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Uge Fuertes
Uge Fuertes is a naturalist, environmental agent and photographer. His life is closely linked to nature, where he has always lived, worked and spent his free time. Uge’s family fostered a sense of wonder and admiration for the little things. His brain is essentially musical and it is music that occupies most of his time and thought; training in Gestalt has conditioned his way of thinking, seeing and expressing himself. His intense interest in photography began, as so many things happen in life, almost by chance. Experimentation, creativity and the search for new ways of looking is a constant in his photographic work.
Michéla Griffith
In 2012 I paused by my local river and everything changed. I’ve moved away from what many expect photographs to be: my images deconstruct the literal and reimagine the subjective, reflecting the curiosity that water has inspired in my practice. Water has been my conduit: it has sharpened my vision, given me permission to experiment and continues to introduce me to new ways of seeing.
In this issue, we feature Spanish photographer Uge Fuertes. For everyone who decides to take up photography, there is another who falls into it by accident, but Uge quickly realised that this interest was for him, and it undoubtedly complements his long-standing relationship with and interest in nature and the outdoors. You’ll find the conversation around the role photography plays for the viewer and Uge’s personal approach to making images very interesting and, at times, humorous.
Would you like to start by telling readers a little about yourself – where you grew up, what your early interests were, and what you went on to do?
I was born 50 years ago in Monreal de Campo, a small village in Teruel, Spain. Since I was a child, I have worked in beekeeping and agriculture. I have always been linked to the countryside, to the open air, where I feel truly free and happy. As a teenager, I used to go hiking a lot around my village to see birds, climb mountains and explore valleys. I studied to become an Environmental Agent, and that is what I have been doing for almost 30 years. Being in contact with nature gives me a certain peace, and I can spend hours observing anything, often learning from the small things around us. Nature is governed by fractal structures, and humans by Euclidean geometry. I think we are more and more absorbed by rectangular and square shapes and less by the fractals that dominate plants, rivers or neurons. Being in contact with nature all the time makes us learn to see it better.