Gabriel Nuñez is a photographer based in Los Angeles whose work explores the natural and man-made worlds. His photos have appeared on the pages of Black + White Photography Magazine and presented at Praxis Gallery. Gabriel’s style marries a romantic appreciation for beauty with impressionistic design elements to capture the drama hidden in everyday life. He describes his approach towards photography as a series of visual experiments in the strange and beautiful.
The World of Man
Since the Industrial Revolution, most inhabitants of the Western world migrated from farms to cities, trading soil and starlight for concrete and streetlight. Gabriel’s street photos document the human experience in designed spaces to better understand what we’ve gained and lost in this bargain. He photographs subjects in urban landscapes to investigate our response to the artificial environments we've constructed for ourselves. These images explore the alienation of modern life and the yearning to discover the extraordinary moments amidst the seemingly ordinary.
In his ongoing project, The Beautiful Strangeness of Everyday Life, Gabriel celebrates the opportunities for extra-ordinary experiences in daily life. Whether through bizarre encounters with strangers on the street, noticing the bold pastel colors on bags of dog shit, or puzzling over cryptic shadows cast in a parking garage, life continually punches through our ossified filters with a simple injunction: Look! This work hurls a broadside at the notion that the subject matter of daily life is unworthy of careful noticing. It’s exactly through this kind of attending that we create the possibility of transforming our day-to-day experience—from something we have to get through on the way to the truly special moment, to one worthy of wonder and investigation. By accepting the invitation to see life creatively in this way, we open the space to perceive beyond the duality of beautiful / ugly and begin exploring the fuller range of our aesthetic sensitivity.
The World of Nature
Gabriel’s passion for nature has taken him from the sand dunes of Death Valley to the black sand beaches of Iceland. He holds a special place in his heart for the undervalued beauty of deserts where life found ways to thrive in spite of hostile conditions. This struggle is reflected in the forms desert plants have evolved towards—armored skin adorned with prickly appendages that protect plants from predation and sinewy curves designed to efficiently channel water. His most recent project is a love letter to these plants. It largely focuses on the queen of desert dwellers, the mighty agave, and applies the aesthetics of film noir to reimagine the incredible universe of prickly plants.
How to Get in Touch
Please reach out to Gabriel using the form below for questions about licensing, prints, or just to say hello!