Love is eternal in Andres Ríos Fierro’s new photobook on connection and intimacy

Andres Ríos Fierro, the Bogotá-based photographer does what a lot of photographers like to do: take photos of their family and friends. But Andres says he takes these sort of pictures for himself, so, when he’s old, he’ll always have something sweet to look back on. It’s a noble idea. For many who take photos now, they’re almost always doomed to increasingly slide towards the back of a digital camera roll that they’ll never look at again.

Andres’ beautiful photographs of interpersonal relationships have now been collected in Amor Eterno, a new book published by Pomegranate Press, the pages of which come together to create intimate vignettes of human connection. Often presenting dual subjects – either lovers, friends, kittens or family – the photos have a sense of fragility because Andres is fragile behind the camera. “I usually photograph people I’m really close to, so it’s easy for me to show myself that way around them,” says Andres. “For example, there’s a photo of my mom crying – when I took that shot, I was crying too. Usually, if someone’s crying in front of the lens, it’s because I’m crying behind it as well.”

Andres weaves a heart breaking narrative in photos focused on one subject. An old lady sitting on a chair in the shower, obscured by steam. A woman lying in a bedroom, barren except for stacks of moving boxes, or someone mournfully touching a coffin, a world of blooming, green nature in the background. Andres shows the importance of connection and the emptiness that swarms into our lives without it – it doesn’t matter if this connection is with animal (the fearsome looking dog on the front cover is actually Andres’ adorable dog caught at a bad time), or even the natural world.

“My biggest creative influence has always been photobooks,” says Andres. “It’s a huge way for me to learn what I actually like in a photo and what I want to see in my own work.” Amor Eterno, essentially meaning eternal love, is a fitting title for the photographic mode, which freezes moments in time, preserving them. Every kiss, embrace, ray of light or drop of blood trickling down a hand is captured and sustained in its emotionality in this lovely 44 page collection available now.