Baldemar Fierro has a cinematic view of life. It makes his photos feel as if they were pulled straight from an art film. Each subject is a character. Each object a purposeful prop. Each landscape a set. Together, they share a story with the viewer — while enabling us to find peace and solace away from the noise of the crowded world. No wonder people are so drawn to the star photographer’s work.
Part of what sets Fierro’s photography apart is his refusal to fall victim to the tropes of social media influencing. He’s not looking to recreate the same subjects and locations that audiences have come to expect. You won’t glimpse images that feel generic in his portfolio — no waterfalls, or deserted islands, or butts in bikinis. He has a drive to be genuine and only take pictures that contain some part of himself.
“I try to make everything as authentic as possible,” Fierro says. “I explore the world and see things that move me. It’s not pre-planned. It’s part of me and what I’m seeing. Nothing is preconceived.”
This has been the artist’s mantra since, fresh out of high school, he grabbed a few disposable cameras and started documenting his buddies and the landscapes of Northern California. Of course, it took some time for him to transition from a young man waiting for his film to be developed so he could mail pics to his buds into a well-regarded artist — whose work sells for thousands at festivals. A shift occurred when a friend gifted him her mother’s photographic equipment for his birthday, and Fierro began shooting everything he saw while hiking and camping.
He soon found that photography became a catalyst to continue venturing into the great big wild world.
For Fierro, stepping away from the pressure cooker of daily life is vital to the creative process. He sees most environments we occupy as nests of chaos and is positive that their crowded nature prevents us from finding harmony and seclusion. Instead, he believes that humans need to savor silence and time to ourselves. As a photographer, he is constantly adventuring alone, and his work recreates that sensation for viewers, whose souls are growling for a little piece of peace.
“I hope that people see beauty in what I capture,” Fierro states. “I hope it inspires them to see this place that we live in differently, and that my work breaks up that everyday zone that we all get placed in — whether it is being stuck on our phones the majority of the day or being worried about the trivial things that we all experience.”
Fierro isn’t limiting his subject matter to grand landscapes of obvious beauty. He feels anything has the potential to be gorgeous. The artist draws a comparison between his photographic approach and the sensation of seeing something that is part of your daily life for the first time. Everyone has had the experience of driving by an object or a vista every day as part of a grueling commute only to look at it one day and be struck by its beauty.
Those moments are special, and they’re what drive him.
Though certainly a photographer who is refusing to conform; Fierro is also an obvious romantic whose hopes for the future are to keep doing what he is doing currently. Photography has given him what he calls a “blessed life.” Self-expression and learning are a part of his work with which he remains closely connected; growth is a must. This summer, he’ll see the publication of his first book, Oceans of Space — a collection of his landscape work.
Fierro won’t be bragging about his photos any time soon (no matter how big his following at the famed Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach grows). In fact, his hopes are for a long career: “I think I’d be a pretty happy man at 70 years old to be able to look through my photographs and have a body of work that I’m deeply proud of… something that reflects who I am.” If he keeps putting a piece of himself in every picture, meeting that ambition seems like a certainty.
