Carlos Barria

Carlos Barria

Based
San Francisco, United States
Born
Bariloche, Argentina
Status
Photographer
“I try to make my photography as simple and direct as possible.”

Beat

Sports, natural disasters, conflict.

One Shot

. BAGHDAD, Iraq. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
An Iraqi child watches U.S. soldiers leave the area after a car bomb explosion at a market in the neighbourhood known as New Baghdad.
“I shot this picture after there was a car bomb in Baghdad, an explosion in the market. I was sitting in the Humvee before going back to the base, and I saw a kid with a soccer ball. It’s a very simple picture, but the kid’s expression is very touching.”

Profile

My earliest memory of photography is taking pictures of my family on my grandmother’s birthday. I remember holding the first camera the family owned in my hands. My father got the camera, and I started playing.

When I was twelve I was in my house and there was a snowstorm. Across the street there was a man carrying wood in a little cart and he fell, and stayed down. He may have been drinking. I went outside and took a picture of him. I think I remember it because it was a moment when I was documenting something, not just taking pictures of my family. I also remember I was frightened of confronting a person with a camera, but I couldn’t stop myself.

Starting out, I was working for a very poor newspaper, so I was the only photographer there on the weekend, covering everything. The director would give me one roll of film a day to shoot four, five or six assignments. That was a great lesson, because I had to be super tight.

I don’t have a favourite picture. I have a lot of pictures that I like, but I would like to say my favourite would be the one I’m going to shoot tomorrow.

I was very moved after covering the earthquake in Haiti. I was one of the first journalists from Reuters to arrive, and I was there for about 45 days. It was long and tough. You can see human beings at their most basic instinct for survival.

It was a very weird feeling in Haiti because I know I was there doing my job, and I would like to feel that our job means something for people, but at the same time I felt powerless. What do you say when a kid comes to you and asks you for water and food, and you have nothing but a camera? I couldn’t answer that question, and I felt frustrated that I couldn’t do anything.

I want to shoot pictures that can reach everybody, from my mother, to the president of a country, to a CEO, to an artist. I try to make my photography as simple and direct as possible.

I consider myself a fisherman or a hunter. When I’m a hunter I have a specific thing that I have to photograph. But sometimes I change to a fisherman and I don’t know what’s going to come, I’m not expecting anything in particular.

Behind the Scenes

. Shaoxing, CHINA. Bo Dai
Reuters photographer Carlos Barria poses for a picture with Jin He, 57, Feng Qing Yu (2nd right), 61, and Feng Qing Ji, 69, before a bodybuilders competition in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province.
. NEW YORK, United States. REUTERS/Gary Hershorn
Barria shoots pictures in Times Square.