Featured Artist in Mina: Joanna Canara

Hello photolovers!
As I promised in my last post, I will bring here in this community the texts I wrote especially for the first issue of Mina, a magazine in NFT about women's art, focusing on photography.

For this issue I interviewed amazing women, like the Indian photographer Joanna Canara. I post the full article resulting from that interview below.

Fantastical poetry

The photographs by Indian Joanna Canara, 28, are hypnotic. Most of them in shades of pink, orange, red, blue, and lilac, the images carry an implicit poetry written by the artist using only the light and her smartphone. Her work usually shows ethereal and fantastical landscapes, which masks the reality experienced by the artist behind the camera, who’s often taken by the fear of going out on the streets.

Because she lives in a country where gender differences are still very high, especially in the access that women have to public spaces and cities, Joanna has a major obstacle to producing her art: insecurity due to rape culture. "I want to go out on the streets to make pictures, but as a woman this is difficult. You get looked at, called as “baby”, and are constantly worried about your safety. I also want to travel alone and make art, but even that is dangerous”.

Living in Índia, a country with many religious dogmas, Joanna doesn't share much of her artwork even with her own family.

"My family is very religious and only a few people know that I’m a photographer. They wouldn't be happy or even understand the kind of photographs I take, because they find my art too dark and they don't like my self-portraits. I have enjoyed photography for years, but I only showed my work to my parents in 2021 because I started selling prints".

Joanna's images are almost always made with a cell phone, ‘cause is the tool she has most conveniently at her hand during her commutes to and from her regular job.

"I work from 9am to 5pm and travel 60 km daily to go and to come back from work. During this time I have my phone with me so it's easier to take pictures with it and I love the simplicity of using it. One click and it's done. I also love editing on my phone. Simple and efficient!", says Joanna.

She started photography in 2013, but since she was a child she loved to draw and fill notebooks with her artwork, and also participated in drawing contests.

Even having very few opportunity to have more intimate contact with nature throughout her life, Joanna says she loves observing little things of nature around her and falling in love with them. "I've only been on vacation twice in my life. So, the only nature I see, it's in the city. And even that leaves me in awe".

She says that her photos don't have a main theme, but she remains open to photographing anything that catches her eye and touches her heart. "Which means that even the simplest things can be the best subjects for me."

Her main references include American photographers Saul Leiter, Vivian Maier and Todd Hido, and Jordanian photographer Maya Beano.

Some of Joanna's photographs are usually accompanied by some sentences. "Whenever I’m editing a photo, I’m constantly thinking of a song or a quote from a book that would make a good description. And then that becomes the caption or title of my pictures. I’m bad with words to describe my pictures. So lyrics from songs and books help me a lot to convey their meaning."

Joanna has been betting on NFTs to drop her regular work and survive on her art, and thanks to this tool, she feels closer to her goal.

The artist has been dedicating herself to the production of self-portraits, which she considers a good and safe bet. "I’m a very anxious person and very self-conscious. So, self-portraits help me to not have to worry about anyone. Although I would love to go out and make friends and take their pictures".