Isabel Azkarate highlights the “speed” of mobile photography and defends that “the photographer’s gaze always remains”

The photographer Isabel Azkarateone of the great references of documentary and street photography in Spain, has embarked on an unusual challenge in a career built between film reels, laboratories and professional cameras: make an exhibition for PHotoESPAÑA using a ‘smartphone’ from the Xiaomi company. An experience that has led Azkarate to celebrate the “speed”, “convenience” and “quality” that the smartphone offers, while defending that, regardless of the medium, “the photographer’s gaze always remains.”

For Azkarate, the tool change was much more natural than he expected. “When changing the cameras for that of a mobile phone, the truth is that I felt amazing comfort. But of course, at first I didn’t really believe the quality of the photos I could take with the phone,” explains the photographer, who has worked for decades with cameras equipped with Leica optics, the same firm with which Xiaomi has maintained a technological collaboration since 2022.

The alliance between Xiaomi and Leica has made it possible to transfer elements as recognizable as managing color, contrast or image depth associated with the historic German brand. Now, with its arrival at PHotoESPAÑA, the company wants to demonstrate that the smartphone can become a creative tool capable of responding to the demands of professional photographers and advanced amateurs.

In statements to Europa Press, Azkarate has valued the discretion that the cell phone brings to his work. Accustomed to capturing spontaneous scenes on the street, she believes that this tool facilitates a more natural relationship with the environment. “The advantage that photography with a mobile phone offers for me compared to classic photography with a camera is the speed with which you act and, above all, the focus, which is much faster. But, above all, I would highlight the discretion that comes with having a cell phone; Since everyone takes photos with their cell phones nowadays, you look like just another photographer and not like a professional photographer,” she points out.

The project has also served the photographer to reflect on the relationship between technology and artistic vision. By comparing the new images made with a mobile phone with works from different stages of his career, he reaches the following conclusion: “What I have been able to learn from this crossing between technological generations is that, of course, I have continued taking the same type of photos that I did 40, 30 or 20 years ago. When making comparisons and searching, I have realized that my look has been the same. So I have learned that, whatever the photos are, the result is similar.”

The company highlights that this collaboration represents an important step in its strategy linked to image. “Since we joined Leica in 2022, our ambition has been to provide each user with real professional capacity,” says Nelly de Navia, Head of Marketing at Xiaomi Iberia. According to the directive, presence on PHotoESPAÑA allows showing how mobile technology has evolved into a new photographic territory where Professional quality is available to more people.

Azkarate, for his part, explains that The tools change, but the essence of photography remains. Given the constant advancement of technology and the rise of artificial intelligence, the photographer is clear. “I see the future advancing without stopping, and the quality of new cameras and phones will be better and better, that is clear. But the photographer’s gaze will always, always be the photographer’s gaze. I certainly do not use Artificial Intelligence and, at this point, I do not think I will use it too much,” he concluded.