Nicanor García is a photographer specializing in travel and architecture, born and based in Barcelona. His career as a photographer began in 2012, and since 2016 he has been working alongside photographer and artist Shuko Kawase, who is also his wife.
1. Tell us about your background and journey.
After my career in architecture, I started to work as an independent architect. During that time I was able to develop different designs and buildings, but I was also teaching architectural design at the public university in Barcelona.
As far as photography, I learned the technique as I went along, teaching myself, and taking specific workshops. My time as an architect provided an immense base for training as a photographer; it helped me build my way to see architecture and the world.
After some time working alone, now I develop my projects with the photographer Shuko Kawase (@studioshuko). In our respective Instagram accounts, you can see what we do.
2. How and when did you realize your passion for photography?
From the very beginning of my architecture practice, I was attracted to and influenced by photography. Names like Ezra Stoller and Julius Shulman caught my eye when I browsed books, magazines, or the internet.
Little by little, while learning architecture, I also learned the key ways to create my own photographic viewpoint.
Around 2008, there was a big construction crisis in Spain, and I had fewer projects as an architect… The silver lining was acquiring free time. I started to take more photos and deepen my art and technique.
Another key moment was in 2012 when I started my Instagram account @nicanorgarcia. Since then it has been very successful and has become one of the motivations to create photography with consistency.
After some time, I started to have more work as a photographer than as an architect, and I decided to move to photography.
The path has been slow, step by step, but very interesting because everything I learned as an architect is now a staple in my way of seeing the world as a photographer. In addition to architectural photography, over time, I have become specialized in travel photography, and I also enjoy doing street photography.
3. What are some tips you would like to share with amateur photographers?
Any job makes sense if you really care about the fundamentals of it. In photography, it is vital to be interested in what you are looking at. What is happening? How is it? What is it made of? How does it influence its surroundings? How is it affected by light? Curiosity is the key.
Curiosity will lead you to transmit what you see through your photographs. And this is vital in any style of photography, be it architecture, portrait, food, or landscape.
Once you are able to create that connection between what you see and the visual outcome, the technique will come naturally as it will not be difficult to learn it (although you need to put in the effort to arrive there!)
4. What are the important skills one should have to be a successful photographer?
Curiosity is the starting point. From there I would recommend acquiring a basic understanding of light and composition. It is essential to develop your own visual capacity.
This is something that you have to achieve yourself; there are no schools or shortcuts, and it is what will make your photography special. Looking at good photography in books, magazines, or especially in person will help you.
Obviously, you need to develop skills with photographic gear and software as well. In the beginning, lack of knowledge should not be an obstacle to producing images. However, after gaining experience, your skills will be an advantage and a source of creative and technical opportunities.
Beyond this, the important things are perseverance and work. In this way, something as fragile as the photographic viewpoint can develop and become a way of life.
5. What are various opportunities available for aspiring photographers?
There are many people working increasingly in photography. For this reason, you have to be creative and explore all possible ways to develop your own vision. Copying what others have done can help to start learning, but you won't make a name for yourself professionally.
It is a fragile and highly variable job, but at the same time, it is intense and dynamic, something like surfing. So as far as opportunities, you have to look for them, and it is possible to find niches.
But above all you have to create opportunities yourself, giving your work your own character and being true to your creative vision but at the same time empathetic to photographic subjects and clients.
6. Which is your favorite book and why?
I like to travel and adventure books, also novels, where you immerse yourself in the author's world and imagine it in your own way. But I have a weakness for books with photographs where I can see through a window what others have seen. And an extension of that is cinema.
So I would recommend any Steve McCurry book, for example, his last one from 2020: In Search of Elsewhere. And a Wong Kar-Wai movie from 2000: In the Mood for Love.
In both cases, we can enjoy and learn from the stories and the images.
Instagram Handle - @nicanorgarcia
Nicanor García is a photographer specializing in travel and architecture, born and based in Barcelona.
His career as a photographer began in 2012, and since 2016 he has been working alongside photographer and artist Shuko Kawase, who is also his wife. Architecture, spaces, the city, and culture are their interests, subjects that they photograph and explore visually in a personal and unique way.
He has had solo exhibitions in Barcelona, Beijing, Lisbon, Orense, and Tarragona, and group exhibitions in different places in Spain.
In 2019, Forbes Magazine highlighted him as one of the 5 most influential photographers on social networks in Spain. In 2020, Forbes Magazine once again highlighted him as one of the Top 100 influencers in Spain.
Nicanor García
Photographer
Interviewed By - Anushka Gagwari
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