©Katharina Degen
Justina Leston (b.1986) is an Argentinian photographer and graphic designer. Her work explores the crossovers between the mundane, the absurd, and the arbitrary: emphasizing error, humor, and beauty, playing with the real and unreal blurring the limits of fiction and reality. Her work was selected and exhibited in different competitions in Argentina and Uruguay and was invited to show her work in different opportunities in Berlin. In 2023 she published her first book Who spies on us? with Metaninfas.
She lives and works in Berlin.
Artist Statement
On family vacations my dad always carried a canon AE1 with him, which he used to take family photos, but he also took the photos he liked for himself. For example, he would take pictures of a forest, but he didn't take just one picture, he would take pictures of details of the forest and once they were printed, he would make a big collage. When I grew up I discovered that he had "stolen" the idea from Hockney.
On our first trip to Patagonia I asked him to teach me how to use the camera. What amused me most was discovering a sharp image in the lens once I managed to match its two halves.
The first picture I remember taking was a portrait of my parents. In the background you can see the mountain, there is some wind, they are hugging. The gesture I managed to freeze still touches me today.
Photography allows me to tell stories, my own or others', that in one way or another become mine. They are confessions that are presented in a fragmented way in search of answers.
My photographs have frozen gestures, choreographed movements in suspension. I am attracted by the power of images, of being able to freeze an instant that belongs to one time to contemplate it in another, generating a new meaning.
I have read that to tell the truth it is often necessary to lie. I believe that the most honest and sincere stories are full of lies, and these are the ones I want to tell.
She lives and works in Berlin.
Artist Statement
On family vacations my dad always carried a canon AE1 with him, which he used to take family photos, but he also took the photos he liked for himself. For example, he would take pictures of a forest, but he didn't take just one picture, he would take pictures of details of the forest and once they were printed, he would make a big collage. When I grew up I discovered that he had "stolen" the idea from Hockney.
On our first trip to Patagonia I asked him to teach me how to use the camera. What amused me most was discovering a sharp image in the lens once I managed to match its two halves.
The first picture I remember taking was a portrait of my parents. In the background you can see the mountain, there is some wind, they are hugging. The gesture I managed to freeze still touches me today.
Photography allows me to tell stories, my own or others', that in one way or another become mine. They are confessions that are presented in a fragmented way in search of answers.
My photographs have frozen gestures, choreographed movements in suspension. I am attracted by the power of images, of being able to freeze an instant that belongs to one time to contemplate it in another, generating a new meaning.
I have read that to tell the truth it is often necessary to lie. I believe that the most honest and sincere stories are full of lies, and these are the ones I want to tell.