Hardcover, flexi bound, design by DDMMYY, edited by Kelvin C Soh, edition of 500 copies.

„Symbols is the debut photo book by Los Angeles based, Mexican-born visual artist Izaac Enciso, and documents his pedestrian encounters with various urban environments.

In search of incongruity and the unexpected, Enciso embarks on long, slow walks in Los Angeles and cities in Mexico to find lived-in places, marked by prior actions and behaviour. His street photography engages with the traces of strangers, a play between unknown actors where streets become scenes. Sometimes he creates his own interventions, interacting with certain objects or constructions with the intent to leave something behind for someone else to encounter.

As a photographer, Enciso is not a documentarian but rather someone who is interested in the potential of everyday scenes and objects to create an emotional or conceptual impression. Seeing the ordinary as extraordinary, he makes arrangements within the frame of his viewfinder by manipulating objects, shapes and forms through processes of call, response and spontaneous improvisation.

Enciso photographs the specific and the transitory, engaging with the everyday and the particularities of urban spaces. He is ever fascinated by humour, illusion, ambiguity and abstraction. Things which might be overlooked due to familiarity and habit become remarkable: striking colours and complex shapes are heightened by even sunshine and radiant heat; space is measured in sidewalks, carparks, power poles, and staircases. Scenes are constructed from architecture and props while strangers are illuminated by camera flash, shade, shadow, and the play of light. In Enciso’s world, found objects are charged with new stories: a Mickey Mouse shaped cactus speaks of the geographical contexts of Mexico and Los Angeles while a set of steps that lead into a wall suggest poetic (or even comedic) value for something no longer useful. 

Symbols is Enciso’s love letter to the lived-in city and a testament to his openness, awareness and sensitivity. It presents a conception of visual art as a gracious form of service and image-making as an expression of gratitude.“

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