Almudena Amor
Alex Cascallana, a Madrid-based fashion photographer, teamed with actress, Almudena Amor, and a makeup and hair artist, Jen Barreiro, to work on this new story. The story is a merge of the world of fashion and cinema, which allows a viewer to dive deeper into the narrative. The character offers a full range of emotions: from playful to bored, upset, self-collected, and finally thoughtful state.
The impression we receive is of spending a couple of days observing the character, who evolves as the story unfolds. The work with light, postures caught in action, and a strong connection between the person played and the camera create a cinematic feel. Alex explains, “We established the rule' that it would have to be quite cinematic, we had to reproduce different scenes and the character would change in each one of them.”
We decided to chat with Alex and Almudena to discover some additional elements from the shooting day. We speak about the conception of the idea, the freedom of creation, the approach to produce a story, and the way to get into the role through understanding the character. “I tried to play a character with a lot of troubles who tries to carry out a bunch of changes through this weakness, but at the same time to fight strongly.” - Almudena shares. The result is a captivating story, each image is a frame 'cut' from a film, the ending of which resumes in our own imagination.
‘We established 'the rule' that it would have to be quite cinematic, we had to reproduce different scenes and the character would change in each one of them.’
— Alex Cascallana
Hi Alex, let’s start with the idea for this story. Where did it originate from?
Alex: Hi guys, the idea came in an easy and such a natural way. Almu and I are friends and we have always wanted to work together but it never happened. A few weeks ago she told me that she recently cut her hair notably and maybe now was the perfect timing to make a shooting together. That's how it happened.
We talked and we didn't want to have a very rigid idea, we wanted to do something free. We established 'the rule' that it would have to be quite cinematic, we had to reproduce different scenes and the character would change in each one of them.
Almudena:Before becoming an actress I worked a long time as a model but now it's been a while. At this moment I feel in a really different scenario and I started having the desire to approach photography again from a different place or role. I felt it would be perfect to do it with Alex, as we are friends, I love his work and what he explores in his photos was completely in harmony with what I was looking for. I really enjoyed facing this project from absolute freedom, like a game without pressure from brands or clients.
‘I think about what kind of person I want to see there and then I create, in my mind, all the background stories about the life of this person.’
— Alex Cascallana
The shoot is very cinematic in terms of visual storytelling. Which film directors affected your aesthetics the most, and what do you love about their work?
Alex: I like a lot of film directors and sometimes very diverse ones, but if I have to choose a few, as connected to this project, I would say directors like John Cassavetes, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Haneke or François Ozon. I always love it, when you are watching a film and you realize that nothing big happens, but at the same time you have a lot of layers of information to process and all the information comes from the characters and their daily life.
Sometimes, I try to make a similar approach to this kind of shooting. First, I think about what kind of person I want to see there and then I create, in my mind, all the background stories about the life of this person. I try to build a character, in such a way that after seeing these pictures, you can imagine what happened before and what could happen later after this "frame"
‘As an actress, I'm very attracted to human contradictions. In this case, I tried to play a character with a lot of troubles who tries to carry out a bunch of changes through this weakness, but at the same time to fight strongly’
— Almudena Amor
Who is the character in the story? What do you think her usual day looks like, and what does she care about?
Alex: The character in this story is a young woman who needs to process, in a short period of time, all the changes that occurred in her routine. Almost all the cultural and social options are closed, the way we relate with people or the environment is different... everybody has a few faces of themselves, but now all these faces have to live most of the time in the same place and we are learning how to deal with that in terms of mental health. I think that, consciously or unconsciously, the pictures reflect the feelings and situations of everybody's lives.
Almudena: It has something for me too, it's like an inner war between power and fragility. As an actress, I'm very attracted to human contradictions. In this case, I tried to play a character with a lot of troubles who tries to carry out a bunch of changes through this weakness, but at the same time to fight strongly, like something which vibrates in her organism. On the other hand, it's about somebody who wants to stay inside of her own cave. I don't know if that makes any sense for you haha.
‘I consider myself very meticulous in terms of composition and light and I almost always work on a mood board of different lights that I want to have and some kind of frame scale in which I imagine the story.’
— Alex Cascallana
What are some challenges you usually expect when shooting in a natural setting, considering work with light and the choice of the frame? How do you solve these challenges?
Alex:I consider myself very meticulous in terms of composition and light and I almost always work on a mood board of different lights that I want to have and some kind of frame scale in which I imagine the story. I am very strict about this and I try to assign each mood of light to a part of the location, however lately, I started to skip my own rules haha because I understand that it's good to control a few parameters and keep the state of mind of the project in your head, but it is also necessary to leave some freedom for the rest. In fact, the bulk of my last works is the pictures I took in this 'no rules time' of the shooting.
Which moment from this project is most precious to you?
Alex: I think the moment when Almu had this remarkable make-up and she was completely soaked. You can see the mix of feelings and personalities in only one portrait.
Almudena: I totally agree! For me, that photo reflects 100% of what we talked about during this chat.
