Interview with Alina Cara Oswald - creator of the "Moments" project

 "...Photography has accompanied me for many years of my life, in which I have already done some free projects and worked with a lot of self-discipline. It fascinates me to create the world on a piece of paper in which I can convey a content figuratively.
 I'm concerned about the levels behind what you can see. It is about thoughts, interpretation, and emotions, which is expanded by the viewer...."

We had this big possibility to interview a very talented photographer Alina Cara Oswald. Se creates project “Moments“,  showing a side of people rarely seen by others.

MartaM: What is your background, what made you want to be a photographer?

Alina Cara Oswald:  It always has been a part of my essence being creative. So I first started to draw and to paint, then I started writing a lot. For some years making music was the focus of my life. So I always wanted to create something that comes out of my soul. Then I started photographing. It got very interesting in my mind that I have so many ways to communicate without talking. So that's how the experiment started. First I photographed just analog that I combined it with the digital camera.

M.M: Remember the first photo you ever shot? Tell us about it.

Alina O.: I simply can’t remember the first photo I took. It´s very long ago. But the first photos I found very interesting have been the first act shootings where I photographed women with my analog camera. 

M.M: What was the first major piece /series you work on?

Alina O.: In the past, I never had a concept or a project with content. I just photographed wild and free. But the first project with a concept I did over months was the photo book „Normalität“. It was the first project I got addicted to doing it without anything else in my mind.

M.M.: Can you expand on your creative process, from choosing a topic to how long it takes to create one piece?

Alina O: I have many ideas in my mind and I all write them down. And if one of them really interests me I start thinking about it and writing about the content. I do some research for getting inspired. After that I start to talk about it with others, also to reflect the content. I have to make clear in my mind what I want to tell and how I want to implement that. After that, I have to find models. This process can take me some weeks or months. And then I simply start making shootings. Everything can chance within the process but I stay flexible and just follow my instinct how I will continue. In the end, I am very satisfied with my work but after a while, I need to go on and refine myself and my work again. That's why I never stop being creative and review my perspective.

M.M: If you weren’t doing what you are now, where would you work?

Alina O.: I never think about that. I am just doing what I am doing and try to live in the moment and to enjoy my life. It doesn´t matter what I am doing but how I am doing it. It has to fulfill me with love and joy.

M.M: What are your ambitions for the future?

Alina O.: For the future, I am planning more projects and exhibitions. I will continue putting all my energy into my creativity. Stay focused on my work and the things I want to express.

M.M: What reaction do you hope to get from people seeing your photography?

Alina O.: For me, photography is a very emotional way to talk without words. So my aim is that people understand what I want to say by just looking at the photos. Feeling the content or even better, expanding the meaning of the pictures by having their own way to look at it or to interpret what they see. The own way of every person looking at my work makes the world of the moment captured in the photo bigger. I think every reaction people could have when they see my photographs is interesting for me, even if its negative. The main point for me is that people feel something when they see my photos. For example looking at a person having an orgasm. This is pure positive energy. Feel it.

M.M: How did The photo book „Art&Weise" and "Normalität" idea come to you?

Alina O.: For the photobook „Normalität“ I got inspired from a lot of people I know suffering from their psyche because society does not accept them or even think it's not normal how they are. So I wanted to make clear that every aspect of a human being has the right to be there and that my definition of normality includes maybe more than the definition of normality from others. So my task was to show with a photograph how the people I worked with felt inside. I tried to combine photography and psychology. I photographed ten people and interviewed them. In the end, I got a very emotional and intimate photo book.

And for the photo book „Art & Weise“ I collected some works of my past and combined them with graphic elements. It shows a part of my inner world and how I see the world.

M.M: What is most challenging about the job?

Alina O.: The most challenging about my job is that most of the time I have very intimate topics and that I want to make sure that I present them and myself right in the public. For example that I use sexuality as one way of my expression. Some see just an orgasm but there is so much more behind. So I have to make that clear. It has nothing to do with porn. It´s about energy, emotion, and content.

M.M: Where can we see more of your work apart of your website?

Alina O.:  Facebook („Alina Cara Frida“) and on Instagram („alinacarafrida“) you can also see my work and I will have an exhibition at „Farbenladen“ in Munich in September. Feel invited visiting Munich and my exhibition.