LUCIANO A. MACHADO

As a child I lived in front of a mountain called El Ávila in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and one of my favorite activities was to go on excursions with my father always with the intention of going further, since I knew that one day I would get to the top and I could see what was behind the mountain.

 

Having had a father who from the first moment fostered my curiosity, years later my fascination with the world has remained unchanged, I always have the latent desire to know what lies beyond and it is, this desire, that has led me to know 81 territorial political divisions that we call: countries.

 

On the contrary, my father, who was not only a father but also a friend, began to relate to the world inversely, up to the point of not wanting to continue living. For a moment, his death drive was more powerful than his life drive, becoming on an instant that would forever change the course of my life.

 

According to Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, all the decisions we make respond to two basic instincts, one of life represented by the Greek god of love, Eros, and the other of death represented by the Greek god of death, Thanatos. And so, both drives, the life drive and the death drive, live in a constant struggle in all of us.

 

Life can turn out to be complex and even contradictory, but we are masters of our destiny by being able to choose which of our drives to satisfy. From my father's unconditional love, from his affection and attention, I learned about life, and about his own lack of love, I learned about death.

 

Having the freedom to choose, I made the decision that all my artistic work is precisely an ode to life. A work that, being thought in reverse of the fear that is that force that separates us, is a work that is thought from love, that is that force that unites us.  

 

The objective with my photographs is to make you fall in love with the world, it is to rescue a lost message, it is to be able to awake your curiosity and deliver you fascination, it is ultimately: to make you feel alive.