I interviewed photographer and performer, Vera Rodriguez about her customised camera.
Tell me about your camera and what it means to you.
My camera is like an extension of myself. It's been my diary on many occasions, so it's like another representation of my personality.
Do you generally customise objects, or is it just something you've done with your camera?
I do customise some objects and I'm quite creative with dressing up and the ways I change my appearance, but, as my camera is a very personal object, I did pay special attention to it being customised the way I wanted it. For example, the eyes that you see attached to the camera – I found them in a second-hand flea market in Spain. I found three dolls that had really interesting eyes. I bought them and when I came home I looked at them carefully and decided which eyes I wanted to stick on the camera. When we were taking out one of the eyes it got slightly broken. We just stuck it back together because those were the eyes that I really wanted. I thought that it would add a bit of poetry that one eye is slightly damaged, like my right eye is, so I thought that was a nice metaphor.
Someone did the customisation for you, but you gave them a design or idea to follow. How did that work?
I asked my friend, Carlos Mallol, if he could paint the camera for me, but I wanted colours that really represented me. What he used at first were pastel colours, which I wasn't very pleased with, so I asked him to change them for colours that identified me more. In the end, we painted the camera mainly black and red, also with some pink and green. Then another friend of mine added the red drops that fall in the shape of blood coming down the camera. I also painted some parts of the camera myself.
How do people respond differently when you are shooting them with that camera, as opposed to a standard black camera?
When I bought that camera I only had one lens, a 24-105mm. It's quite a long lens and I've always thought that cameras can be very aggressive objects, especially when they have a long lens. A long lens can be quite intimidating and it's quite phallic. So, I thought that to paint the camera as a transvestite, with eyes and make-up and a kind of smile will just make people a little bit less nervous about it. I think it's got a friendly look, so it helps me a bit when I'm shooting strangers. Also it protects it a bit from being stolen, as I don't think anyone would consider stealing a camera like this and selling it in a second-hand market. It's not only an extension of my personality, there's also a practical motivation.
What are the best and worst reactions you've had to the camera?
Well, children love the camera, so they normally smile a lot. I do a lot of pictures in clubs as well, where people react very well to the camera. I've had some bad reactions from 'serious' photographers – they say, 'I would never do that to my camera!', as if the camera is something sacred and untouchable. I've seen some photographers looking down on me due to how I've treated the camera.
