Today we have the pleasure to speak to Sergio Villalba, who is an amazing surf and lifestyle photographer. Our relationship with Sergio goes way back and since the idea of Pulaumi Souls came to be, it was clear that the first chance we get to speak with him, we want to make this interview. 

How did you get into photography?

It all started when I was living in Barcelona from 1999 to 2005 and I started photographing in jazz clubs. A style of photography totally different from what I had in mind, since I always liked surfing, but at that time, it was all I could get and it was an excellent way to perfect my technique. In jazz clubs there is very little light and the cameras were not technically that well-equipped as the ones we use today.
In 2005, I returned to the Canary Islands and I went for my dream of living from surf photography. Now years later I realized that I arrived in the golden age of surfing, when there were bigger budgets and fewer photographers. So I could live quite well for years exclusively from surf photography. More or less it started like this.

What was it like when you were mainly working in the surfing industry? Did you work as a freelancer or were you employed by a magazine or a brand?

I was always freelancing. At that time I managed to build up some loyal customer relationships. I did a series of competitions, events and seasonal shootings of clothes.
I also kept almost daily contact with magazines from all over Europe but I always kept myself freelance.

You said you arrived in the golden age of surfing. What has changed in the surfing industry since then?

It has changed a lot. Today there are more people surfing, but somehow there is less surf-fashion now. They sell more hardware like boards, fins or leashes, but they don’t sell so much clothes anymore.
Also, with the crisis of 2008 the market fell a lot and was flooded with generalized brands that imitated the surf and skate fashion, and they sold the products at much lower prices. In the end the income of the surf industry and also other sports were undermined. So, what dropped were the budgets. Marketing budgets were no longer the same, the printed versions of the magazines also disappeared almost entirely, everything was digitized and marketing budgets in a matter of two, three years were no longer what they used to be. So, it became very difficult to live exclusively from surf photography as we did in 2005/2007.

Now, what kind of photography do you do most?

I try to do not only surf photography because it is very difficult to live from it, as I just said. So I also do more different sports and lifestyle photography. Of course lifestyle is a very broad field. I do lifestyle for example for brands or for hotels. I try to be true to what I feel comfortable doing, which is working outdoors and working with natural light.

Surf photography is a very interesting field. How has it served you?

I always considered that surf photography is a good training ground because it is not only action. Magazines and brands always demanded that you were also able to do portraits, landscapes, lifestyle or even studio photography. So it’s not only surfing but everything that is involved and like this you end up for example being also their travel photographer.

Today which field of photography do you like best?

I would say every project that involves lifestyle in a natural way. For example, I don’t feel comfortable working with models that I have to direct too much, I feel more comfortable working with people who are not professional models and who do things that they are comfortable with. When there’s a bit of creative freedom and there is no art director telling me exactly the picture he needs, which has happened to me some times. Any project where I feel that kind of freedom and work with people who feel comfortable, I feel comfortable and happy as well.

I see you taking pictures with your iPhone and in the next moment you take an old 35 mm analog camera. What is your take on the whole digital vs. analog thing?

I have accepted new technology and benefited from it. I’m considered a person that is quite technically inclined but I’m also someone who values the roots of where we came from and in that sense I am a bit of a romantic too.

I like to keep that spirit, I don’t know how to call it, let’s say analogical.
Not only in photography but also in music with vinyls for example. In a time when everything is so excessively digitalized and everything is so fast I enjoy the process of thinking twice before shooting a picture and I also enjoy developing the film cartridges and enlarging the prints myself.
I think that every type of photo, every moment requires a certain tool and more and more I see myself shooting on film more often. I guess I am also at that time of my life but maybe in the future I’ll come back with strength to the digital. I am not a defender of one type of photography or camera. It’s a tool and everyone uses it as they wish for the moment they want to capture.

Do you think analogue photography is more important again today?

I think that it is very trendy at the moment. Not in a negative way since photography has existed for many years, long before I was born and long before almost all of us were born. But from a constructive point of view I think it’s good for the market. It’s good for the person who practices photography because a lot of people weren’t attracted to digital photography beyond what they could do with their phone and now they are attracted to analog photography because of what we talked about before.
I think today there are a lot of people starting to get interested in photography thanks to this analog revival.

You mentioned before that it’s good for the market. How did the market adapt to this analog revival?

I think it has become quite important again. There is a trend in fashion photography, for example, where naturalness is more important than artificiality in terms of light and perfection. The trend is to express the essence or what the photo transmits, rather than the perfection of the photo itself. Analogue photography is the perfect channel to transmit that essence so more and more fashion photographers are shooting on film again. There are also some companies such as Kodak or Fujifilm that have brought back to life films that they stopped producing because it was not profitable some years ago.

Any last words?

Thanks to Pulaumi for trusting me, for all the good moments and for all the people I meet in every shooting. Also, thank you Orion and Ramena for the interview.

We also want to thank you for your time, the interesting conversation and the wonderful photos. We always look forward having you here in Fuerteventura.

Follow Sergio on his website and Instagram.