Maria Birba
Maria Birba: Argentinian Photographer
A truly gifted, multifaceted photo artist, Buenos Aires-born ‘n’ based María Birba has always been connected to music, either as a listener and music-lover, or as a singer. This life-long close relationship with music shines throughout María’s work with a particular voice. Her work picturing live music, and the way she captures those really special moments of musicians’ performances either on stage or at the recording studio, make the perfect frame for that voice to reveal itself through. No wonder, this has made her the most sought-after photographer in this particular area of work in her home city.
As years went by, she naturally became friends with a large number of musicians, and this leaded her to one of her ongoing projects (a photo book titled “SURreal”, currently in its final stage), a project that involves musicians too: South American composers, pictured in somehow daily, but off-stage settings, in their own hometowns in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Not a coincidence, these composers, should be noted at the backbone of what, though still unnamed, is becoming a strong musical current that mixtures elements from the vastly rich musical cultures of South American countries while retaining each original identity.
A mother of two, one of María’s other photo projects involves families. A few generations ago, it was not unusual for a family to hire a photographer and to get themselves thus pictured. Starting from that old idea, Maria’s Family Project takes away all the stiffness of the original ways, and seeks to depict a family in its own place, doing their own things, talking, laughing, sharing.
Other areas of interest for Maria’s eye and artistic sense involve traditional tradesmen, and deconstructed views of old cars. But this will be told about in depth in our next article on Maria’s work!
Photo credits: Maria Birba © 2011
www.birbafotografia.com/
www.mariabirba.com/