We asked what is photography to her and this she replied, “photography is a tool of emotional expression. When I click, I become aware of the hidden feelings of my consciousness through those captured moments which I couldn’t otherwise.”
A photographer with such profound thoughts and intense love for her passion, Marillina Besterio, is successfully collecting the trails of her new achievements each day, for years now.
Mastered in Business Administration, Graphic Design, and Photography, she is the proud mother of two who is paving the way and raising the bar of being one of the most inspiring ones out there.
She was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and brought up in different cities. Her journey began as early as when she was 23 years old. It was the time when she was awarded a scholarship and a chance to pursue her MBA in Barcelona, Spain. Professionally She was mostly involved in the Marketing area. But soon with time, she took up a few courses in photography as a hobby. One of them was the ‘Author Photography Course’. The course made her learn how photography enables one to connect with the pictures on different levels of emotions. It deepened her interest even more. She started perceiving photography with new concepts, perceptions, understanding and rest became history!
How and When did it Start – A Complete Story
After completing and pursuing different photography courses, Marillina finally tried her hands on Canon SLR Camera but as she is a mother, she says, “This was my camera until I had my children. since it was not practical to travel with the camera backpack and a baby at the same time. So, for the last 7 years, I have taken photos exclusively with a mobile phone, which has always been an iPhone.” That’s a Wow as we are surely impressed with her shots!
Like any other woman, 7 years back when she was about to have her first child, it happened to be a while for her to keep up with clicking pictures. She had even moved to a different city Sao Paulo then. At that time, she started following Robert Mata’s work on Instagram, a very well known photographer established out of Venezuela. He owns a school of photography and through his Instagram account, he encourages people to try photography. This inspired Marillina to get back to what she loves the most and to date, he is the one whom she looks up to.
The journey of being a photographer has its shares of challenges, remembers Marillina. It was 2008 when she had completed her course and held a collective exhibition among the course participants, it was the opening day when she first found confidence in herself after listening to the praise. She felt that yes, she could take photos that transmit and make something feel. An artist’s only wish is to have her/his work acknowledged for utter satisfaction and she felt this surreal pride of moment that day. But as we said, the path of a photographer is not like satin bed covered with velvety roses, there were thorns too! There were many. One of them which was the most difficult was that series “El Locutorio / The Call Shop” that she did in Barcelona. She had to find 12 models of different nationalities, with certain physical features and a Call Shop where they would allow her to take photos. She looked for the models on the Internet and on the street, she went many times to the call shop. In the end, she succeeded.
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Time Management and Handling the Critics
“I do what I can with what I have, that’s why the element of expression that I use in my photos frequently is my family. My family is my inspiration, my support”
The personal and professional life needs perfect coordination to steal some time for keeping alive the passion. When one is involved in more than one chores of life then it often gets difficult to manage time. It is difficult for her too but the love and support that her family pours down on her balances everything. When Marillina said that she does whatever she can and in whatever she has is an ultimate definition of how much of a wonderful woman she is. With her family’s love and support, she had succeeded in past years as a photographer and is winning today too. Her goal is to enable her audience to connect with her clicked photos through emotions and feelings.
We can say she is doing it right!
As we know there’s no fun in trying out something if there are no critics around us…right? Critics help us to improve. It is how we take it. We asked Marillina how she takes some tough comments, opinions, criticism for her work and to this she answered,
“I think that the way to take criticism has to do with the moment of life in which you find yourself.”
She understood this after an incident that took place during her Author Photography course. The faculty acknowledged her exhibition as funny (sort of a comedy) when in reality, it was narrating a sad story, a history of the immigration in Barcelona. She loves to leave a blank space for her audience to connect the elements and understand her story through photos, but this couldn’t happen and for some time she left photography due to that comment. But today, criticism affects her less. The reason is that she clicks photos for herself now, as a self-knowledge tool. Hence the insecurities and the restlessness of proving the worth of her photography which she used to feel and do at the time she had just started has now become irrelevant and ineffective.
A Balance Between her Art and Photography Skills
Shaking off all the criticism and taking up only the positivity, Marillina Besterio created two accounts on Instagram, one for Art and another for photography. The account for photography exclusively showcases the images that she makes as a series of three photographs. While in her art account she showcases the work of her intervened photographs and paintings. Her work combines many techniques. She is not satisfied with an image by itself. She likes her work to have real texture and different dimensions. For this reason, she takes a photo, edits it, and then intervene with paint, markers, and board. Photoshop and Snapseed are her favorites!
She keeps up her zest for photography by being inspired by the following:
- Ana Santos (@anasantos_visual): I like how she works the textures and colors. She creates simple images of elements, but her way of presenting them is very powerful and attractive to me.
- Noel Oszvald (@oszvaldnoell): For me, it is extraordinary how he manages to make black the protagonist and communicator of his images. With very little, transmits a lot.
- Prince Gyasi (@princejyesi): It impacts me how he blends colors with the people’s skin color, to create a new attractive image, alive and with a new meaning.
We thank Marillina for sharing her story with us. It was a pleasure for The Uncommon Box to interview such a beautiful person and a brilliant photographer. She is an inspiration to us and many other aspiring photographers out there. We wish her all the very best for future endeavors.
Her Instagram account details as follows:
Instagram Photography: @marillinab
Instagram Art: @marra_arte
Article is Written by Alisha Srivastava. Her Instagram id is @yeah_me_alisha
The article is Curated by Vaibhav. His Instagram id is @frameshade
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