M Van Koekje's focus on the female form

"Feelings, most of the time, are at the service of sight; and these prevail when the cognitive ability of a human being strengthens ties with a particular event that empathizes with the person who is looking. Why not capture that?

Maite Artajo Sanchez (Pamplona, 1988), also known as M Van Koekje, belongs to a generation of photographers who, even during the digital era, are still in love with the analogue format with which they narrate their day to day events. Adventures, composition and delicacy are three words that describe her photography; photography that describes a person with a desire to experience a moment before capturing it. In a century where everything has already been photographed, M feels free to keep capturing those instants that describe her own story, and not one that has already been pictured.

Aesthetics for aesthetics, and documentation for documentation; M's photography achieves the intertwining of those two concepts taking us to a parallel world, her world, where turquoise and grain overwhelm those compositions that relate a life of contemporary photography. A life that is deep-rooted in the idea of continuing documenting, by means of beauty, those memories. Thanks to her, we will be able to see them in the posterity.

After working for years in a photodiary created entirely in analog photography (Amsterdam, Berlin, New York, Pamplona …), M Van Koekje is currently focused on the female figure, which shows surrounded by lights that transport us into photography and that inevitably remind us of cinematographic scenes. Everything is impregnated with lights that transform the space and the bodily and facial features of the woman, creating a perfect symbiosis."

See more of M's work on instagram at @mvankoekje

ALTER/ANALOG: How long have you been a photographer?

M: I start shooting when I was 17, 13 years ago now.

ALTER/ANALOG: Why did you begin shooting film?

M: I start shooting on digital but in a year I feel curiosity and start shooting with some lomography cameras, like Olga and a Supersampler 4 . 8 years ago I took my fathers camera, a pentax mz 50 and I buy a canon ae1 too and I start working seriously with 35mm film photography. I still shooting with both cameras, usually I use canon ae1 when I shoot filmsoup-rolls. I shoot some médium format too, but I prefer 35mm cameras.

ALTER/ANALOG: What got you interested in alternative processes?

M: I like “real” stuff, I mean, when you can touch the things you créate, everything change. You transform the material you are working with and LOVE to work without a computer, I dont believe in crtl + z when I talk about photography.

ALTER/ANALOG: Do you have a favorite thing to shoot?

M: My favourite roll is kodak 200 iso colorplus, I love how incredible things you can do with the simpliest roll you can buy in the market. Love to take the “worst” stuff, and still getting good photographies.