life. Designers like Ray Eames and her husband Charles, Miguel Mila or Lilly Reich state the importance of the conceptual development of a product through craft, materiality, narrative and functionality. I think these values ​​have translated into my way of working as a photographer. I work in film photography, a process that could be understood as a craftsman and that has helped me, in pursuit of the hyper-consumer world of images in which we live, to value each image, to work on it and treat it with dignity and respect, to think before shooting something.

Ernesto Sampons: I believe everything can really move and inspire you. I am inspired by a woman queuing at the supermarket with teased hair and lipstick-stained teeth, by a boy I like or even by old songs my mother plays. Being a photographer implies a continuous work of observation, engulfing all the stimuli that your environment offers you.

Ernesto Sampons: I am very attracted to the figure of women and their meaning in society. I am currently developing a documentary photographic project about my mother that pays tribute not only to her but to all the mothers I know.

My mother is 73 years old, and she is the most extraordinary and inspiring person I know. She was born in a small town and had the determination to study and move to the city in a society subjugated to the Franco regime that did not make it easy for women. My mother is one of many women who deserves recognition for being what they are: mothers, workers, and fighters to whom we owe the progressive society that we enjoy. She also ran in front of Los Grises, Franco’s police, protesting for an egalitarian, feminist and anti-fascist society.

One day talking to her, I realized that she had stopped photographing herself decades ago. She only appeared in group photos with friends or family. At what age do you stop being fit to deserve to be photographed? Does beauty have an expiration date? I asked why. I didn’t get a clear answer. I suppose that this society is still betting on rewarding youth.

Ernesto Sampons: Some time ago, I read an article about the book The Mystique of Feminism by Betty Friedan, and it changed my vision of the word ‘femininity.’ According to the author, femininity is a moral standard by which all women are intended to live. I think that talking about femininity is attributing behavioural attributes to an individual and linking them to binary sex, which I think is more than outdated. I think we should start talking about individual personalities, and ways of being and behaving that make each human being unique and unrepeatable. To me, femininity was taken away from me as a child because I was more effeminate than the rest, and I was bullied for it. To this day, I consider myself a cisgender man in part because I changed my behaviour. It is basically sexism disguised as homophobia, negating everything that is linked to women has always made this society desperately seek to maintain a patriarchal society. In my photography, I often seek to represent a woman free from ties and labels, who can show both her most delicate side and her most aggressive and fierce side.

Ernesto Sampons: One of the projects that have given me the most satisfaction has been a journal that I shot in Ibiza for one of my best friends. They have a brand called Simuero, and I have been working with them since they started. Being able to make the people you love happy by working together and being able to generate images that move them is priceless.

The best thing about this project was that it was conceived in a relaxed conversation between friends with the intention of just going to Ibiza to spend a few days away from the city. It was curious how we changed our relaxing plans to a photographic series in which we sought to escape from fashion photography, and go to a universe more linked to documentary photography. Having Ana Floubet as creative director and stylist helped us take the idea to the next level, taking into account aspects such as conveying the story through the clothes worn by the models without it overshadowing the jewellery. Lola Martínez, one of the best make-up artists I work with (she works with Rosalía), and Victor Álvarez, photographer and gaffer, were also fundamental in generating this unique universe that we managed to create in a cave on the island of Pitiusa. We were also able to count on Youssef Bishry and Jordan Legessa, who have worked with photographers that I really admire, such as Louie Banks.

Ernesto Sampons: In photography, I found a vehicular tool to connect with another discipline that I had always liked but which was totally inaccessible to me: fashion. As I became more professional and experienced, I realized how many exceptional professionals there are dedicating themselves to this profession and looking for their place. But in the end, if you spend time and win, you end up finding your place. I think hyper-competitiveness is caused by the savage capitalist society that we live in, so I don’t blame the fashion industry that much. I do believe that we should move towards a much more united and cooperative community of creatives, after all, we are social beings, and our tendency will always be to live together as a community.

Ernesto Sampons: Don’t be too hard on yourself. Many times we become our worst enemies and look for any excuse to question our work. To live from photography, you have to be hungry, nothing more. The technique is acquired little by little, and along the way, you discover experiences and people that you must learn to enjoy and not focus on a goal that does not exist. The path is the most important.

I really don’t know about other areas of photography, but in fashion, it’s really important to surround yourself with a good team. Many times the figure of the photographer is valued much more than that of a stylist or make-up artist. And it is a totally wrong view of the weight that each role has in a project. The photographer has to have the necessary vision to immortalize a scene, but the final image is the result of teamwork in which each part is part of a puzzle in which each piece is essential to complete it. Also, having good casting turns the picture into an icon. I mostly worked since the beginning with stylist Fer Sempere, and he was really important in my development as a professional photographer because working with people you trust is capital to focus on your side of the project.