How Andoni Beristain Captures the Dichotomies of Life on Camera

Name:
Delsey Paris x VISUALPLEASURE
NEW HORIZONS - WORLD TOUR 2024
Spanish Artist of the week - Andoni Beristain
Photography:
Andoni Beristain
Words:
Erica Nichols

Andoni Beristain likes to play with contradictions. Happy and sad. Complex and simple. Futuristic and nostalgic. After 14 years, the photographer left city life in Barcelona to return to his hometown of San Sebastian in northern Spain, where he’s currently finding a wealth of creative energy. In bright colors and strikingly clean compositions, Beristain creates images that may look simple on the outside, but cover the full range of emotion and experiences of the human condition. Learn more about how he got started and what he created for our DELSEY Paris collaboration.

What first drew you to taking photos?
Andoni Beristain: I have always been a creative person, drawing and painting all the time. I played the clarinet, loved music, singing... and I decided to study design in Barcelona. Photography came to me somewhat by chance when a teacher told me I had a special eye for taking pictures. I listened to him and kept going non-stop until today.

How have your roots in northern Spain impacted your work?
My roots are very important to me. Even though I lived in Barcelona for 14 years, three years ago, I returned to my homeland, the Basque Country, and I love it. The sea, the culture, the gastronomy, the people, the landscapes... Everything inspires me, and I feel at home, in my safe zone. At first glance, my work seems very colorful and cheerful, but it is also melancholic, and I feel that this also has a lot to do with the Basque environment and everything I have experienced here.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of photography for you?
It’s my way of expressing things and concerns, and I love doing it. Moreover, people connect with it, so I can't help but be grateful to photography for being the medium through which I do what I love the most.

Your work infuses a lot of color and levity into stories that touch on heavier topics. How do you strike that balance?
I try to reflect life as it is, full of both very good and very bad things at the same time. I like to tell episodes from my life, experiences that have helped me grow and learn a lot. I talk about taboos that not many people discuss but which I think are very important to address. I open myself up in a colorful and hopeful, yet raw way. I tell my life, with its whites and blacks, in full color. I also like to convey complex things with few elements or in a very direct way, and realizing that people see themselves reflected in my work — and sometimes even seeing that my work has helped them feel understood or accompanied in some way — is precious to me. I think my personal work is like a diary that evolves as things happen in my life, both good and bad, and I grow with them.

Which local places do you love to shoot at most?
The beaches of San Sebastián, my city. The light here, the wild sea, the dark sands when the tide is low, the clear horizon, the light blue sky that is sometimes very dark, the green of the surrounding mountains... Everything is perfect.

What projects excite you the most?
My personal projects, without a doubt. These are the projects that come out spontaneously and with which I explore, grow, and learn the most.

“I think my personal work is like a diary that evolves as things happen in my life, both good and bad, and I grow with them.”

How does travel influence your worldview as an artist?
Traveling is very important to me; I love doing it, and it is what inspires me the most. I'm obsessed with getting to know the streets, the tiles, the sidewalks, the colors of the facades, how people live in their cities, the typical places of each area, the different cultures... I can spend hours and hours watching people live their lives, and every time I travel, I come back loaded with ideas noted on my phone.

Looking back, which projects are you most proud of?
The most important personal work for me so far, and I think it will always be, is "Pieza Madre." A series of 63 photos dedicated to my mother, who passed away suddenly in 2022. It’s a series that talks about our incredible relationship, about who she was, about who we were together. It was my way of paying tribute to her and grieving in yellow, our favorite color.

Talk to us about what you’re creating for DELSEY.
I love surrealism and want the images I create to convey positivity. That’s why, for DELSEY, I worked on the concept of the famous "Spanish siesta." It makes me laugh, and I really want to talk about it in this collaboration. For me, traveling is relaxing, and the siesta is the pinnacle of daytime relaxation. That’s why I decided to create a mishmash of the dreaming traveler who sleeps on the beach, haha. Moreover, the siesta is one of those Spanish stereotypes that I find amusing; it's true that some people take it, but it’s not as common as people think, and I feel like poking fun at it. For example, I almost never sleep during the day, and when I do, I wake up feeling terrible, groggy, and in a really bad mood.

What’s in your DELSEY?
A compact camera for travel, earplugs for sleeping, and a few peppermint tea bags.