Time to Pretend by David Macías
“I try make the people think about the behaviour in modern society and our lack of interest in which I consider very important matters.”
Photographer David Macías creates a photographic series titled Time to Pretend documenting socio-cultural banality and ritual emphasising the divide in social and economic class in modern day life. He's created a body of work that's heavy in concept but replies on the documentary quality of photography while completely aware of the photographic conundrum of objectivity and fully accepting that.
The artistic praxis, allows me to tackle socio-cultural issues from a critical stance, reflecting on art as a tool that promotes the activation of thoughts around situations that have a nexus of relationships based on the division of society into classes, focusing on how affect decisions and processes that are carried out from the hegemonic power to the other layers of society, emphasizing the issues that generate a latent inequality between them.
Tell us more about you and your artwork
I'm a very curious person and I'm really interested on understand how the world works, but this is quite complicated because embraces many areas, I try to follow the geopolitical strategies followed by governments and companies and their interests and also read about sociology which is very inspiring, and this suggest me more questions than answers and sometimes it'll become series of photographs.
How did you plan for this project? What was your creative process?
This project in particular was my final project for my masters degree, so we were asked to develop a photographic project starting from a quote of Theodor W. Adorno art is the social antithesis of society and as you can see it's a very open proposal, so after being investigating and reading during all the year we traveled to San Diego, CA to work on the field
What work inspires or has inspired?
I like many things that I look to, but my favourites in the world of photography are Robert Adams, Robert Frank, Martin Parr and Di Corcia, also John Heartfield and Josep Renau but they weren't directly photographers. Anyway there's not just photography which inspires me, it can be a song, a movie a drawing, basically you can get inspiration everywhere.
Are there any artistic movements you enjoy in particular and why?
I don't have a preference but quality, any artistic movement has its musts, you can enjoy either a documentary photography exhibition or conceptual.
Do you have any opinions or ideals underlying your art?
I try make the people think about the behaviour in modern society and our lack of interest in which I consider very important matters.
Your work is a critical photographic study on societal classes. What are your personal views on the politics of class? Are your views reflected through the work or have you attempted to create an objective viewpoint of class and society? Is your study based on a specific region?
I don't really work in an specific region, the world is a very vast place and it seems we're facing the same problems globally so I adapt my work to the place I'm based at every time, referring to politics of class I always feel wherever I go that working class is always struggling in certain way and there's not many people aware of it or seems not to be caring that much, so yes, reflecting my thoughts through my work is my intention, so I don't think I was very objective, but what is objectivity?
That's a great point! What is objectivity? Any words for aspiring photographic artists?
Do whatever you want to, but do it specially for yourself, and then show it.
Is there anything you’re currently working on?
I have lately been interested in how the political speech is getting very radicalised all around the western world, but I'm just taking the first steps on it.
