Alexia Wright: You have described your relationship with the camera as a dance. What does the dialogue between body, tool, and moment mean to you?
Gicel Florez: Movement within the capture has overwhelmed my interest over the years.Whether in the subject or surroundings I’m creating a visual dialogue; an energetic distillation enriched by the light through a lens.
AW: In your practice, you draw from traditional cinematic methods and experimental techniques. How do you navigate the tension between precision and unpredictability in your process?
GF: Precision and Unpredictability are really great words to pick up on with my art. This is what keeps me interested in the practice; exploring the unexpected and searching with specialized techniques to open portals into what I haven't seen explored yet.
Ai Origin Moon, 2022
AW: With automation in image-making today being fairly common, your manual approach feels like an act of resistance. What guides this choice?
GF:
I’d love for more people to question how they envision automation infiltrating their lives and memories.
If cameras are about resonating/remembering events that happened in front of us; what if our phone captures are being instantly blended with countless others through ai training upon reveal to your eye? This underlying tech is ever changing to become “easier”. Yet I wonder where the line of reality will be drawn. How long before we change the expressions of our photographs taken during pivotal moments and events? Why not turn the frowns of war upside down? It depends on how far we will allow the camera to be watered down from being a tool for documentation, into fantasy. Is an AI infiltrated camera what we are all yearning for? How important is convenience at the stake of our genuine memories?
Each of my photographs are samples of light in time.
They reveal details that are specific to its location, time, momentum, exposure, focal length, light and matter present. Sure, it may be seen as an act of resistance; but activation ultimately can reveal peace.
AW: You’ve cultivated a deep appreciation of light over many years. What has shaped how you feel and work with light today?
GF:
In a world in which all directions - up, down, left and right - are so charged with associations and repercussions, the only way to live is through the light.
Aescending Lightsong, 2022
AW: Your work often seems to be in conversation with light, time, and language. What draws you to these elements?
GF: To me these are the most fascinating enigmatic aspects of existence. I really enjoy the obsessive relationship my camera has granted me in analyzing these realms and how they interact.
AW: You studied with Henry Horenstein and learned from photographers who worked with Ansel Adams. What lessons from those early mentors still guide you today?
GF: In that last year of art school, studying under Henry’s independent study I decided to make my final thesis about 4x5 film and raw meat. Learning to mural print those images and mount them to foam core, hanging them as an installation from industrial grade meat hooks in a semi-circle around a self-serve bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was a real feat that I cannot forget. Henry spoke fondly of the advice he received from his teacher Harry Callahan.
“Find out what you love, and photograph it”. I took that sentiment and advice to heart in many forms throughout my life since, whether there was a camera involved in my practice or not.
AW: From traditional oil painting to 4x5 cameras and blockchain photography, your practice has crossed mediums and eras. What keeps you returning to photography as your primary form of expression?
GF: Since I was young there was an ability of detail I was aspiring to reach that was deemed impossible with a brush, from what I could explore at the time, before learning that photography’s lenses and quality of capture could grant me this extraordinary ability to look into spaces with a level of detail that continues to open new worlds for me.
ASCII Encoded DNA, 2023
AW: You’ve moved through different lives: artist, mother, roller derby jammer, ice cream maker, and founder. How do these chapters inform your current work?
GF: Every chapter always intertwines into the next and I love to spend the time exploring what this world has to offer. I believe there is inner value to be found in learning of different cultures and subcultures from a local and global sense, so I do not believe in limiting visions.
I live with this unrelenting responsibility to transmute what I do energetically into art.
Life’s cycles are synergetic; as a mother it is true that life does change right after birth. The force of life you normally understand is no longer gravitating out from one single center. Learning to navigate this new equilibrium was a challenge in itself; yet sharpening my mind and body through skating was the main way to respond. Before, I used to love running , ultra running was a passion for me for years. Now with children there wasn’t so much time to spend, so I became really enthralled with these fast bouts on quad skates. What seemed initially a way to regain momentum, quickly became an obsession and started playing roller derby with Gotham Girls as a jammer. The speed involved and fun with my teammates helped me grow into a new me. The micro and macro actions needed to navigate my surroundings; analyzing with milliseconds in between a path of success or instant repercussion/retaliation is what kept me obsessed. After 5 years I took a break from it all and realized this same adrenaline could be accessed in different ways. I now believe this specific occurrence is what I have always found exciting.
Since the start of my photography love I have been trying to catch moments literally.
Whether it is shooting a bullet through fruit with a triggered laser in the lights, or spit out of someone’s mouth, moving the lens manually through milli-micro positions and focus. The latest two physically generative photography collections I’ve minted are 1/1/36 involving fireworks & storms. By capturing this motion, they blend into ethereal blooms from a fraction of time. This is what keeps me excited. It is impossible to see without the camera. This is what keeps me in photography, a way to source and explore this world around us. Each piece of art becomes a wave in motion; a habit in rhythm.
L1190470, 2024
AW: BeInCrypto included you as one of the 10 most influential women in crypto art. How did it feel to be recognized in that way, and what did it mean to you personally and within your practice?
GF: I am thankful for this recognition even with so many great voices out there. All I have done is connected publicly with like-minded individuals that like to break the mold. We’ve gathered into groups to explore the digital scene and warn of the bad actors.
AW: Forever Streams suggests an ongoing flow. What can you share about this series, and how does this particular piece fit within it?
GF: Forever Steams is about the insistent frequencies battling our own energies. The digital connections we are exposed to are harnessing the forces of unsettled thought. Our global communications and breakdowns of theory are flooding humanity’s mental clarity; influencing and coercing it into moldable confusion. The series is based in photography with mirrored elements, editions of 3, archivally printed on Hannemulle paper and mounted on Diabond with an Acrylic face by Brooklyn Editions. It is a very small series currently; each will have a physical counterpart archival printed and mounted with an acrylic face. and will be revealed/released on an ongoing basis as they get collected.
Chase in Flight, 2025
AW: What is the title of this work, and how does it encapsulate the meaning of the piece?
GF: Chase in Flight is the title. The word “Chase” can be found as a ghost in the piece.
Gisel Florez is a New York-based artist specializing in photography and video, known for her use of manual camera techniques and traditional cinematic methods to capture the interplay of light, time, and movement. With over 20 years of experience, she creates work that reveals subtle energetic dialogues between the body, the tool, and the moment, often focusing on natural phenomena and visual waves. She graduated from RISD and studied under Henry Horenstein, whose teaching deeply influenced her focus on photographic detail and creative practice. Gisel’s work has been exhibited in galleries and digital spaces, including the Museum of Crypto Art and the Winkleman Gallery, and she is a founder of WEB3PHOTO and co-founder of Women of Crypto Art, advocating for artists’ rights and financial autonomy in the evolving digital art landscape.
Alexia Wright believes in the power of storytelling and the importance of providing context to art. She shares this passion through writing and content creation, including the Art After Hours interview series for Tribul, and co-hosting the Collectors Call Podcast and FOMO Factor video series. As Communications Director for the Charles Csuri Estate and Head of Social Media and Marketing at Tribul, she elevates the stories behind the art. With a Master of Arts degree, Alexia stays engaged with the latest trends in art and web3.