I didn’t become a photographer because I loved cameras. I became one because I wanted to make pictures and build a life around them.

I grew up in Santiago, far from advertising sets, art schools or people who could explain how this industry worked. I learned by doing, photographing bands I wanted to see, figuring things out with whatever I had and slowly turning photography into my profession.

For almost two decades I’ve moved between advertising, lifestyle, portraiture and music.

That can mean working on a commercial production with an agency, a client and a full crew, making portraits with very little time, or being backstage or onstage with a band where nothing waits for you. They look like completely different worlds, but I approach them in a similar way. Understand what is happening, know when to direct and when not to, solve what needs solving and make the photograph without overcomplicating it.

On commercial shoots I understand that the picture is only one part of a much bigger production. I care about the brief, the people around me, the schedule and making sure the day keeps moving.

With musicians and portraits, I try to get close without making the situation about me. Enough direction to make the picture, enough room for the person to still look like themselves.

I like simple photographs, good ideas and people being people. I take the work seriously without making the atmosphere unnecessarily serious.

When I’m not shooting, I’m probably playing guitar with my hardcore band, going through an archive that became much bigger than expected, or trying to find one very specific photograph hidden inside thousands of badly named folders.

Based in Santiago, Chile. Available worldwide.