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San Sebastian photographer Diego Orlando, awarded the 2nd Photography Prize at the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2024, explores in his winning work the duality between vulnerability and strength. "In the intermediate spaces of light and shadow, I find the essence of human emotions, reflecting both our internal struggles and the moments of revelation that guide us toward understanding and hope", reveals the Basque artist in this exclusive interview.

His award-winning work, Knight Paper, presents "a Basque painter in search of textures and movement within the abstract world" dressed in a paper armor that "symbolizes the delicacy of his artistic and emotional journey". Deeply influenced by Baroque masters Caravaggio and Rembrandt, as well as Pre-Raphaelite painters, Orlando carefully selects ancient forests and historical architectures that "possess a timeless quality" to create photographs that "are not merely images but narratives that resonate at a deep and almost mystical level". This piece, along with his previously awarded series La mirada de Goya, consolidates his style that "seeks to emulate the mastery of light and shadow of the Baroque masters".

San Sebastian photographer Diego Orlando, aptly nicknamed "The Lord of Light", develops work that comes from "the tireless search for light capable of illuminating a personal world full of shadows". His photographic vocation emerges from a journey that is "complicated, introspective, passionate, and poetic" that fuses various Fine Arts disciplines to interpret his most intimate universe.

His artistic work rejects the cult of technical capability of millions of megapixels. On the contrary, the "flou effect" and "mannerism" that permeate his photographs represent "a form of protest against current academic photographic purism". Since 2018, Orlando has been working on the series "Santos y Mantillas" (Saints and Mantillas), where he offers "a contemporary vision of the lives of martyrs and virgins from Christian culture". This artistic creation reflects his personal nonconformity and a "permanent struggle between beings who seek from anonymity not to limit their way of being and loving, far from religious, sexual, racial, or ideological conventions". With his photographs, the artist seeks "the light that emanates from a new generation that fights to be true to itself."

"My photographic vocation was born from the tireless search for 'the light' capable of illuminating a personal world full of shadows", declares Diego Orlando in this profound artistic manifesto. The San Sebastian photographer defines his work as "a complicated, introspective, passionate, and poetic journey" that fuses various Fine Arts disciplines to interpret his most intimate universe.

Orlando explicitly rejects the cult of technical sharpness: "My work is not born nor presented with the objective of reflecting the skill in execution of which I may be capable, nor for the capacity of sharpness that technique offers today, with millions of megapixels at our service". Instead, the "flou effect" that bathes his photographs functions as "a form of protest against current analog academic purism". His experience in interior architecture and antiques brings him closer to the pictorialist photographic movement of the 19th century, to Caravaggio's "chiaroscuro," to the light of Venezuelan master Armando Reverón, and to cinematographic references from Bertolucci and Visconti. He creates "exclusive photographs limited by their print run and size", works that are "precious or baroque with a profusion of details, full of hidden allegories and labyrinths concealed in their shadows, fabrics, and textures", incorporating "the most current digital and pictorial techniques" in the editing and final composition of the images.

Diego Orlando wins his fourth IPA award with Half lights, half shadows, a series that captures the ethnic diversity of San Sebastian during confinement. Using a church converted into a studio with permission from the Bishopric, the San Sebastian photographer fuses Spanish baroque with anonymous faces and professional models to "reflect the silent plurality of our city".

In the midst of an era of "bananas taped to walls" —he ironizes about conceptual art—, Orlando defends technical rigor as "a protest against empty art". Inspired by Caravaggio and José de Ribera, the series achieves international recognition while the artist announces his next project Sin límites (2022): portraits of young people from Gipuzkoa who "put a face to sexual diversity without prejudice", consolidating his position as a relevant voice between classicism and visual innovation.

San Sebastian photographer Diego Orlando, winner of the IPA 2020 Honorable Mention for Malleus Meleficarum and nominee for the Fine Art Photography Awards 2021, is now preparing his participation in important international events. After exhibiting at the Los Angeles Photography Museum and the Millepiani Gallery (Rome), Orlando is set to show his work at the Florence Art Biennial (October 2021), the London Art Biennial (June-July 2021), and the innovative Manchester VR Exhibition (June-July 2021).

His artistic work, characterized by the "flou effect" and "mannerism," represents "a form of protest against current academic photographic purism." Orlando creates "precious, baroque photographs, with a profusion of details, full of allegories and labyrinths hidden in their shadows, fabrics, and textures" that arise from "the tireless search for light capable of illuminating a personal world full of shadows". His artistic creation reflects his personal nonconformity: "a permanent struggle between beings who seek from anonymity not to place limits on their way of being and loving between men and women, far from religious, sexual, racial, or ideological conventions". As the author of the article concludes: "Diego Orlando is, without a doubt, a Lord of LIGHT!"

Diego Orlando receives the "Honorary Award" at the IPA 2020 awards for Malleus Meleficarum (Hammer of the Witches), a series that represents "the power of angels and martyrs over sin, desire, attraction, and death". This work, developed over three years, confirms the position of the San Sebastian photographer as an innovator who protests against current photographic conventions.

His work reflects a "strong pictorial influence from the Baroque and the Spanish and Italian Golden Age", presenting "a vision of a new Baroque" where he uses "photographic lighting techniques to create the chiaroscuro technique, in addition to a long and detailed process of scenography and editing". The "flou effect" and "mannerism" that characterize his photographs function as "a form of protest against current academic photographic purism", creating images that are "precious, baroque, with a profusion of details, full of allegories and labyrinths hidden in their shadows, fabrics, and textures". The series, composed of 30 photographs taken in Catalonia and Donostia (of which seven received recognition in the United States), will soon be exhibited in La Provence (France) and Detroit. This work follows his award-winning series "La mirada de Goya," which received two first prizes at the IPA 2018, consolidating his trajectory as creator of a unique visual language that integrates tradition and contemporaneity.

"If there are those who think that Photography should capture the instant, I believe it should capture the atmosphere, the ambiance, the sensation that surrounds that instant", states Diego Orlando Machimbarrena while exhibiting at the Center for Digital Arts in Los Angeles. The winner of the Latin edition of the IPA awards in the Fine Arts category redefines his approach as "technopictorialist", fusing his love for classical masters such as Goya, Zuloaga, Ingres, and Caravaggio with the possibilities of modern technology.

Orlando criticizes the contemporary technical obsession: "Today, any photographic device can give you a quality that approaches or exceeds 56 billion pixels. The question that some of us ask ourselves is what more can we add to that supreme quality. Supreme but so tremendous, flat, very flat". Like the pioneers of photography who "turned back to painting", he resorts to "technology, high technology, that of the present and future" which enables him "to manipulate backgrounds, subvert spaces, reproduce the past". His connection with San Sebastian is complex and poetic: "It's me, martyred and glorified by this city that I love, hate, and always remember. From which I escape and to which I return to leave again and always miss it", a relationship reflected in self-portraits where he appears "with the city in the background, ghostly, among bluish mists" and his "head split over a crown of thorns". While continuing his series on Goya and preparing a new one titled "Tears of Penance," his work is exhibited in Los Angeles and soon in Hong Kong.

"If your gaze can enter the hell of my images, without succumbing to the poison they contain, enter my world and you will be able to understand the light hidden in the depth of my shadows", confesses Diego Orlando Machimbarrena after winning the prestigious International Photography Award (IPA) in the fine arts category for his series La mirada de Goya. After decades in anonymity, this San Sebastian photographer based in Girona bursts onto the international scene with a project inspired by the dark symbolism of 19th-century Spain.

The award-winning series, created entirely in the Girona regions during three years of work, consists of ten photographs where women are "the main protagonists, invisible and present at the same time, evoking their submission to the norms and strict religion of the time, provoking deep and subtle sadness". In his creative process, Orlando reveals that "80% is the instant and 20% is digital retouching", seeking to provide "a wrapping of mystery and magic" that makes "a new dreamlike reality emanate". The photographer establishes a parallel between the "turbulent and revolutionary moments" that Goya reflected and the current situation: "They remind me of what we are experiencing today, both in my beloved Venezuela and here, in Girona. A time when, despite the loss of freedoms, creativity flows". With this recognition, Orlando, who decided to reinvent himself artistically after the age of fifty, proves that it is never too late to start new creative paths.

Basque photographer Diego Orlando, awarded at the International Photography Awards 2018 as "Professional Photographer of the Year" in the Books and Fine Art categories for his series "La mirada de Goya", reveals in this interview how Girona transformed his artistic life. After leaving Venezuela and settling in Catalonia, he found in this city the ideal environment to recreate the universe of the Aragonese painter.

Orlando explains his choice of Girona to recreate Goya: "I believe that the light in Girona fits better than that of Aragon for what I wanted to do". The faces of local people—"people with a very austere, very hard appearance"—and the availability of Neus Borrell's "fabulous" collection of period costumes in Torroella de Fluvià, allowed him to evoke Goya's environments. The photographer establishes a parallel between his own exile and that of the painter: "It is very hard when you live in a country and have no other option but to leave... I find a certain parallel with this dark world of Goya". At 50, he decided to reinvent himself as a photographer, something he considers "very complicated" but possible thanks to Girona, whose "closed" atmosphere and "complicated" climate helped him focus. He challenges the European perception of age: "I traveled to New York and saw people over 70 succeeding in all kinds of things. While in Europe it seems that at 50 we are finished. And we are not. It is now when we can contribute the most".

San Sebastian native Diego Orlando Machimbarrena has been recognized as "one of the best photographers of the year" at the International Photography Awards (IPA) in the Books and Fine Art categories for his series "La mirada de Goya." This recognition gives him the opportunity to compete for the coveted Lucie statuette as "International Photographer of the Year" or "Discovery of the Year" at the gala to be held on October 28 at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York.

The award-winning series, composed of ten photographs, "is inspired by the beauty of the scenes of Spanish painters and writers, mainly by the master Francisco de Goya y Lucientes" and captures "the dark Spain of the 19th century where women, its main protagonists, interpret their submission to the strict religion of the time". Orlando's work was selected by a distinguished jury chaired by Susan Baraz, founding member and president of Focus on AIDS (FOA), "the largest international Fine Art photography foundation". This recognition places the San Sebastian photographer, who after a career in real estate and years in Venezuela where "the warm rays of the Caribbean sun and the frenzy of Caracas" prompted him to resume his artistic path, among the elite of international photography.