How were your first steps in this profession?
Well, fun but hard at the same time. I started as an assistant to a porn photographer friend of mine, and after a while I went solo. Yet, porn photography didn't stop being my main source of income, as having started in this profession had closed many other doors for me. Spain still has too rightist an ideology. It's taken me a very long time and effort to demonstrate I'm capable of doing many other things.

Is there anything you consider ‘your signature' in the style or way you take pictures?
From a visual perspective, I think my pictures are very easily recognizable, as my photoshop work is quite personal. And of course, the way I look at my models is also a differentiating feature. In this field each photographer creates their own world –thank God, otherwise it would be too boring.

Can you mention any inspirational photographer or artist, or someone you look up to?
Helmut Newton is my absolute god. I find both his life philosophy and his work a whole guide to me. He was so nuts he even took his camera to a life or death operation.

Do you usually work for international media besides Spain ? Which ones?
I wish I could work for more –I like changing very much. I've worked for German, Swiss, and French magazines. I even published work in the American Rolling Stone –a gem in my CV. But I still want more, please!

How do you feel at work?
Always with butterflies in my stomach -that sensation in your belly that always makes you afraid before a shoot, and therefore makes you want to work better everyday.

How do you get along with the models you have had to work together with?
I usually protect them –after a shoot they're a bit like my children [laughs].
I really like to get together with them both before and after work. I'll never take a pic of someone I haven't met before and that I haven't really perceived they need to be portrayed and experimented with by me. But I can assure it, though no one believes me, I have never been involved sentimentally with any of them. I'm too professional –or stupid, or whatever you want to call me.

Do you have a favorite model among all the ones you've taken pictures of?
I'd never tell you that [laughs].

And someone you still haven't photographed and you would like to very much?
When I see them, wherever it may be, I'll know it and I'll get them.

Do you have any anecdotes in particular of any of the many shoots you've had as an artist and photographer?
Each photo shoot is a universe completely outside the reality we live in. I go through a lot –good and bad stuff. The shoots that are the most fun are the ones abroad. On many an occasion I've risked getting arrested for getting my models naked in the middle of the city with no due permit. But of course, when you get more than two hundred people getting photographed around you, the police go away. I love to call the attention and I'm not afraid of anything. That's dangerous.

Do you like porn photography? What's your take on it? Do you particularly like any website, magazine or video?
I don't really care. Look, right tomorrow I'm doing a very hardcore shoot for Private that's going to be run in more than forty countries.
The fact that I enjoy doing one shoot more than another doesn't depend on the kind of it but on the person in front of my camera.

Are you currently showing your work anywhere?
I have an itinerant exhibit sponsored by Fundación Triángulo we are taking all around Spain . Quite recently I had one in Italy too. And I'm open to new offers.

Have you ever worked in Argentina or in a project related to our country?
No. And I don't want to take too long this way. Argentina is a country that lures me too much and is a pending subject for me. So now you know.

How's your 2008 coming along?
With a lot of work –I can't stop and I'm very happy. I could really do with a boyfriend to make it all perfect (the call has now been made).

What are your projects? Any news?
Well, the big news is my first book. Published jointly by Zero and the German publishing company Bruno Gmunder, “Chulo” –that's what it's called– is a compilation of the work I have published in Zero magazine ( Spain 's most important gay publication). About two yeas ago, the magazine's director Miguel Angel López and I had the idea of creating a section to scout gays on the street and photograph them. We didn't look for the stereotype but rather the guy from the corner, the escort, the fifth floor neighbor, the cute guy from school. And from that first sketch Chulozero was born, a project with its own website for cast sessions, itinerant parties in Spain , etc.

It's great. Now I only need to pay you a visit in Buenos Aires because I' sure I'd fall in love with your guys.

To check out my work you can visit my website at www.joancrisol.com or at Zero magazine www.zero-web.com or www.chulozero.com .

And of course you will find my book on websites such as Amazon.com.

Big kiss and thank you for everything. See you soon.

¡Thank You Joan!

Interview by:
Pablo De Luca & Gustavo Noguera
Gmaps360 :: Buenos Aires (2008)