Hi Ivette. Your photography is beautiful, it feels so personal and unique; it’s great that you have the platform to connect with viewers and buyers from around the world via Cluster. How did you get involved with Cluster?

I was approached directly by Cluster after one of the team saw one of my portraits and messaged me on Instagram. This happened around November last year; I did my research on Cluster and decided I wanted to be involved, so we’ve been in conversation and collaborating since then.

Who are your main influences in photography?

Street photography has always inspired me. When I am thinking about my photography I think about the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. He said that the moment in which you’re taking the photo is what makes the photo. I want to perfect a way of telling the story of one unique moment. There are a lot of theories about whether or not he was editing at the time, this was way before Photoshop, but he was capturing what was really going on in the streets. For me, it is so impressive that he was able to capture specific moments in the mid- twentieth century.

And is there a wider inspiration for your photography practice?

Aside from my photography, I have been working in an office, and I usually have meetings with a lot of people, where I often don’t know many of the people. These interactions made me realise that I wanted to explore intimacy between people, as there was a lack of it at my job. Believe it or not I’m actually quite shy, so when there a lot of people in one space I like to observe rather than talk. When I am one-to-one, that’s when I feel closeness, and that was what was missing from my life. In the office my interactions were superficial, but with portraits I can learn about people and connect with them.

It’s interesting that the office environment had such a big impact on your work. I was intrigued to hear that you lived in London for two years; did this inspire your photography at all?

When I went to London I was quite naïve, and thought I could do a whole photography degree. In Mexico to learn photography you have to study Communications and take modules in photography. I was really happy that I could spend so much time on the street taking photographs openly, and was amazed at how people interact. The street art is so different there too. In Mexico, if you take out your camera in the street people will either run from you, or you’ll get robbed. I would need more people around me to feel safe taking photos here, that’s why I like doing portraits.

There is one big constant while looking through your portraits: is there a particular reason why you have only worked with women so far?

I think women are more open to having their portrait taken – in Mexico anyway. Maybe it’s that men find the process slightly intrusive. Even when I do workshops, or want to take street photography with friends, you won’t find a man who is willing to be photographed, it’s always single mums, or just women or kids.

What is inspiring you to make work at the moment?

t’s difficult with the pandemic, and like I said earlier people run when you take a camera out on the street, so I decided to reflect this in my work by making self-portraits. I want to tell a story without it being too explicit. At the moment, we’ve all experienced people offering advice, sending news articles, we all have lots of information. We’re trying to help and advise each other but really we don’t know, most of us aren’t doctors or scientists, but we’re doing what we can. The media is everywhere and a lot of my work is wanting to just put it all away and focus on simplicity and other things. Reflecting how much we do or don’t know is important; some people are doing this through photographing nudity but that’s too much for me. I don’t want this explicit way of saying how vulnerable we all are. I’m very pro-nudity in art but for me I don’t want to be contributing something that is quite so explicit.

How do you want to move forward in your work now?

I want to get the one-on-one contact back, doing lots of portraits, in different styles and different types of portraits depending on the person I’m shooting. I’ve never really fitted in, and while this was difficult in my younger years and as a teenager, now I want that reflected in my art. I don’t want to be put in one box. I want to be able to tell potential clients: I can photograph you in any way you’d like, I can do a large range of styles. I also have lots of images from my travels, and I’d love to make that into a book. I don’t know how much that would cost, or how I’d go about it, but it’s something I definitely want to do. I’ll be exhibiting with Cluster again later this year so will hopefully get to visit and speak to as many people as possible about my work.

Ivette Corona will be exhibiting with Cluster at our next Photography & Print Fair. Watch this space for updates. Visit her artist profile here.

Thank you for reading,
Issey Scott & Cluster Photography & Print Journal