“Lídia Vives, the dual artist hiding secrets in her photographs”

About me

Lídia Vives, the origins

Born in Lleida, Spain in 1991 with a painter father, It was easy for Lídia to fall in love with the world of art. As a child, she already dreamed of being a painter.

She used to imagine herself living in front of a canvas, holding a brush… This idea led her to study Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid to end up specializing in the Image branch of the University of Barcelona.

Henri-Cartier Bresson influence and the “selfie” culture: Lídia’s artistic expression transformation

At the age of 16 during a school trip, Lídia went to a Bresson exhibition. His work had a profound impact on the artist who had always considered painting as “the supreme art”.

This moment coincided with the appearance of first cellphones with a front camera and the boom of social media. It would not take long for the selfie culture to appear, to which Lídia would make the most of it.

Little by little, Lídia transformed those selfies into self-portraits, thus turning photographic art into her main way of artistic expression.

Self-portrait: an opportunity to live new lives

In a small pink room, full of “manga” and toys, with very small space and only one wall without posters, the first creations of Lídia Vives came to live.

Those simple selfies would then develop and later become into self-portraits, giving Lídia the opportunity to transform into new characters. Her art would talk about her stories and daily anecdotes.

Artistic photography, a new mean of expression and her professional career

What at first would be a game and an escape method to “get out of that room”, soon, and almos accidentally, would become her livelihood.

Lídia began to study university and publishing her photographs on social networks. Little by little, audience began to arrive and with them, brands, galleries and collectors.

Today, Lídia’s studio is far from that small room and her bridge camera has been replaced by a full frame.

Her artwork can be found, not only online, but also in galleries, books, magazines and even houses in almost every continent.

An artist between two worlds that shows us a photographic art full of surprises

Lídia looks for her references in worlds, really distant ones. Her work has clearly pictorial references (mainly from Italian Renaissance and Barique artists) but we also can appreciate influences from pop culture, the punk movement of fashion photography in her creations.

The result? A fusion between art and editorial photography that speaks to us and always tells a story. Lídia 's work is photographic art. Lídia 's photos look like paintings; in fact, we could say that Lídia paints her photos.

Lídia 's work is original and mysterious. Creations full of details, enigmatic environments, curiosities and secrets are hidden behind her artwork. Yes, Lídia hides Easter Eggs in almost every one of her art prints; whether it be her logo or other funny element to join her photographs with a unique sense of humor.

She seeks surprise, and a direct connection between artist and viewer, encouraging people who enjoy her artwork to go inside it, to discover their secrets.

The bee, her signature, her trademark

Small, hard-working and industrious. Bees are very feared, but they do not attack, they only defend themselves when they feel threatened. Lídia has turned the bee into her trademark and it is the signature of all her artworks. She even hides bees in some of it. Do you dare to find them?

Awards

Lídia 's work has been recognized worldwide, being awarded in different competitions.

Highlighting, the gold medal in the Trierenberg Super Circuit (Austria) in 2018, a gold medal at the Moscow International Photo Awards (Russia) in 2020, a FIAP gold medal and an ISF gold medal at the Trofeu Torretes de Fotografia (Spain) in the same year, the award for the Artistic Photographer of the year in the Monochrome Awards (USA) in 2021, in addition to the award for Professional Photographer of the Year at the Muse Photography Awards (USA), among others.

2021| Gold - Artistic Photographer of the Year, Fine Art (Professional), Monochrome Awards, USA
Gold - Photographer of the Year (Professional), Muse Photography Awards, USA
2020| Gold, Fine Art - Portraiture (Professional), Moscow International Foto Awards, Moscow, Russia
FIAP Gold Medal, Monochrome, Trofeu Torretes de Fotografia, Calella, Spain
ISF Gold Medal, Color, Trofeu Torretes de Fotografia, Color, Calella, Spain
2018| Gold, Self Portrait Category, Trierenberg Super Circuit, Wels, Austria

*Complete list here.

Exhibitions

Lídia has participated in different exhibitions and art fairs around the world with the support of different galleries and also individually.

Starting in 2013 with her exhibition “Wonderland” at the Institut d' Estudis Ilerdencs de Lleida, where she presented a series of photographs in which she showed her personal vision of Alice in Wonderland.

Later in 2015, she could join in the Fotofever fair with the support of the Fifty Gallery Dots (Barcelona) and presented her series “Sex” at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

This series could be seen again in different locations and art fairs, especially Arles, Casa Golferichs and Art Photo BCN, as well as in a solo exhibition with Fifty dots.

In this collection, she talks about sex and taboo eroticism from a naïve point of view through teen characters.

Among the different countries in which she has exhibited, in addition to Spain, we can also mention France, Austria, Italy, Australia, Mexico and the United States.

2021| Imaging Milan, Femme et Fatale, Fondazione Luciana Matalon, Milan, Italy (Collective)
International Portrait Photography Awards, Man Gallery Ray, Mexico City, Mexico (Collective)
2020| A&D, A d'Art i D de Dona, Gallery Espai Cavallers, Lleida, Spain (Collective)
2019| Miami photos Fair, Limited Edition Gallery, Miami, USA (Art Fair)
Elementum 4.0, FFIEL, León, México (Collective)
2018| Images of Women, Hartlauer Photo Galerie , Linz, Austria ( Collective )
Voies Off, " Transeünts ", Fifty dots Gallery, Arles, France (Art Fair)
2017| Exhibit, Casa Golferichs, Barcelona, Spain (Collective)
2016| Sex Series, Fifty dots Gallery, Barcelona, Spain (Single)
Art Photo BCN, "Sex Series", Fifty dots Gallery, Barcelona, Spain (Art Fair)
2015| Shared Experience, Inqubator Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia (Collective)
Fotofever Art Fair, "Sex Series", Fifty Dots Gallery, Paris, France (Art Fair)
2013| Wonderland , Institut d'Estudis Ilerdencs , Lleida, Spain (Singles)

*Complete list here.

Lídia’s art around the world

Lídia's artworks have been sold to collectors and individuals from around the world: Finland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, United States, Malta, Japan, China and Australia.

Discover her work

The housewife

At a very early age she dreamed of becoming an artist and traveling the world. She imagined a bohemian life, almost always on a plane and living at a different place every week, changing constantly countries. From a very young age, she discarded the idea of becoming a housewife, with all due respect to this honorable job. She could not picture herself married, or as a mother. It just wasn't compatible with the rest of her plans.

However, fate is capricious and sometimes leads people down paths they can't imagine: having children, a stable partner or marriage are ideas that no longer seem as unimaginable as they did a few years ago.

The Housewife refers to a time in Lídia 's life where, without realizing it, she became the opposite of what she had dreamed of. She gave up on her ambitions to help someone else achieve his. At that time, Lídia felt trapped, she couldn't stop remembering that girl who imagined herself expanding her art throughout the world.

The Housewife, shows Lídia at that time, with a supposedly "luxurious" life but a life that did not belong to her. In a beautiful and colorful garden, and yet her self -portrait is monochromatic and lifeless, trying to recover, in some way, the rebelliousness that she once had.

Rapunzel

To Lídia, Rapunzel 's story always seemed crazy. Did Rapunzel have to bear the weight of the prince on her head so that he would go see her and finally rescue her? Couldn't Rapunzel save herself?

Lídia 's favorite children's stories featured protagonists who saved themselves. With references such as Princess Xena, Nikita and Utena. Girls who fought without fear.

Even though, the idea of a woman with long hair is seductive, charming and it and undoubtedly evokes a certain romanticism.

Rapunzel is an art print of details, an artwork that involves months of preparation, months of finding the appropriate objects: an old hairbrush, a bed with many cushions that looks soft and comfortable. The indicated vase and a set up with colors that would work with the aesthetic that Lídia had foreseen, a painterly look with a very warm light.

Kintsugi-19

Inspired by the ancient technique of kintsugi, in this photograph, Lídia has represented the fragility of the human body, dressing it in the traditional patterns of ancient Chinese porcelain and recomposing the broken pieces with gold.

That gold emerges from the mask and spreads over the body, drawing lungs with its cracks. With this, it is implied that the mask protects our respiratory system from the current threat of the coronavirus.

This work was commissioned by a public organization to make citizens aware of the importance of wearing a mask during the pandemic.

Since it was something of global interest, the character had to be a bit depersonalized. For this reason, her eyes are closed and her posture is static, this is how Lídia manages to reinforce the idea of the vase.

Focusing always on details, she also added a “blood red” earring in memory of all the victims that Coronavirus caused.

If I was a rich girl

This work shows a rich woman licking a stamp, playing with the ambiguity of not knowing if it is really a stamp or LSD.

This ambiguity is further complemented by using the popular cartoon character Mickey Mouse out of context creating a duality between good and innocent vs. bad and rebellious

Lidia was inspired by the song of the same title by Gwen Stefani (adaptation of the song “If I were a rich man” from the musical “Fiddler on the Roof”). In addition, the aesthetics of Lady Gaga were also present.

As a teenager, in high school, Lídia received a book that warned of the dangers of drug abuse. The book contained information on each specific drug, and also there was a series of photographs identifying each drug.

The LSD designs especially surprised Lidia: they looked like stamps and many contained cartoons.

She could not then avoid thinking about what kind of people would consume that drug and if at the time of using them they would take into account the cartoon on it.

Mickey Mouse was the selected character, once again we observe Lidia 's duality: Mickey Mouse can appear both happy and sinister at the same time. Without a doubt, the perfect character to represent her idea.

Midsommar

Inspired by the traditional Swedish festival that celebrates the summer solstice, in “Midsommar” the transition from one season to another is represented with a sleeve of flowers that, little by little, disappear to leave the rest of the body naked.

Lídia was inspired by Ari Aster 's film “Midsommar”, whose aesthetic “casted a “spell on her. For a long time, Lídia had in mind to make a seasonal representation in the style of Botticelli, but she did not have a completely defined idea. After watching the film, it occurred to her to cover half of her body with flowers, representing the spring, leaving the other half uncovered representing summer and the transition between both seasons.

FAQ’s

How did you start in the world of photography?

At first my intention was not to dedicate myself to photography. I have always been interested in art, but what I wanted was to be a painter -which, at that time, for me was like “the supreme art”-. I didn't see photography as a way of artistic expression, but documentary, until I went to an exhibition of Henri- Cartier Bresson and changed my opinion. From then on I started to get interested, but it wasn't until another exhibition, this time by Annie Leibovitz, when I already thought about dedicating myself professionally to it.

Do you consider yourself a photographer or an artist?

I have never considered myself a photographer. I know how to use my camera, I do shoot manually, but I am not an expert in photographic technique. My strength is art. I don't think that much about the capabilities of my camera but if the colors it gives me are what I'm looking for.

I am concerned about other things beyond what is strictly photographic. For example, if the composition is good, if the colors work, if the concept is well expressed... also, despite not being a painter anymore, I still don't feel like I've stopped painting. I just think now I use other materials, but I do the same thing.

A trademark of your works are the “easter eggs” that you leave in your photos, like tiny insects or phrases. What is the exact reason for the inclusion of these small elements?

Actually there is more than one reason. It all started because, when I posted my photographs on social media, they were circulating until they lost their authorship and I found them in the profiles of other photographers who passed them off as their own. It occurred to me to hide the bee -my symbol- inside the photograph so that it would be more difficult to erase. The second reason is because I realized that when I uploaded a photo to social media, it immediately had a like, many times from the same person. Those are courtesy likes, and that's not what I'm looking for. I don't care if a photo has 100 or 2000 likes, what I want is for the public to look at it and analyze it. That's why I warned that I was hiding details, so that people would look for them and, in this way, make them experience my creation. Doing this I discovered that, in addition, a kind of interaction had been created between me and the viewer and that, finally, it turned out like a game. A sort of “Find Wally”.

Which camera did you start working with in the beginning, and what is your equipment now?

I don't remember the exact model, but my first camera was a Fujifilm bridge camera. I currently work with the Pentax K1, the Sigma 35mm f/1.4, the Pentax 50mm f/1.8 and 70mm f/2.4 and artificial lighting.

You have a very defined style; a very recognizable own style, something very complicated to create in any artistic discipline. How do you come to have your own style?

It's something I get asked a lot and it's really not that complicated. The problem is releasing it; it has to be something that comes out on its own. After all, everyone has a personality and everyone has tastes. Everyone is more attracted to some colors, they are more attracted to some themes, certain compositions, it is about listening to oneself and projecting it in your work. I think that something that has helped me a lot is in addition to listening to myself, having several references and that not all of them were photographic. The moment you broaden your imagination a bit or begin to have more artistic culture, your work is reinforced. If you always have the same photographers as references and you don't follow painters, sculptors..., it may seem that they have nothing to do with photography, but in the end you see that they do, and that artistic culture helps you a lot. We all copy ourselves, but if you have broader references, in a way, you "copy" more people and in the process you create something new. If you always have the same references, you do the same thing that those artists do and you don't stand out.

In my photographic art I usually look for duality. My personality is already very dual and that's why it's not uncommon for my work to be too. Some of my creations are very friendly and others more aggressive. Some have very clear pictorial references and others editorial references. I think it's also due to what I was saying, to the idea of having different inspirations instead of limiting yourself to just one.

One of your exhibitions “Wonderland” -your first one- was important in the evolution of your career, wasn’t it?

Yes, my first exhibition was really ' Wonderland ' and it was also a stroke of luck because I was exhibited in a museum in my hometown, in Lleida. That worked very well and moved around a lot, there were a lot of press releases and that made it easier for people to get to know me. The exhibition also moved to other cities and thanks also to social networks, my work became more widely known. Truth is that I don't know if I would have gotten to where I am if it hadn't been for that exhibition.

How is your creative process?

Everything starts from an idea that can arise in several ways; either for an object that has interested me, sometimes a word, a concept, a personal experience or even a color. Sometimes it is an item of clothing; it also depends on whether it is a personal project or a client, which then the inspiration will be the product. In the latter case, I spend time with it to feel and notice what it evokes or give it personality and seek inspiration in it for the work.

What I do is look for references, sometimes the idea just comes up, but I also like to investigate... review artists, paintings, works that I like elements of. Something new ends up emerging from that process and not staying with something that has already been done. I usually write down and make sketches, I go looking for everything I need for the session or I create my own props (which I love). Then it's time to take photos and post-production.

What does the bee mean?

It was born because I wanted to have a symbol, it seemed very important to me; I was interested in having something that was mine. Precisely in the exhibition ' Wonderland ' the most symbolic photograph, the one used for the posters, is an image in which I come out with a bee in my mouth. It is a photograph inspired by a work by Irving Penn. From then on I found it interesting that the symbol was a bee. Also, bees are an animal that I find fascinating. They are very small, but people are very afraid of them because they are worried they will be stung, but the bees don't sting you unless you do anything to them, they only defend. Likewise, the idea that without bees the world ends seems essential to me. I am very aware of climate change; it is a subject that interests me a lot. Bees are very symbolic in this regard. And they were also the symbol of the Barberini family, who were great patrons of the Baroque, so things came together that have an important meaning for me...

Much of your work is self-portraits. Why is that?

At first I started with the self-portrait due to the circumstances. I was just starting out and didn't have anyone to model for me so I decided to start with myself. Later, I realized that no one could express everything I feel better than me, so the self-portrait prevailed in my working method.

It all started in my teens. The first mobile phones with a front camera appeared and, in turn, social networks. With this, the culture of the selfie was born. At first I had no artistic pretensions until, with the passage of time and maturity, I discovered the art of self-portraiture and put selfies aside.

What artists do you consider your biggest influences?

My big influences are Annie Leibovitz, Miles Aldridge, Guy Bourdin, Tim Walker, Steven Klein, Velázquez, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Bernini, Leonardo and practically all of the Italian Baroque and Renaissance.

From Annie Leibovitz and Tim Walker I would prefer their pictorial nuances and their fascinating compositions and styles. Both Miles Aldridge and Guy Bourdin attract me because of the strength they have when using colors. Steven Klein, without a doubt, is my reference for my most punk style.
Baroque and Renaissance painters potentially influence me with their aesthetics. From the Baroque I would especially highlight its compositional complexity and the ability to capture movement. It is something I have wanted to achieve for a long time.

As a photographic artist, do you prefer looking for a single image or do you take different shots and then choose the one that interests you the most?

I think that in artistic photography the unique work is very important. I work a lot to get a single photo. The moment there is more, I consider that it loses value.
My exceptions are in the photographic series or when it comes to a request from a client. So the situation is different. But if it is a personal work, I tend to avoid “sessions”.