Born in Malaga in Spain, a life of travel and photography was more than Jesús Jaime Mota imagined. Or maybe it was exactly what he dreamed of while working part-time at his family’s café.
Mota’s interest in photography began as early as 1984. The following year he took a few courses, but soon took up mastering photography on his own. Photography introduced him to Africa, to where he was sent after being named Spain’s best photographer in 1995.
In return, Mota brought back images from Africa to Spain, and continued to return to Africa. He presented his work in exhibits such as “The African Gaze” and “Faces.”
The product of a decade-and-a-half of traversing the African landscape, Mota’s new exhibit, “African Photographs,” depicts inhabitants at work, at school and at play.
Mota traveled to a tsunami-hit Sri Lanka in 2005, donating his work to the International Lions Club’s project on rebuilding homes. The photographer received an honorary distinction for his work in 2005 from the Lions Club President Ashok Mehta.
Daily News Egypt sat down with Mota to discuss his development as a photographer and his fascination with Africa.
Daily News Egypt: You are a self-taught photographer, save for a few photography courses. How did you learn?
Jaime Mota: I took a course. I liked photography and I tried it myself, and one day became a photographer. I read books; I saw many exhibitions a long time ago.
What brought you to Africa?
I came to Africa because the Spanish newspaper, El Pais gave me the first prize for Best Photography in Spain in 1994. I was to travel Kenya and Tanzania for 20 days. That was my first trip and I loved Africa and took pictures. I came many times — about 15 times — since to Tanzania and Ethiopia.
I have also been to India, Thailand, Burma, and Sri Lanka in Asia.
What did you do before?
I was working in my family’s coffee shop in Spain. I was working half a day and doing photography other half. When I discovered Africa and India, I forgot other photography and concentrated on travel photography. You have to have an idea what you want. So, I concentrated on travel photography — taking pictures of different tribes in Africa.
Do you always shoot in black-and-white?
Yes, back when I used film I always shot in black-and-white. With the digital now you have to shoot in color, but normally, I come back to black-and-white.
It is more dramatic, but sometimes I also see in black and white, and I concentrate on light and shadows and forgot the color. I do have some pictures in color of course. I try to work with my own color. I like very dark colors, and pictures that are not too saturated.
How do you find your own pictures different from other portrayals of Africa?
I started with taking portraits. Then, I thought I should show how people live, and learn, and work. I tried to take pictures of normal life. This is very difficult to do because you have to stay a long time in the same place. If you stay for three days in the same place, something happens. You wait and you find a good picture.
I don’t know if my photography is different. Many photographers go to Africa, and they are very good, too. I try to do something special and that is to show daily life.
Some people only take portraits. But the difficult thing to do is to take pictures of daily life. When you go to a village, all the people look at you, and the children stay with you. When you take the camera out, everyone wants to be in the picture.
I like it when people are doing everything as they normally do. When people forget I have the camera, I take the picture.
Where do you go next?
I was thinking of coming back to Egypt. I have only been in Cairo for seven days. I took some pictures, but they’re not the pictures I like. You have to stay longer to take a good picture. Maybe I’ll come back to Egypt in November and December, and stop in a village between Cairo and Luxor and take pictures.
For more information on Jaime Mota, visit http://www.jaimemota.es/.
