We are thrilled to have Fares Micue on our esteemed panel of jurors for the 5th Edition.

Who are you?

My name is Fares Micue and I am a fine art/ conceptual photographer from Spain, my work is mainly composed of self-portraits where I explore my thoughts and perception about life and the lessons I have learned during my own self-discovery journey. With my work, I aim to inspire and encourage others to also begin their own self-discovery journeys.

What inspired you to pick up a camera?

In the beginning, it was just the desire to have some beautiful images to post on Flickr, and others to enjoy privately with my close ones. But when I started my self-exploration and self-discovery journey where I made the decision to know what made me feel happy and fulfilled, what made me feel confident and how my thought had a big role in the way I felt, I decided to document it through my writing (that was a hobby that I have had since my teenage years), that was the moment that I decided to link this two separate hobbies and turn them into one and started to create my conceptual images.

What first inspired your desire for self portraits?

In the beginning, I guess it was the easiness and the accessibility to practice whenever I wanted to, and later in my practice when I started to create conceptual work and since there was an idea, a feeling that I wanted to share it became even easier to just do it myself that having to explain the concept to another person, with self-portraits I always have the certainty to deliver exactly what I want to. But even though is easier to work like this, I definitely look forward to collaborating with other creatives and create images with other subjects other than myself, especially with actors or dancer since they have a good understanding of body language.

Your work utilises strong colour composition, can you discuss the artistic decision behind this?

Color is definitely a key component of my practice, I use color in order to transmit feelings and moods with the science of color therapy. Colors are a powerful tool when it comes to shaping our energy and thoughts. In the same way that dressing in red makes us feel sexy and attractive or sleeping in a room painted with lavender or blue tones makes us sleep better, I wanted to introduce the individual and personal vibration of each color in my work, creating with them different emotions throughout my composition.

Your work utilizes a lot of nature, specifically flowers, what inspired this decision?

I personally think that flowers and nature illustrate perfectly the cycle or step we must go through when it comes to personal growth and discovery. Like trees in Autumn, we must get rid of the old thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that no longer serve us, then we get into hibernation like plants in Winter, when we must rest and heal our wounds in order to bloom stronger and beautifully like in the Spring, to finally become exuberant and abundant in an eternal Summer.

Can you address the artistic decision to obscure your face in your work?

At the beginning of my practice, I exclusively did portraits of my face, where I would place the weight of transmitting the emotion in my eyes, naturally, as my journey progressed, I started showing my face less often; at some point, I started to feel that my message wasn't only about me anymore, instead, it was for anybody who resonates with the message I was sharing in that particular image, furthermore, my face was totally unnecessary and it would even, in my opinion, take away from the real protagonist that at that moment is the viewer.

You recently held your first solo show, can you describe how it came to be?

It was really a dream come true, even though I couldn't be physically present (because of the pandemic) we use all the available resources to make me feel as present and connected as we could. I was blessed to have them get in touch with me after seeing my work online and from there we started working together to make it happen. It was truly exciting and rewarding to receive wonderful feedback from all the people who took time out of their day to share their visits with me.

What projects are you currently working on?

I normally go with the flow and always have new ideas flowing in mind that I write down to keep them present, but, for now, nothing I can share yet.

What advice would you give to an emerging artist/photographer?

I encourage any person, artist or not to explore themselves, to dive deep into their souls and discover their true purpose, and if you find that art is what makes you happy, find the fuel of your motivation, find the engine that pushes you to create, be honest with your work and with yourself, create what makes you happy and not what you think people want to see, be yourself and people will feel your honesty, share your true thoughts and feeling. Both in art and in life, it is better for people not to like you for who you really are than to love you for who you are not, and whenever you feel ready start sharing your work with the world that's the only way to get feedback and keep growing and moving forward in your practice.

To view more of Fares Micue’s work

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