“One of the reasons I started with this project is because I’ve always been a metalhead, even as a kid, before I knew what metal was,” says photographer Rakel Garcia. “…I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know what it was called, but I knew I was into it already.” Rakel is the creative and artistic mastermind behind Rockin’ Ladies, one of the best-known Spanish photography projects about women made by a woman. Rakel’s beginnings, projects, and vision are fascinating, as is evident in her images. We spoke with her to find out how and why she balances photography with that thing people call a day job.
The Essential Camera Gear of Rakel Garcia
I’m in love with my Canon R5. I love how it deals with noise, its shooting speed, and everything about it. As per lenses, my most used lens is an f/2.8 24-70mm; versatile, luminous, and with minimal aberrations. The last one I bought was an 85mm, f/1.4 lens, which is incredible for portrait work, even though I wish it were a little lighter.
THE PHOBLOGRAPHER: Please, tell us a bit about yourself
Rakel García: Hello! My name is Rakel García, and I’m a 45-year-old photographer based in Spain. Currently, I’m working as a photographer —stand-alone sessions and my beloved Rockin’ Ladies— as well as having a role in the organization at Dinamika Drumfest, training to be a teacher, and, of course, having a day job at a financial department to keep the lights on.
THE PHOBLOGRAPHER: A financial department? Really?
Rakel García: Yes! Even though I’m training to be a teacher in the —hopefully near— future, I cherish having a stable, nine-to-five job. It’s tough to make a living off art in this country we live in, and you’ve got to remember what art means to you! When you start on any artistic discipline, such as photography, you do it because you need to express yourself through that medium. Once you turn that into a job, you start taking on projects that may not fit your vision or your wants, just to make ends meet. Unless, of course, you’re one of those photographers who can charge whatever they want.
THE PHOBLOGRAPHER: How did you get into photography?
Rakel García: I started as a kid purely out of passion. I’ve always liked all kinds of art —when I was a little girl, I won a few contests, writing, painting, and so on— and it just seemed the right thing to go for. My parents owned a Ricoh, made before I was born, and I already had a fixation with portraiture. One day I took my sister to a friend’s house —she had this fantastic window, larger than life, oriented towards the sunset. I chose their clothing, directed their poses, everything. I was amazed at the results, especially when I noticed that I had forgotten to put the film in. Thankfully I have a good memory, so we repeated the session the following weekend with the film on. I was acting purely on instinct, as I didn’t know how to meter light or anything yet, but the pictures were terrific. I still have them around!
A couple of years later, in high school, one of our teachers decided to forgo the history curriculum and teach us about photography and video. That’s where I learned about the technical aspects of photography. I had to stop for a little while, though, because I was using a Nikon F60—and as a student, buying and developing film as often as I wanted was way, way out of my budget.
As soon as digital cameras appeared, I got a point-and-shoot thanks to my then-partner, and I quickly picked up photography again. They were not that advanced back then, but as long as you have a good eye for lighting and framing, you can do pretty amazing things with the most basic cameras. We can see kids taking terrific pictures with their phones today. After all, the most iconic images in the history of photography were shot with cameras we’d think of as primitive today!
THE PHOBLOGRAPHER: Historically, but for a few divas, metal music has been considered a Man’s World. I imagine this was one of the primary motivations for Rockin’ Ladies, but would you care to elaborate?
Rakel García: One of the reasons I started with this project is because I’ve always been a metalhead, even as a kid, before I knew what metal was. There was this thing on TV, back in the eighties, where they played music videos to fill up empty spaces on the grid, and that’s where I discovered bands such as AC/DC, Iron Maiden, etcetera. I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know what it was called, but I knew I was into it already.
Even though my tastes have been evolving over the years, I’ve been involved in the metal scene in some way or another for as long as I can remember. I’ve been to concerts all across Europe, and being as observant as I am —after all, I’m a photographer— I soon started to notice this thing… why aren’t more women on stage? We’ve got the same phonatory system, don’t we? We’ve got the same abilities and possibilities; why aren’t more of us up there?
By the tail end of 2015, I started to contact women on the Internet, mainly over Facebook. As soon as I saw a woman with an instrument on their profile picture, I added her. We talked, I introduced myself, and told them about the project I had in mind. I wanted to take photos of them and hopefully make an exhibition with the resulting portraits.
At the moment, I was hoping for maybe twenty pictures, two exhibitions at the most, one of them in Barcelona, followed by another in Madrid, but as soon as I started working on this and went on social media, word of mouth did its job. I got hundreds of messages from individuals to magazines and other media; it was wild.
Two women offered to join and help me with the project. María Neila, journalist and singer for Alien Rockin’ Explosion, and Paris Lakryma, a Galician transgender drummer based in Madrid. They told me this is all about music; why don’t we do something with music? And thus, we made a jam session covering bands with women in their ranks, and it was a success—more than three hundred people at our first gig, which is incredible for first-timers like us.
We were lucky the project got that much acclaim because of what we try to share with it; we value collaboration and fellowship over competitiveness. We live in an incredibly competitive world, in a patriarchal culture that tries to keep us women pitched against each other in every aspect of life. I don’t believe in that. I think it’s important to talk about this, and Rockin’ Ladies relies on that idea. When we’re asked why it works as well as it does, I think it is because we’re not trying to take advantage of anyone, and we’re not trying to make money with it. You’ve got to be a bit of an activist. If you think something is wrong and needs fixing, you have to work, and that’s what we’ve been doing!
So press and media took an active interest in Rockin’ Ladiesand the public, who shared our social media posts and every post involving us in some way. We’ve exhibited our work at several festivals, and I’ve done work as the official photographer at others, such as Dinamika Drumfest. In this last one, they liked our job, vision, and message so much that they ended up making us a part of their team; this year, we’re taking care of everything related to photography and marketing.
In the end, our message and project received an excellent overall reception, mainly because we’ve worked it from our hearts.
THE PHOBLOGRAPHER: What has been the most challenging part of Rockin’ Ladies?
Rakel García: The hardest part about this project has been the amount of work and effort I’ve had to put into it. I moved into this house right after I started Rockin’ Ladies, and I couldn’t enjoy my home until the pandemic came! For two years and a half, I’ve been traveling every weekend to different cities to shoot, and I spent most weekdays editing those at the studio. As I told you earlier, I thought we were going to have around twenty pictures, and we’ve got more than a hundred by now!
As you know, they’re not a hundred pictures, though; every photoshoot gave us a bunch of pics to sift through, one by one; I also wanted to involve the models in the selection, as it is their image, and I wanted to make sure they felt comfortable with them.
Of course, it wasn’t only the traveling, shooting, and editing per se, even though that was hard work already; it was answering all those interviews! I pride myself on never using copy and paste, not when responding to interviews or contacting new musicians. I just wanted to be as transparent as possible about my philosophy, methodology, and how I saw the project and its future, regardless of how much time and effort it took.
THE PHOBLOGRAPHER: About your methodology, what’s your way around your portraits?
Rakel García: Usually, the bands and artists I work with have got an obvious idea of what they’re looking for, even if they don’t know how to express it, so I ask them to send me photos they like and point to what they want about them; poses, lighting, colors, etc. That’s the easiest way to get to what they’re looking for.
Sometimes, they will give me free rein, and that’s the hardest part. Even though they usually like the end result, sometimes they don’t, and that’s always a bummer.
When it comes to individual portraits, I work in two ways. Either I try to open a window to what the model has in their soul or I try to create a character in real time. I may not have powers, but I know how to make them get into a role. I give them instructions, on how to breathe, how to move, and how to act, and once the ambiance is set, I just tell them to open their eyes and look at me on a count of three. It works!
The one where I get to their soul is the method I like the most because you’ve got to make them so comfortable that they show you something they usually hide, and when that happens the pictures are wonderful.
THE PHOBLOGRAPHER: How was the reception of your project in the metal scene?
Rakel García: The reception, overall, has been incredible. It took me by surprise when people approached me to compliment me about the project and the work I put into it. They would say, “Rakel, you’re not aware of the movement you’ve created,” to which I would answer, “no, I’m not,” because I don’t think I’ve created anything!
This project was a team effort from the start. It wouldn’t have existed if the women who posed for me didn’t believe in it or didn’t think it was necessary. It wouldn’t have existed if they hadn’t tried to make their schedules fit with mine! It’s always been a team effort, and I’m proud of it.
Of course, I’m pretty sure some people didn’t like it or saw flaws in it, even among the musicians who played a part in it. After all, we’ve had over a hundred musicians posing, and it’d be incredible if none of them disagreed, wouldn’t it?
THE PHOBLOGRAPHER: WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE AN ANECDOTE WITH US?
Rakel García: When I was doing the photoshoots in Barcelona I rented a small studio for three days. Three days snapping pictures, almost non-stop, using a smoke machine for decoration. Of course, no one told us there were going to be smoke detectors in the corridors. Once we opened the door to get some air, the alarms started blaring! The janitor came up to the studio, angry, telling us not to use smoke anymore. I kept on telling him we had to use smoke for these shoots, and he told us to be more careful the next day.
And we were. We kept everything closed up tight, keeping an eye on things, and it went perfectly well… until the last minute, after we had finished, while the musicians were saying goodbye, they left the door opened for more than a minute… and the alarm started blaring again!
All images by Rakel García. Used with permission. This interview has been translated from the original Spanish. Be sure to visit Rakel’s website and Instagram to see more. Want to get featured? Click here to see how.
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