Finding Freedom: Maria Clara Macrì With the Diana Instant Square and Color Negative 800 Film (NSFW)

Our LomoAmiga Maria Clara Macrì is back on our magazine with her amazing pictures, this time taken with the Diana Instant Square, on which the photographer symbolically crumbled some mimosa flowers. Maria Clara also shares with us her experience as a woman photographer and her incredible series taken on Lomography Color Negative 800 medium format film. Read on to find out more!

Hi Maria Clara, welcome back to our magazine! What have you been up to lately?

Hi, nice to be back here. Lately I have been traveling for work, such as the beautiful but short experience in Miami, so I've had little time to devote to more personal projects. However, these last few months I am devoting so much to my new passion, video.

Can you tell us a bit about your experience as a photographer?

My experience as a photographer is actually my life experience, the two are closely related and connected. I sought freedom without following any specific pattern and I came to photography, or photography came to me, and I grew it and taught myself, truly living it.

As I wrote in my book ["In Her Rooms," Postcart Editions, 2021]:

"I don't know if photography chose me or if I chose it,
either way it is my way of life,
meeting new friends in strangers, going somewhere or nowhere
And going back,
Change, analyze, realize, try again. Sharing empathy, poetry, homes, love.
All this helps me appreciate every human being, including myself."

Have you ever felt discriminated against in the photography environment as a woman?

Yes, it has happened to me and I know it will happen again. One should rather ask what happened in the heads of those who discriminated against me after my reaction. I don't let anyone step on my toes, since always, when I don't feel respected I manifest it in a raw and genuine way, without caring about the consequences. Will I lose my job? Fine, I don't want to work for people who don't respect me. I'm not afraid, I've been struggling with these things forever. Let's say it's not convenient for anyone not to respect me.

What is the best advice you have received and what is the best advice you would give to women who wants to pursue a career as a photographer?

The best advice received is the same advice I would give: don't stop believing.

You took these wonderful instant pictures with the Diana Instant Square camera. What was the process you adopted for these images before, during and after the shooting to achieve this effect?

Nilù came to my house on March 8th. She wanted to experience her skin with pride, her wounds and marks without shame, she wanted to see beauty where there's bad memories and suffering. It seemed like a really iconic request. Knowing that the Diana instant Square has this pinhole effect with the flash I felt it was the perfect medium for a study of Nilù's skin, the film alone would have made the focus clear. Also, the fact that it was an instant photo would allow me to respond to Nilù's request here and now, with concentration, only a few shots available, one of those challenges I love. I had been gifted mimosas, I don't like mimosas as flowers, they are certainly symbolic though. I always think that photographing cut flowers is the only way to keep them alive forever.

Nilù at my house on March 8th holding her freshly cut braid of hair to give to a women's charity, the mimosas in my vases that would wilt the next day, her blooming on the white wall of my studio more and more after each click. I didn't sleep that night, by five o'clock I was up scanning the pictures and then I wanted more. I wanted to bring it all together and I started crumbling the mimosas on them.

This series on Lomography Color Negative 800 film is amazing, you can sense a deep connection between you and the couple you portrayed. Would you tell us the story behind this shoot?

My house has this double meaning, on the one hand my refuge, my studio, where I have no distractions and I can work on my projects, scan, write, work on the archive, immersed in my bubble without interference, with my music. On the other hand the seaport, the gathering place for friends, the party room, dinners and lunches where I can make my guests feel at home, home for those who feel like a coffee and a chat. Sometimes also home for broken hearts who need a temporary place full of love. Home for photographer friends passing by, home for people who come to visit me. Then also the studio where I portray my subjects and my life.

P. has been my close friend for almost eight years now. A. is a more recent photographer friend. I introduced them to each other a year and a half ago. They came to visit me at my house with their little dogs for a weekend and I let them have my room. We partied in the evening, talked and ate, watched movies on the couch cuddling the dogs, more almost like brothers than friends. The morning before they left I wanted to keep a memory of it. I have already photographed couples in my room. They feel free, as if they were in their own. It is the magic of my room. I am there, my presence however blends into theirs.

Who are the female photographers you appreciate or who have inspired you over time and whom you would like our readers to get to know?

Nan Goldin, Carrie Mae Weems, Abigail Heyman, Eve Arnold, Sophie Call, Marie Ellen Mark, Tina Modotti, Mig Smith, Denisse Ariana Perez, Vivienne Sassen, Coco Capitain, Harley Weir, Maisie Cousin.

If you could say anything to other women photographers around the world, what would it be?

I would thank them for their vision, their testimony, their courage.

Thank you so much Maria Clara for this interview and for these wonderful shots! Check out more of Maria Clara's photos on Instagram and on her website.

written by ludovicazen on 2023-04-10 #gear #people #medium-format #lomography-color-negative-800 #feminism #diana-instant-square #lomowomen23 #womens-month