Paula Sprenger is a Chilean photographer currently residing in Savannah, Georgia. She attended an International School in Santiago for 15 years, where she met and made friends with people from all over the world, discovered the beauty in them, and consequently the art of portraiture. With a B.F.A. in Photography, Film & Television, she now considers herself a citizen of the world, and is determined to travel to as many places as she can in her lifetime while always carrying her camera everywhere she goes.
KALTBLUT: Do you remember how you got interested in photography?
Paula: My dad bought me a film snapshot camera when I was about ten. Ever since, I’ve carried a camera everywhere I go. I also have to credit my mother who was constantly snapping beautiful images with her Canon Reflex of my sister and I while we were growing up. I think I got my artistic eye from her.
KALTBLUT: Are there some artists you admire?
Paula: Patrick Demarchelier has always been a big inspiration to me, whenever I feel uninspired I usually find myself looking at his work to get ideas. I really love all of his black and white portraits. I have to mention Richard Avedon as well, Í’m sure he’s a favorite to many photographers out there. It’s impossible not to like his photography, his portraits very moving. I also recently found a Chilean artist called Jose Romussi, he lives in Berlin and does embroidery, I find his art very interesting, it’s very delicate and simple.
KALTBLUT: What kind of things would you say inspire you?
Paula: I feel like I’m drawn to simplicity, anything that is clean, simple, and beautiful I will find inspiring. People’s faces also inspire me. I like to observe, I could happily sit quietly outside for hours and observe the things that are happening around me and watching life be. Humanity is inspiring to me.
KALTBLUT: You love portraits. So, how do you choose your models?
Paula: I choose people that look interesting to me, it’s a very subjective matter because someone that is interesting to me might not be interesting to someone else. Personally I’ve always been very attracted to big lips, or people that might not be conventionally beautiful, but have that certain quality that cannot be described. I’m always observing the people that surround me, and if I happen to find someone who looks interesting I usually approach them and ask them if they would mind being photographed for a personal project.
Interview by Emma E. K. Jones
