photo-eye Gallery Tony Chirinos - The Beauty of the Uncommon Tool Delaney Hoffman
This week we're ecstatic to bring you work from Photographer's Showcase artist Tony Chirinos. The Beauty of the Uncommon Tool presents stunning, large-format still lifes of the otherworldly tools used in surgical operating rooms isolated from their queasy context. See what Tony has to say about his careerand learn about the extraordinary circumstances under which these images were made here!

 

Tony Chirinos, Volkmann Retractor, Sharp-pointed, 9x11.5", Edition of 9, $450

This week, we are thrilled to share an interview between Gallery Associate Delaney Hoffman and Tony Chirinos, Photographer's Showcase artist!

Tony Chirinos is an artist and educator based in Miami, Florida. His first monograph, The Precipice was published in 2021 by Gnomic Book in Portland, OR and is comprised of over a decade's worth of imagery made in  operating rooms and morgues around the country. photo-eye Gallery is thrilled to introduce one of three chapters from The Precipice as a full portfolio!

The Beauty of Uncommon Tools shares a name with a famous set of images from Walker Evans entitled The Beauty of the Common Tool. By isolating these strange instruments as formal objects, Chirinos helps us all to see the beauty of those things that help us stay alive. 

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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Tony Chirinos, Volkmann Retractor, Sharp-pointed, 9x11.5", Edition of 9, $450

Delaney Hoffman (DH): So, all right, The Precipice, this new book project! It looks so good. I was so impressed when we got it in. I have a student edition on the way for myself, which I love. As somebody that's very committed to photobooks and photobook access. I love that you made a Student Edition.

Tony Chirinos (TC): Well, I told Jason from Gnomic [Books, Portland, OR] that it's very important to me that we do a Student Edition, because some students can’t afford a $50 book! But even then, every aspect of the book was thought of as some association with medicine. The Student Edition comes in a manila envelope, which is how you used to get your X-rays and reports when you went to the doctor; and even then, it's not a softcover, and it's not a hardcover. It's a no cover! It's loose! It's an extraction from the main book, so again, it's the idea of taking something out of a body and putting it somewhere else.

DH: That's cool. I like the idea of extraction a lot, and how that carries through down to the design elements. So can you tell me a little bit about your background as a photographer, how you came into the world of picture making?

TC:  How did I get into taking pictures? Well, as an art student, in ninth grade, I was really into drawing with pencil. And you know, sketchbook stuff, I wanted to be an artist. I would spend weeks if not months on just one drawing. My art teacher, who I dedicated the book to, Susan McGuire, told me at the end of ninth grade, she said, “Have you ever done photography? I think that you will love it because all of your drawings are, you know, pencil/charcoal. Right? And if you're into this black and white...” So I signed up for it. And the first role that I took, I said, “Oh my God! I can make 36 sketches of the world. And I don't have to spend months and months and months!”, because I think that's what I would do with my drawings. I wanted to make sketches of the world and document the things that I was seeing. So that's how I got into photography and I never went back to drawing.

DH: It's funny how sometimes all it takes is the right kind of assignment. You know, sometimes it just takes that person to say, “Oh, you've been doing this forever; what if you tried doing the exact opposite thing?” That can just be where so much creativity can spring from. It sounds like a lot of the way that your career has developed is through people that you've met; how did you get into the operating room to start making these pictures?

TC: So in 1984, right out of high school, I got a full ride to Miami Dade Community College, where I'm teaching right now. They gave me a bunch of money, but unfortunately, I wasn't prepared for higher education. So within the second semester, I lost my scholarship. I lost my stipend. I lost everything. After that, I looked at the classifieds section of The Miami Herald, and I just said “Okay, what can I do during the summer to make enough money so that I can pay for one semester?” And lo and behold, there was a job that sounded really interesting - an Assistant to a Biomedical Photographer, of the Department of Radiology at Miami Children's Hospital. I called the number even though my portfolio had nothing to do with medicine, nothing! I told my interviewer, the Director of Radiology, Dr. Donald Altman, “I may not have experience, but if you put me in front of anything, I will document it as accurately as possible.” And so I started learning! The most incredible experience that I've ever, ever had was when I went to the surgical room for the first time; I didn't know that all of your senses could be so exposed simultaneously. I went to photograph a 13 year old female scoliosis repair and my very first time in surgery kicked my rear end! 

DH: That's so wild, but you were assisting somebody at the time?

TC: No, no, at this time. They threw me right in! I mean, they had equipment. And I learned really quickly about ring flashes, and macro lenses, that kind of stuff.

Tony Chirinos, Abboject Injectors, 9x11.5", Edition of 9, $450

DH: Wow! Can you tell me how the role of photography (and your vision of the role of photography) developed from thinking about a roll of film as sketches at 14-15 years old, to a tool for helping you to understand and come to terms with mortality?

TC: Well, there's, there's a little bit in between there. When I wasin high school, I had a very difficult time reading and writing – I'm sure that if I'm diagnosed, I'm probably dyslexic – but for some reason, I always wanted to be a writer. Maybe because I was so bad at it, and I'm still bad at it! I found out that I could actually make pictures and sequence them in a way that actually could create stories for me. And that's when it clicked. That's when I said that's what I want to do - I want to create stories with my images.

DH: Definitely. The thing that I also really appreciate about the project as a whole is that it feels like there's so many references to photographic history. What kind of work were you looking at throughout the development of the imagery?

TC: Oh, I was looking at so much stuff! I found The work of Stanley B. Burns Archive through the photo-eye Bookstore; Burns has a book called A Morning's Work: Medical Photographs from the Burns Archive and Collection from 1843 to 1939. There are some images in there that are just beautiful. I mean, they're Rembrandt done with a camera! And I'm going, whoah! This is really powerful! I also researched Andres Serrano's morgue pictures, I looked at paintings and sculptures… Walker Evans’ series, The Beauty of The Common Tool was a big influence that you can see. I used to go to the Met a lot and look at work from around the world and took an interest in all things ethnographic. One of your questions is, which is the tool that I love the most? And so there's one…

DH: This is my favorite picture too!

Delaney and Tony chatting about their shared favorite picture, Hurd Dissector, Penfield #1

TC: Really? Cool! So some of the things happen when I was doing these tools. One of the things is that they started taking on qualities of other objects. So [Hurd Dissector, Penfield #1], for me looks very much like African sculptures I'd seen of male and female figures. And so those are the things that I was looking for, but the color was also another thing. I actually looked at the tool that was given to me and then I would consider it to be male or female. Depending on that, I would select the color that was going to be the background.

DH: Oh, interesting. So were the warmer colors gendered kind of feminine and the cooler ones more masculine?

TC: Absolutely. 

DH: And that was just from a formal art historical kind of, kind of view, it seems? 

TC: I love the formal quality of these tools that were being used at that time. You know, I had to set up everything for the first surgical case, which is at six in the morning! I had to be at work roughly around five to 5:30AM. The gentleman that was in charge of sterilizing these tools right before surgery, he would give me 30 minutes before he had to sterilize them for the doctors to use. I would run down to surgery, I would pick two or three tools, and within that 30 minute range, I had all of my equipment set up, the view camera was set up, I did the magic, and then I had to run back and give my friend the tools before surgery so that they could be sterilized! 

DH: Oh, totally, I didn't realize that these images were from 4x5 negatives! The tools look so sleek, they really come off as digital. I think in a world where we see so many people working with digital is kind of this still life thing.  

Tony Chirinos,Richard-Eastmann Retractor, 9x11.5", Edition of 9, $450

TC: Yeah! One of the things that I feel very fortunate about is that I could use some of the same tools and techniques that I learned to use as a medical photographer to create art. So these tools were laid on top of non-reflective glass, and then the glass was actually elevated anywhere between four to six inches away from the color paper. The reflection of the flash usually would be off the viewfinder. However, there are some images that have more reflection than other because without a reflection, without shadows, then there wouldn't be any three dimensionality. I just slightly brought it in. And so I was able to control it, like a movie director.

DH: Totally. And I mean, that's such a  basic lighting principle, right, the closer the farther away your subject is, from the backdrop, the less of a drop shadow, you're going to get behind that thing. How many tools did you end up shooting? I'm assuming there were many, many more images than what are available to see!

TC: Yeah, there are about 100 images from Beauty of the Uncommon Tool. 

DH: I'm just glad that it's kind of seeing the light of day in book form two. Yeah. What's been the general reaction? Do you think people get weird when you show them pictures about death?

TC: I mean, all of my work is about death and the vulnerability of life. Even the cockfights that photo-eye’s featured before, and the work that I'm doing now –  it's not entertainment! And it's a seven course meal, it's not fast food! If you don't want to invest the time with the work, then you're gonna' have an issue with it. If you do invest the time and really look at the work and read the tags and read the artist statement, I think that you'll know exactly where I'm coming from. I've gotten every reaction, but ultimately, the first chapter of The Precipice, is all about my religious background! The last chapter is all about me being a Catholic – the shroud, the sheets, the lighting, the ascension to Heaven, that body that's been lifted, that's floating in the air! The questions of what happens to our body and what's left behind when we're gone are important to the work. I'm very into that concept of photographs and the connection of memory. The things that get left behind are all in the photographs of our life. And that's what people remember. 

DH: Well, so what are you working on? Now? What's the current project now that this is out and published and in the world? 

TC: Well, I already made a book dummy of the Fighting Cocks series. I'm going to wait until this book gets really close to selling out so that I can start reaching out to publishers. Obviously it's going to be very controversial because of the subject matter, but if you look at the images, and you read the artist statement, you can see that this is not about the death of the roosters, this work is about being involved in a subculture. It's about the relationships of the male phallus with their extension to the other male, that is also being represented by a rooster. 

DH: Totally I love that actually. True. Yep. 

TC: So you know, it's all there! Now, I'm working with the same themes, death and vulnerability, but I'm using other imagery. Some of the new images are really layered. And some of them are tough to look at. I'm still interested in death in every aspect of it. The whole aspect of how the body stops and starts, you know, getting older...we visually can see death! As the years go on, we just don't want to accept it, our face starts getting wrinkled, and our joints start hurting. So I have been photographing the bodily surface of my mom's hands, she's in her 70s, and I photographed a friend's grandmother's hand, she's in her 80s. The hands have a lot to do with this project.

Tony Chirinos,Yankauer Suction Tube, 9x11.5", Edition of 9, $450

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>> View The Beauty of the Uncommon Tool in its entirety here! << 

The Precipice by Tony Chirinos.

The Precipice is available as a book in a standard trade edition as well as a student edition through our Bookstore!

The Precipice is the summation of nearly two decades spent working as a biomedical photographer in Miami. Chirinos threads the needle between the sometimes delicate, often brutal world of surgical intervention. The book is separated into three main bodies: surgical photographs of living subjects; vibrant typologies of exquisitely photographed tools; and the journey to the afterlife. The Precipice draws back the curtain to a world which most of us never see, where human fragility and resilience coexist in an uneasy equilibrium.

>> View more work from Tony Chirinos here! << 

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Print costs are current up to the time of posting and are subject to change.

Tony Chirinos is a Photographer's Showcase artist.

For more information, and to purchase prints by Tony Chirinos, please contact Gallery Director Anne Kelly or Gallery Assistant Delaney Hoffman, or you may also call us at 505-988-5152 x202

Don Quijote, 2000 -- Tony Chirinos

We are pleased to announce a portfolio of images from Tony Chirinos. Titled Fighting Cocks, Chirinos' photographs give a glimpse into a cockfighting community on the island of San Andres, Colombia. Through his special use of flash, Chirinos is able to render his subjects with a startling dimensionality. The photographs of the cocks are especially eerie, their plucked legs and confrontational stances make them appear as fierce creatures, more closely resembling images of dinosaurs than fat and docile backyard hens. Chirinos’ images bring us to the fights, though the photographs are never graphic; the fighting itself is clearly not what Chirinos finds compelling. While the images center on the birds, the men who own them are always on the periphery, creating a unique tension where the birds become reflections of something bigger, the culture that breeds them, the men who hold the sport in high esteem.

Chirinos' interest in cockfighting goes back to his father's stories of his own childhood encounters with fighting roosters. For Chirinos, photography is a way to interact with his heritage and long-standing cultural traditions. Both the series and Chirinos' background are intriguing, and on the occasion of this portfolio, I've asked him to tell us a little bit more about each. -- Sarah Bradley

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Altar, 2000 -- Tony Chirinos

Sarah Bradley:     A certain audience will bristle at the mere notion of cock fighting -- which is illegal in the United States -- yet your images seem to avoid simple judgments and instead look deeper, the creatures becoming a metaphor for the masculine culture that breeds and fights them. What drew you to this sport and what has making these images showed you about the culture of cock fighting that you hadn’t previously understood?

Tony Chirinos:     What drew me to cockfighting were the stories that my father would tell the family during dinnertime. My father grew up in Cuba during the most prosperous time that the country ever experienced and yet he was very poor but managed to live a life full of youthful encounters. One of those encounters was owning roosters for cockfighting. He would tell us about the training, shaving of the feathers, cutting the crest, feedings, the preparation for the fight, the spurs and even how to cook a dead fighting rooster. During those hard times nothing went to waste. All those stories that my dad told have vividly stayed in my memory and I was able to relive my father’s youth through my project and images. What my images showed me is that my father’s stories were real; just like in the movie Big Fish directed by Tim Burton, I too was not sure if everything my father told was real and or exaggerated by time.

La Familia, 2000 -- Tony Chirinos

SB:     You've mentioned that you were welcomed into the cock fighting community of San Andres. Can you elaborate on the experience of shooting this series and your interactions with both the men who raise the birds and the animals themselves?

TC:     Well, I became a spectator for two years before I even introduced the camera and I feel that that time gave me the knowledge of all aspects of this sub-culture we call cockfighting. For example, the words that are being used during the fight might seem irrelevant to someone experiencing this chaos for the first time but for the skilled owners of the cocks the same words can mean your cock is winning or loosing or your cock is hurt or the house bets just changed to double or nothing. Those words were very important for me to learn and master because it gave me insight into what was going to happen next forcing me to prepare for the next visual experience that I can capture. The men that participate in this sub-culture range from very humble to mean, aggressive and dangerous and I experience both. Wolly Time was a humble man who invited me to experience the way he trained his 70 cocks. Unfortunately I also saw Wolly get shot and die during a dispute in a cockfighting festival that occurs every Christmas week holiday in San Andres. I also befriended a very aggressive and dangerous man who also owned cocks. I have to thank Carlos Gordon who became my guide and confidant during the seven years that it took to finish this project. As for the birds, I just wanted to make portraits of them not pet them.

Serenata, 2000 -- Tony Chirinos

SB:     I'm curious about the distinctive manner in which you shot this series, utilizing multiple flash heads, which gives the images a unique look. What made you chose to shoot the series like this?

TC:     I can’t speak for all photographers but at least for me I am very fascinated by the fact that we acquire our subjects from the real world but the resulted is always printed on a 2D surface. My interest as a photographer is to open up the spatial distant between the foreground, middle ground and background by using lights the same way the movie industry does, which allows me to recreate a 3D world on a 2D surface. For example, each of the three flash heads are illuminating a specific area of the structured image with very specific light intensity resulting in sculptural looking photographs.

Coño, 2000 -- Tony Chirinos

SB:     In Cocks, as well as a number of your other photographic series, you use photography to explore your Hispanic background. How does your cultural background interact with your photography and how has it influenced your work?

TC:     I feel that I don’t belong and that I am lost in this world ethnically. Born in Venezuela from Cuban parents and migrated to the United States at age of six created this dilemma for me. Who am I, Venezuelan, Cuban or American? I don’t know but I am understanding bit by bit from each photographic project that I complete. My cultural background comes from what I have heard from relatives or seen in pictures and I think that what I am trying to do is recreate that glimpse of culture through the projects that I photograph. For example, Where Men Gather, is a project about Latin Barber Shops and the relationship between men and their longing for home. Photography is my culture and it’s where I best fit.

El Tuerto, 2000 -- Tony Chirinos

SB:     Your photographic background is interesting as well -- you spent years as a bio medical photographer. Can you talk about your path to fine art photography and how this background helped develop your eye?

TC:     This is a very interesting question but a very important one at least for me. My path to fine art was not clear; what was clear to me was that an image/photograph had POWER to effect the viewer and that fascinated me. Fine art is just another category that people try to associate you with what you are doing. I consider myself a documentary style photographer making work that engages the viewer aesthetically and intellectually that also moves beyond mere entertainment to ask the viewer to think critically. I feel that my experience as a bio medical photographer amplified for me the understanding of photography as a visual language, in the same way that a writer masters diction. Being able to express myself using images rather than words gave me the confidence that forces me to have high expectation of what I do and why I do it. Every image/photograph that I produced during my tenure as a bio medical photographer had to be perfect both in technique and in narrative and perfection is what I thrive for.

View the complete portfolio

For more information or to purchase a print please contact photo-eye Gallery at 505-988-5158 x121 or gallery@photoeye.com.