(Tim Zaragoza)
Photographer and filmmaker Tim Zaragoza first caught my eye with his documentation of behind the scenes activities during New York Fashion Week for V Magazine. Shot with his 16mm camera, Zaragoza’s work has an honest and voyeuristic quality to his creations. With recent projects including stylist Keegan Singh as well as a contribution to Nomenus Quarterly featuring Texas cult members clad in Prada lace, Zaragoza filled me in on what he has been up to as of late. A creator and an innovator, look out for future creations from this innovative artist.
Yale Breslin: Tell us a little bit about Shotgun Singh as well as Prada 16mm. What was the motive behind these projects?
Tim Zaragoza: Shotgun Singh and Prada were both projects I worked on with stylist Keegan Singh. Shotgun Singh was initiated by Keegan and Featured his paintings that marries two of his favorite things, art and guns. Prada was a story that I was asked to shoot for the exclusive publication, Nomenus Quarterly. The initial inspiration was the women of the YFZ cult in Texas. We then pulled in POP references such as Helmut Newton and Robert Palmer Videos to the effect of creating a YFZ of Fashion of sorts….young women who are both vulnerable and powerful. The 16mm element of the Prada was an opportunity to pull the Palmer reference closer to the surface of the concept.
How did you get into photography? Was it always something you wanted to do?
Photography was an early passion of mine that I studied during high school at the Potomac school, just outside Washington DC. At the San Francisco Art Institute, I began as a Painter but in my second year I started to focus mainly on conceptual works … graduating with a degree from the renowned New Genres Department under performance artist Tony Labat. During this phase, photography served more as a means to communicate rather than an end in itself. It wasn’t until the year I spent in Europe after school that I became intrigued by Fashion Photography… I suppose it was the Hickey-ian idea that beauty could be both seductive and subversive. But it was my respect for the immediacy of Fashion, and the undeniable energy of operating within that present tense.
What sets your aesthetic and creative vision apart from other photographers and filmmakers?
What I think sets my work apart from others? This desire to create something utterly new, without losing sight of what’s in front of me.
What are you currently working on?
At the moment I am working on new shoot for Nomenus with the label Ohne Titel … Alexa Adams, one half of the design duo at Ohne Titel is styling the shoot. To give you a taste, the concept embraces the dawn of modernity as a means to touch upon something authentically future-present.
You have contributed to Magnus Berger’s The Last Magazine in the past. How did this opportunity come about?
The Shotgun Singh story, although sadly missing the deadline for the first Issue of Last, will hopefully be featured on their website when it launches. This opportunity came about through Keegan who is one of the featured stylists for Last.
- Interview by Yale Breslin for Starworks
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