Carlos Darder (Palma de Mallorca, 1998) took the camera to make a collection of moments with his friends so he could remember them. That’s why he understands photography as a diary that helps him order his life, his intimacy and be able to capture everyday moments through the prism of an angel who has fallen into hell. He loves being able to practice patience waiting for the result of the revelation of his carts. Tattoo artist by profession who wants to keep photography always as a hobby. He doesn’t care about Instagram and what they think of him. His photographs prove it.
CARLOS DARDER
2021 / 06 / 15
I was surprised to know that you are also a tattoo artist …
CD: Yes … I started a couple of years ago and I am combining it with what I like to do, since I like to do a lot of things and I always try to get the most out of what I do.
And you travel the world tattooing.
CD: Yes, it’s a pleasure. Because being a tattoo artist you can go wherever there are people who want your tattoos, the truth is that I feel super lucky.
How did you start drawing and tattooing?
CD: Well, the truth is that I started by myself, I got a needle and I started to tattoo and then to my colleagues … and I said to myself: Can I tattoo people? Can I live on this?
In two years you have tattooed a lot, right?
CD: Yes, during the pandemic I tattooed myself every day and look, and now I look like a painting.
You shoot a lot in analog.
CD: Always in analog, yes. I like the process of patience, of forgetting what you have shot and that revealing it is a surprise. I am very impatient and shooting in analog teaches me that I have to wait.
However, on Instagram everything is more immediate … Do you shoot thinking on Instagram?
CD: Nah! I shoot thinking about what I like, and if I like it then I’ll hang it up. I usually do things for books that I do, and if there is something I like then I upload it. I publish the books independently with a graphic designer in London.
“Everything is a diary, of me, of the people I know because sometimes I forget more than half of the things”
It contradicts a lot with the philosophy of many artists on Instagram who seem to seek the like …
CD: Buff… to me this seems like a pain in the ass… In the end what I do is for me. What I have on Instagram is for me, it is a diary. And also what I have on the web. Everything is a diary, of me, of the people I know because sometimes I forget more than half of the things I do and that is how I have documented and organized it for years.
Yes! I met you through your diary, which begins in 2017, I see that it is very honest, very truthful, therapeutic, I can see a lot of reality there.
CD: Thank you very much! Well yes, in the end it is what I live and see, then I share it, nothing more.
You blatantly shoot yourself and people in your private life. Do people allow it to you?
CD: Yes, when I want, I shoot and if someone bothers, well … hahaha it’s a matter of luck. With my friends I use to tell them “be still, do not move”. And I take the photo of them. Like the moment after fucking …
Yes … I see that many of your boyfriends or rolls are there.
CD: Yes, they are my muses. They inspire me. And when I have no one and I am alone at home I make a self-portrait.
Are you your own muse?
CD: Yes. When there is a photo that nobody wants to take, I act as a model.
Since you’ve started to publish photos, whether of yourself or of other people, there is no hesitation, in shooting penises, semen … I love it. Since we almost always see only the naked woman as something normal …
CD: Yeah… they are things that we experience every day, and in the case of my girl friends I love to take pictures of their period. Many women find it gross, but I think it’s silly because those who criticize it also have periods.
“Many women find it gross, but I think it’s silly because those who criticize it also have periods”
Yes, there is a truth in your photos, very punk and very elegant. Your photos sometimes remind me of Wolfang Tillmans.
CD: Ah, wow, how cool, I do not have it as a reference but the truth is that I like it.
Living in Palma de Mallorca… tell me about it.
CD: The truth is that it is difficult to be free there … being always high and partying to forget the monotony, in the end I always want to leave Palma. Many only come for the summer and then leave. People are conservative. Once, I took a nude photo on the street to make a poster and people started calling me a fag. I you do this in New York or Berlin people don’t even look at you. In Palma it’s a pain in the ass …
“A los 16 años empecé a salir de fiesta y a ir a todos los sitios con la cámara para poder recordar el momento.”
How did you discover the photo?
CD: My mother is a documentary photographer and I have always grown up with photos. And at the age of 16 I started to party and I began to go everywhere with the camera to remember the moment.
Do you consider photography in a professional way?
CD: No, the truth is that if work comes it’s okey, but mainly I do it for myself. I don’t want to turn this handsome hobby that I have, which I like so much, into a gig; in the end it changes. I realized with the tattoo: at first I was very excited to be able to tattoo my colleagues, and when it became a job it was not so cool anymore.
How was the experience of the photos with MAUS® in Los Angeles and New Mexico. For us it was a hoot to send you the empty bottles and see what happens…
CD: It was really cool! The truth is that I had already taken a lot of photos for an editorial and it (receivieng the MAUS®) was a reason to think about more photos. I started again from 0 in LA… Well ,the photo in Venice Beach… I was scared there. On that pleace, people are literally crazy, people out of their minds: they yell at you… I drank two Margaritas before doing it, and I did the photos. In the end people ignored me, but I was screwed.
Who would you like to see on a MAUS® label?
CD: Drew Barrymore or Lana del Rey, who I’ve been listening to all my life.
Music reference, movie and book.
CD: Music? Anything by Lana del Rey. Movie… Kids and Requiem for a dream. The lovely Bones too… it’s amazing. Book? Veronica decides to die by Cohelo and The Four Agreements: Toltec Wisdom Book by Miguel Ruiz, I found it in New York and I lived it as a sign. It is a book that I had not seen in my life and I was amazed.
INTERVIEW: JORDI CLUSELLA
SEPTEMBER 2021
MAUS®
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