I remember when I was a child I played with the only 35mm film camera we had at home. My father kept it in a drawer and he always told me I couldn’t take pictures because film was very expensive and he was saving it for special family occasions. That camera is a treasure to me.
I was attracted to photography for the first time during a cinema cultural week at my high school. The science teacher screened his best photographs of astronomy, wildlife and landscapes to the third-year students. I remember that was the day I fell in love at first sight with photography. More than a year later he was my teacher and he taught me how to photograph. Nowadays, we are good friends.
When I finished high school, I studied artistic photography for two years, while also working with a wedding photographer as his assistant. I became a wedding photographer for a few years, until starting work as a photojournalist at a local newspaper for three years. Finally, I joined Reuters in 2006.
One day in 2006, I had my camera with me although it was my day off from the local newspaper where I worked. I had been driving my car in the rain when a photographer friend called me to tell me that there was a spectacular flood at the mouth of a river, with several cars piled up and firefighters searching inside them, because they thought there were people trapped underwater. I drove there as fast as I could, and less than a minute after I got out of my car I took my first photograph for Reuters. That day I learnt to make quick decisions – a single minute is important. And I learnt as well that it’s always important to bring your camera.
The magnitude 5.1 earthquake in Lorca, southern Spain, in May 2011, left a big mark on me. I had never seen the consequences of an earthquake before, and the city was left destroyed, as if after a war. A ghost city.
My biggest lesson has been that I can always take a nice photo, despite the problems and difficulties that arise in the moment. Positive thinking is important.
I respect the photojournalists who reflect reality without any manipulation, and I respect the people I photograph. For me, both of these things are the basis of real photojournalism.
