FEAR
OF
FORGETTING

WHO ARE YOU?

My name is Francisco Russo, I am an artist and image maker from Los Angeles, California, currently based in New York.


HOW DID YOU GET INTO ART?

I guess I would say that I started under the influence of my mother. She worked under my grandfather, who had his own portrait studio in their hometown, and she grew up with a camera. When I was growing up, it was instilled in me through either her taking millions of pictures of us or showing us photographs, old photographs. It just ended up being something that was kind of hereditary in a way, but also a little bit different, 'cause no one else, not any of my siblings, had the same interests in the arts.The pinnacle of it was my mother giving me my grandfather's old camera when I was about 13 or 12, which was a family heirloom.



FAMILY PRESSURE?

C: So, coming from a family that's, like, known for taking pictures, is there any type of pressure? Is extra pressure added, especially since you're the only one of your siblings to pick up the craft?

I would say there wasn't any pressure really, just because it felt like two separate worlds, between me and my siblings and my parents. 'Cause again, they were doing portraits, such as wedding or graduation photos, photos for anyone who would pay to have a studio session with them. But when I got into it, I immediately approached it differently, I looked at it from an artistic perspective. So no, I wouldn't say there was any pressure.

E: So, you've made quite a name for yourself in New York so far; I mean, you've got a manager, you've shot all these big artists, and you talked a lot about how so much of this is because of your family. What is their reaction to all of this?

How do your parents feel about it? They're supportive of it to a degree. I feel like they’re at peace with only knowing the surface level of it, and they are fully behind it.

E:  I wanted to interject earlier, but do you remember which camera model you were given? 

It was- I would love to remember, but I don't. (laughing) 

E: But you mentioned it was like an older camera, right? 

Yeah, it was an old film camera, but it didn't work when she gifted it to me. When I was 14, I decided to get it fixed, and they told me, "Oh, we actually don't make parts for it anymore, "so it doesn't exist anymore. "We can't really do anything about it." So I kind of just was like, "Fuck."So I decided to buy my own camera, something simple I could handle.

E: So what was it? What was the beginner camera?

An Olympus stylus.

E:Oh film! So do you shoot more film or digital now?

Right now, I primarily shoot digital.



SHOOTING FILM

E: Was there any difficulty learning how to shoot photography on film? Because I know some people say that film is harder to work with than digital.

I feel like the time where my interest in it was most nurtured was when I was in high school, 'cause I took a film class, and it was very demanding. I never truly became too fond of it. I was always in love with the idea of film and the capturing of crudity, but there came a time where it started to feel like an exploitation of nostalgia. So I was like, why not just assimilate to the modern, 'Cause in the end it’s not the gun that shoots, it’s the person behind the trigger.


CREATING YOUR SIGNATURE STYLE

C: You mentioned your family uses more of a portrait style, and you decided to switch that and use more of a fashion editorial style. Can you talk about how you started creating your signature look which is kind of  dark and gloomy? I don't wanna say the word aesthetic, but you know what I'm talking about. 

It primarily has to do with the grasping of visuals and ideas I had growing up in Southeast Los Angeles. My most significant memories of my time growing up in Los Angeles were just riding the bus early in the morning to see the city, it was just always dark and gloomy, and I would have to wake up really early to get to school on time. I'd ride the bus and see all these industrial construction places. It would be anything from produce companies to trucking companies to power plants,at  like 5 a.m., when the sun is still rising. And it was just pallid, you'd see all these people that kind of look like ants, just walking, walking into these factories, all one by one. So I think that feeling or memory is kind of something that I just always grabbed onto. It's something that I don't see anywhere else, and that memory’s just so significant to me that I use it as an agent of seeing things.




TRAPPED IN A BOX?

C: Do you ever feel trapped by having such a specific style, or people know you, but that's your style of photography?

I'd say at times I do because of how ambiguous it is. The ambiguity allows people to process my work in different ways, so often I get locked into specific interpretations that I don’t resonate with at all. But I don't really let it get to me.


RESERVATIONS POSTING ART?

C: Do you ever feel any reservations about posting what you post?

Yes, but at the same time I feel it's just the norm to share everything online. Especially with our generation and our need to create digital waste, and just puke every single thing we see. As much as I’d like to be against it, I feel like it's something we all inherently do. And I feel like everyone's Instagram has become their portfolio.


SEPARATING ART FROM ARTIST

E: Kind of leaning into that, traditionally, when we do these interviews, Chris and I, mostly Chris, I'm not gonna take his work, we do a little bit of digging on people. Just so we can kind of hit them with a gotcha moment in the middle of the interview. And they're always like, “Oh, how'd you know about that?” But Chris mentioned that it was really hard to find things about you. For me personally, when I get into an artist's work, I find it easier to connect to their work when I know who's behind it. I can find things to relate to, in either you as a person, or maybe where you grew up, or your story. Do you feel like you would want to be separated from your work in terms of how it's perceived?

I don’t really care. Those who know me only for my work know me as just that and those who know me for both know me at my most…me. And I’m fine with that.

E:  'Cause I'm gonna be honest, looking at your work, I had no idea how you're going to look. Is there a point where you want that to change? Do you kind of want people to know you as a photographer?

I think my attitude towards my person being connected to my pratice as a photographer changes when I do work that aligns a lot with my cultural background, being Hispanic and referencing points of my heritage and my religion. But just referencing things, pertaining to my upbringing as a Catholic and Evangelic at the hands of two immigrant parents, I feel like maybe that's when I would want to be connected to my work because it is a very specific part of my life that I'm sharing and portraying through facets of imagery.



PERSONAL PROJECT?

C:  Forgive me if I'm wrong, you have a project with a title in Spanish.  I’m not going to say it, I’m going to mess it up.

E: Didn’t you take like three years of Spanish?

C: God damn, and I almost failed the last one.

E: Well, what does it mean?

C: When the sun burns the stars, it lights up my blood, something like that? No?

Oh, well, kind of, yeah. It’s “maul me by the time the sun sets so the stars may percolate my blood”.

C:  Hey, I got the blood, I got the sun, I got the when, come on now. That's like 30%. 

E: That was your grade, too?

C:  No, I actually passed it. So, talk about that, like the creative process behind developing that project.

Well, that project was just a collection of images capturing people who I feel symbolize this disconnect from this idea of the “art world”, and also symbolize fragments of myself, through fashion images. And the title is just an excerpt of a poem I wrote when I was 16, and I connected the line to this general idea of the obliteration of a persona, or character, or who you are perceived by the world as, and then kind of forced into the constrictions of a fashion image.

E:  So you're a writer?

I wouldn't call myself a writer, but I do write.

E: What do you write?

I like writing poems. Recently, I've been getting into documenting,and revisiting parts of my life. I wanna write a memoir someday, i think it’ll be funny.



WRITING VS PHOTOGRAPHY?

E: And how do you feel writing differs from photography because they're both ways of capturing a moment? 

I wouldn't consider it all too different as it is the act of taking a thought and translating it into something physical, translating it into something that can be viewed by others. Because I've always seen photography as mind vomit, the envisioning of something in your head, the color of the background, the color of someone's face, the color of someone's eye, the clothes that they're wearing, the position their body is in, their finger contorted at an angle, and then constructing it to become something tangible and something for people to see. So I think that's the same as writing, where you see or feel these things, a story, and you write it down, turning it into something physical and consumable.

E:  Yeah, and have you reached that point where you could share your writing publicly?  With writing?

Not really. I think I just keep it to myself as a mental exercise.


COLLABS

C: Photographers work with many people on a set. How is that collaborative process like working with many different people on a team? Because you have a vision for what you want to do, but someone else might have a vision, is there any conflict that you face working with so many people?

I wouldn't say there's much conflict; From my perspective, I see it in two ways. There's the type of project where you work commercially, whereas you are solely hired for your skill instead of your eye. Then the eye part of it, where you are constructing something with someone else, or with a whole team of other people who are working under the same idea to create a specific project.


BREAKING INTO THE NY SCENE?

E: I feel like you worked pretty proficiently in New York so far. So, how did you break into that?

  I didn't really feel like there was much for me, or at least my ideas that I was trying to put out in LA. And I always saw New York to be the destination to nurture and accept my ideas, and I felt like that's where I would reach someone, at least one person, who would see it or understand it. So right after high school, I just wanted to move there, with nothing, just my savings, and little to no knowledge of anyone or anything that was going on there. But then I settled back into reality and said, okay, let me just go with some sort of plan.

So I enrolled into Parsons and got here with that, under the guise of moving for school. And then, I quickly realized  that was  not the right path for me. So, after that, I found myself absorbing the scenes and culture New York had to offer and navigated it as being introduced to a new world, while at the same time trying to wedge my ideas into it. And that's been it.



BIG BREAK

E: So what'd you consider kind of like your big break, when you were like, okay, I can really do this. What job or photo do you think kind of kicked it in for you now that you are living in New York?

For New York, I would say it would have been...Well, that's a really hard question. I want to say I don't think I've taken it yet, but there have definitely been moments where I've been ecstatic in my head, because I'm finally getting to do something I never deemed possible. Honestly, it would be… No, you know what, I'm gonna go with it hasn't happened yet.

E:  So what were some of the mental ones?  Where you were like, oh my gosh this is really happening. 

Well, one of them was this idea or goal of photographing this specific musician. I was like, oh, that's my goal; I'll know I'm doing something right if there's ever the chance to photograph this musician whose music I've been listening to for the longest time. And then I got here, and maybe like a year and a half into living here, I got the opportunity to photograph that musician for a publication.

E:  Who was it?

Arca.

GETTING PAID

C: Oh, previously, you mentioned commercial work and all that. There's a big struggle for artists to get paid.

I found myself in these scenes or crowds of people who had been in this space for a long time. So I would go to them for advice at first. I would just be like, how much do you think I should charge for this? How much do you think I should invoice this commission for, etc. But I’ve recently found myself at ease with that part of it with the help of my management.

C: And is that? I saw this on—I don't know what it's called—your Instagram, like the email Attention LLC.

Yeah. 

C: And is that the management for you?

Yeah, they mostly manage musicians but I’ve recently joined them as a photographer.

C: Yeah, 'cause I saw the website, it was like Surf Gang & Woesum, and some others were on there.

Yeah, they manage alot of niche New York groups and musicians. They reached out to me and we’ve been working together for a while now.



STRUGGLES YOU FACE AS A CREATIVE?

C: So, what are some struggles you face as a creative, an artist, or a photographer?

E: You can say one big one or multiple small ones. Whatever you want.

One big one is just not being taken seriously, but that's not to say that it's life altering or anything. Because I feel like in this certain space that I'm in, it's not really a problem, but it's just something that I've noticed that happens, not that often though. Still when it does happen, it leaves a sting. I think it’s primarily due to my age.

E:  How old are you? 

20.


WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WANTED TO PURSUE PHOTOGRAPHY

E: When did you know photography was something you wanted to pursue?

It has to do a lot with my upbringing and what I saw happening around me. Being a child of immigrants and living around other children of immigrants and seeing the paths that they would take,almost by force, I just never really felt seen by it. Then I found photography, a path that I felt comfortable creating for myself and not one made by someone else for me.

E:  Do you go home often?

Yeah.



WAITING TO GIVE UP

C: Is there any time when you wanna quit and give up 'cause it becomes overwhelming?

I feel like everyone does, but I want to say no because I feel I'm too young to think in that way.  Way too young. And I feel like just because of how fast-paced everything is, being a part of the generation that grew up way too fast, it’s very easy to find yourself stunted in a negative or sometimes destructive way when you feel undervalued, but in the end I’m still just starting my career.

E:  And I think, at least me personally, I respond better to your work knowing your age. Being 20, I feel like you're well equipped to be that person that goes into the New York underground art scene and shoots those nitty gritty photos versus if you were like a 50-year-old dude, I'd be like, "Look pack it up, man." (laughing) You're too old for this; I feel like you don't know what you're talking about or doing. So I think your age, being young, and being in the know make a whole lot of difference when it comes to the work you create, especially with what you're trying to shoot.



WANTING CHANGE

C: Is there any time you wanna switch the type of scene you're shooting and get out of the underground to maybe explore something completely different? 

I constantly think about this, but I don't even know what the opposite end of it is.  'cause I've been in this bubble for a short period of my life and although it feels like it’s been so long, it truly has only been a couple of years. So I’m leaving it all to what time will tell.


UPCOMING PROJECT

C: And do you have any up-and-coming personal projects you're working on that are not brand-related for people or anything but personal for you?

I'm working on my first book right now. 

C: And do you mind talking about how you came up with the idea? 

It was born out of the idea of the project you mentioned earlier. It’ll be very anti-fashion.

E: I would say, just going from digital to physical, is there anything that scares you about that? 

Not really, because whenever I create an image, I always think about it as a physical thing, as a print.  Having these ideas, like a paper catalog of my thoughts, is really exciting. It’s not scary at all.

C: And are you planning to sell the book? And how is that thinking about marketing?

Yes, I’m planning to sell the book and introduce it with a solo exhibition.


WHY DO YOU CREATE

C: So, why do you create?

I create out of the fear of forgetting & out of the thirst of wanting to exist outside of myself.


FAVORITE PHOTO YOU TAKEN?

My favorite photo is of one of my two friends in Los Angeles. It was one of the last photographs I took before moving to New York. It frames these two girls behind this building in Los Angeles, a landscape that doesn't really look like the generic image of  Los Angeles. It cements this idea of finding two subjects in my life who may not ever really be photographed in that way,  or told to “dress up like this and pose like this and stand at this specific place like this.". I just never really placed the faces of those subjects until i realized they were in front of me all along.



GOALS

C: Do you have any goals for this coming year? What's upcoming for Francisco?

Yeah, this year?

C: This year, next year, whatever you want.

  I want to finish the book. And I want to allow myself to take a break & not feel guilty about it.

E: If you want to do any shout-outs, any people you want to dedicate this to, artists you think are cool, or people to look out for,

Just my parents.

EVERYONE GO LOOK AT FRANCISCO’S WORK RIGHT NOW! HE’S SO TALENTED AND IT WAS SUCH A PLEASURE TO HAVE HIM. - - e&c*

CREDITS

SUBJECT/BRAND : FRANCISCO RUSSO @franciscorusso

PHOTOGRAPHER : FRANCISCO RUSSO @franciscorusso / LAURA SONG @gh0stpimp

MODEL : FRANCISCO RUSSO @franciscorusso

EDITOR: E&C* @acediastudios

TEXT : E&C* @acediastudios