Francisco Gonzalez Camacho: Between Landscapes

Francisco Gonzalez Camacho gained the Intaglio Runner Up Award in Jackson’s Artwork Prize this 12 months along with his work Elysium #01. On this interview, he discusses his aversion to rituals and routine, utilizing his digital camera as a sketchbook, and a sense of displacement after shifting to Finland.

Above picture: Photographing in Arizona throughout an artist residency at Rancho Linda Vista in August 2025

Josephine: Might you share the story of the way you grew to become an artist and inform us extra about your inventive background?

Francisco: Turning into an artist has been a gradual course of, unfolding over many years. I all the time had a sensitivity in the direction of the humanities, with a particular curiosity in music, pictures, and movie. I used to play with my father’s rangefinder digital camera and camcorder once I was a child. It wasn’t till I used to be 21 that I made a decision to review pictures in my hometown. After which I did a BA in Documentary Pictures within the UK, and now a MA in Pictures in Finland.

Josephine: What does a typical working day within the studio appear to be for you? Do you’ve got any necessary routines or rituals?

Francisco: I’ve neither a studio nor a routine. I’ve entry to a darkroom and printmaking services if wanted. However it isn’t one thing I’d repeatedly do, provided that I’m engaged on a challenge that’s within the stage of manufacturing. I’ve intervals the place the main target is on making footage, or on placing collectively the work, framing, making use of for grants and open calls, and so on. I’m personally very a lot towards the thought of rituals, sure, you need to be fixed, however I don’t see artwork as one thing to be enforced by a routine.

Josephine: Which supplies or instruments may you not reside with out?

Francisco: Regardless that I’m beginning to work extra with printmaking, I’m primarily a photographer, so I must say my digital camera. I work with quite a lot of strategies, so the instruments to be probably used fluctuate relying on the challenge. Sooner or later, I hope to have my very own darkroom and printmaking studio, the place I’m positive a press would be the most valuable instrument.

Josephine: Do you’re employed from a reference? Inform us extra about your course of.

Francisco: My course of is very intuitive and playful; I don’t give it some thought an excessive amount of, that may come earlier than or afterwards, however not whereas doing the work. The start line is photography-based, particularly infrared pictures, which works as a reference. From there, I exploit quite a lot of printing strategies, typically involving a multilayered strategy of printing, scanning, and reprinting, in addition to utilizing my very own handmade paper or Japanese washi papers.

Josephine: Do you repeatedly draw or preserve a sketchbook? If that’s the case, how does this inform your work?

Francisco: Under no circumstances. I don’t draw, preserve a sketchbook or journal, however I do use small cameras and my telephone digital camera as a approach to typically create fast visible sketches about an concept, a spot to revisit, and so on.

Josephine: Have you ever ever had a interval of stagnation in creativity? If that’s the case, what helped you overcome it?

Francisco: Sure, certainly. It was fairly a complicated and painful interval, but it surely really helped me to create a few of my finest work. Listening to my very own voice and producing work obsessively with out caring an excessive amount of in regards to the consequence is what finally made me escape of it. Mainly, attempting to fall in love with the method once more.

Josephine: Are there any particular artists or mentors who’ve impressed you?

Francisco: A few of my greatest inspirations are Saul Leiter, Masao Yamamoto, Invoice Brandt, Edward Weston, Albarran Cabrera, and Jungjin Lee.

Josephine: What have been you fascinated about or exploring on the time you made Elysium #01? What impressed it, and the way did it come to be?

Francisco: This picture is an element of a bigger collection, Elsewhere, the place I discover my strategy of shifting to Finland and the feelings of bodily and cultural displacement as an immigrant by the panorama. It was taken in Helsinki, in an space named Lapinlahti. It was made casually, on a stroll by the park.

Josephine: What made you submit this piece to Jackson’s Artwork Prize?

Francisco: Regardless that I knew about Jackson’s Artwork Prize for years, I often submit my work nearly completely to photography-related open calls. However since this piece was an etching, I thought of giving it a strive.

Josephine: Are you able to discuss us by the way you obtain the dramatic tonal contrasts in Elysium #01?

Francisco: The look of this work is achieved principally in digital camera. Utilizing an infrared modified digital camera creates a really graphic, dramatic impact, which, mixed with photopolymer etching, embraces much more the general distinction and environment. For reference, the white areas on the picture will not be snow, however vegetation. For the printing, I used a really skinny 30 gsm Japanese kozo misu paper, which has a wonderful texture.

Josephine: Have you ever labored with the photopolymer course of for a while, or is that this a brand new avenue in your apply? Might you describe what it’s about this course of specifically that helps to infuse your work with emotion?

Francisco: I acquired extra deeply into it again in late 2024, once I took half in a printmaking residency in Spain, in preparation for a solo exhibition in Barcelona in 2025. I discover this method to have the fitting steadiness between reproducing tremendous particulars whereas including a wonderful texture and analog look. The numerous steps concerned, the wanted consideration to element, and the usage of delicate papers create an emotional reference to the method, which I feel provides a layer of depth to the work.

Josephine: Are there any new strategies or concepts you’re excited to discover utilizing the supplies out of your prize?

Francisco: Sure, I positively wish to go deeper into photopolymer etching and take a look at massive sizes, round one metre, together with materials, in addition to utilizing my very own handmade papers. I at the moment have a number of papers I constituted of flax and previous mattress linen ready for use, hopefully subsequent 12 months.

Josephine: How did it really feel to maneuver by the levels of the competitors and win the Intaglio Runner Up Award?

Francisco: I didn’t have a lot hope for my work to maneuver ahead by the competitors, particularly understanding how many individuals take part yearly. Already being shortlisted was fairly an enormous shock. However profitable the Intaglio Runner Up Award felt like an excellent achievement that motivates me to maintain working and enhancing my printmaking abilities.

Josephine: What’s developing subsequent for you?

Francisco: I’m at the moment making ready a solo exhibition at Pictura Gallery in Indiana, United States, opening on the fifth of June. In November, I’m additionally collaborating in a residency/workshop at Benrido Atelier in Kyoto, Japan, the place I will probably be exploring collotype, a really uncommon method now nearly extinct in every single place on this planet. I hope to have a solo exhibition in 2027 with among the work produced throughout my keep. I’m at the moment within the strategy of discovering an acceptable gallery.

Observe Francisco on Instagram
Go to Francisco’s web site

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