A step ahead in flamenco esthetics

Silvia Calado Olivo

The camera has been a medium between Mario Pacheco and flamenco. Through his lens, he has seen a bearded and smoky Camarón; Jorge Pardo, his sax and his shadow; Diego Carrasco with an orange blossom in his lapel; Cañizares and the clouds... The photos have appeared on album covers, and acted as mediums between the public and the recording; between the transmitter and the recipient of the message. When the soul of Nuevos Medios discovered flamenco artists on the other side of his Rolleiflex, tradition guided his steps: "Colita, Paco Ontañón... and old lithographs and postcards that played up the exotic qualities of Gypsies and portrayed flamenco dance with references to ballet and theater". The esthetics of his work are not a conscious pursuit of controversy: "I don't mind clichés. I like to photograph people holding a guitar or to be fully dressed. I'd rather portray them as artists; I don't like the anthropological angle. I enjoyed shooting Camarón or Jimi Hendrix, but I was never interested in a report on the caves of Almería." He has always had a clear idea of what he does not want: "I've never been much interested in the ethnological sort of photography of Gypsies. I'd rather portray the artist. Or, at least, that's what I did because I was running a record label. And before I was a producer, I used to shoot album covers of flamenco recordings".

His apparent conformity does not mean that he lacks substance: "I also had some ideas of my own. For example, in the cover photo for "La Leyenda del Tiempo," you can't see Camarón clearly, with his beard and the cigarette in his mouth; and, being in black and white, nobody wanted to use that photo. It received all kinds of criticism, and nobody even credited me for having taken it. It was a step ahead in flamenco esthetics. Pacheco acknowledges, "I'm very much in favor of following certain tendencies, but so are flamenco artists. They don't normally object if you want to do things one way or another". Describing his work, he states, "It's almost always in black and white; sort of contrary to the nature of lavish productions". The response has been positive: "Even the artists thought it worked; or, at least, they gave me their approval. They weren't the ones to say that the album cover should use some spectacular ground-breaking photo. They never insisted on anything like that. Maybe other labels prefer spending more money, to make things seem more luxurious. The artists never complained to me, and any one of them would have, if they hadn't been happy about things". Do you think that the image of flamenco is the key to continue opening up the market? "Flamenco is a very complete art form, because it has a tradition and a history. Everything about flamenco corresponds to something predetermined, and you'll find tradition in photography, production and choreography. Those antecedents aren't necessarily the greatest things in the world, but you've always got somewhe.