Article written by Jesse Wanamaker (a poet, fiction writer and free-lance journalist with a focus on arts/entertainment, social psychology, and human interest stories.) on an Art News website called Nonstarvingartists.com
Mexican photographer, Javier S. Sañudo (Frodo47), balances a trained eye in the classic beauty of portraiture, with his own dark imaginings through the creative use of photo-manipulation.
The best way to describe Frodo47's photography is simply, 'finding the beauty in darkness'. Sañudo's personal photo series "Personal Artwork " was inspired by "images of madness and indifference you see on the streets." He then twists the images until they take the form of his sometimes nightmarish imaginings.
"I have always preferred to be alone, creating my own 'bubble' in my mind."
Frodo 47, a.k.a. Javier S. Sañudo, was born in 1981and has lived all his life in Mexico City. Like many artists, music was the artist's introduction into personal creativity. "Since I was very young, music has been my curse, I've been playing guitar and listening to music all day and night. For more than eight years, I used to play in Death Metal bands," says Sañudo. He says he has always been interested in images like photography, paintings, video clips, movies. But, it was not until he saw Joel-Peter Witkin’s photos that he got became interested in taking photographs as a main means of expression. "The way he shows human ways of being made me try to do the same, but in my own way."
Sañudo is also influenced by H.R. Giger, John Santerineross, Herr Buchta , Jeffrey Scott, Floria Sigismondi, Misha Gordin among others.
Sañudo studied photography at Escuela Activa de Fotografía (EAF), taking courses about digital photo, developing personal projects and image analysis. He says he learned from the technical matters there, but has learned much more by constantly viewing photographs, and practicing on his own. Sañudo says, "I'm always trying to get the best the shot, factoring the lighting, interesting perspectives and meaningful symbols."
Now days, he pays the bills as a free-lance commercial photographer, doing fashion shoots and band promotion. But don't let his day-job fool you. Although, the images are stunning in composition, it's his personal work that is his art. Sañudo states, "I take some photographs to make money. The more commercial stuff, I enjoy doing for the technical matters. But, I don't enjoy it as much as I do with my personal work because of the meaning in it.
Sañudo is still very influenced by music, I'm always listening to music while I’m shooting or working on the computer. I also enjoy working with bands, taking live concert photos, band photos and artwork for their album booklets. "I combine what I feel with the music I listen to when I'm working - sometimes taking the lyrics from some of my favorite songs and make my own representation of them."
Nudes are essential in Sañudo's work because, "nudity is the most pure and vulnerable way of existence. I've tried to get some actors, professional models, friends and even myself as model. I’m also starting to work on some portrait projects with people who have really suffered - had difficulties in their lives that make them do really strong and painful acts."
When asked why so many of his works are untitled, the artist responds "Normally, I prefer to not put titles to my work. it’s very interesting for me to know what people think and feel while watching my work unless they’ve misunderstood totally what I’m expressing. That’s my game when I leave my works untitled, and I’m ready to play it."
Sañudo explains the benefit of photo manipulation. "Sometimes theres not enough money to get a lot of production, locations, etc. Sometimes I want my photos to look surreal and match the ideas I have, so that's why photo-manipulation has been a great tool for me. I use photo-manipulation as a creative weapon, not a corrective one. I'm trying to be able to express what I'm interested - fear, pain, suffering, death, mental diseases, human behavior, anti-religion and psychology."
While his images are now represented on the Saatchi Gallery website and are gaining popularity, Sañudo remains humble. "I'm not bringing any important messages from outer space or anything, it's just my way to express myself through my main passion. I prefer to leave my work to the open interpretation of the viewer. I'm just working on representing surreality as realistically as I can. I'm glad that people are interested in what I do."