Meet Ruben Aguilar | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ruben Aguilar and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ruben, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I was born in San Francisco California and moved around a lot growing up in the Bay Area. When I was five years old, my mother took me to a Pawn Shop in SF, right next to a local record shop. I decided to explore it and right when I walked in, I heard Dead Kennedys Kill The Poor play. I never heard anything like this in my life. My parents were into Classic Rock, so hearing Punk Rock for the first time, especially at a very young age took me away. I asked the employee who was playing, and they smirked and told me. I ran back to my mom and told her about Punk Rock and she laughed it off and told me that she was happy I discovered something new. Years later I got my first DK shirt that was too big for me, but still wore it proudly. If it wasn’t for me exploring that record shop, I would’ve never discovered the chaos that is Punk Rock. I’m also a total geek, so it meshed really well with everything else I was interested in growing up, haha.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Honestly, the thing that probably sets me apart from everyone else in the scene is my bandit mask, haha. I started wearing it around the time I started shooting bands. Everyone always asks me about it and why I wear it. I just like masks, and it reminds me of older noir films. I always loved Man Ray’s long exposure portraits and learned the methods on how to create them. I started to use them when I shot shows, and over time I started to incorporate them more and more until I found a perfect mix.
I never really considered photography as a profession. I picked up my first camera in early 2014 when I was 24, and I was living in Texas at the time. I originally was shooting Astrophotography. I saw it as a fun hobby but then was asked by one of my friends if I could shoot photos for his band’s first show. I always liked taking photos at shows and trying to get the best shots with my phone, but it was shooting my friend’s set with my first DSLR camera that really pulled me in. I’d been going to shows for such a long time, but seeing it through a camera lens for the first time opened up a whole new perspective on shows. As the month, then years went on, I started to add more dark surrealism to it, like low light, slow shutter, etc. It wasn’t until I shot photos for Deafheaven that I really started to play around with the idea of shooting professionally. They introduced me into the business side of things, like getting photo passes and etc. It was easy at first, since a lot of the bands I first started to shoot were my friend’s bands. But if wasn’t for Deafheaven and my friend Ekaterina, I would’ve never gotten to this point professionally.
I would want the world to know to just be yourself and never give up. I got into photography as a fun hobby to help me get out of dark place I was in mentally, and now I’m wearing a bandit mask creating art along other talented artists. Have fun with it, you never know what might happen.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Besides showing them the touristy parts of LA, I would want to show them the local DIY music and art scene here. A lot venues and “spots” vary, since they can quite literally take place anywhere.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
First off, shout out to Patrick for reaching out to me to be a part of this series. Thank you for this opportunity. I’d also like to shout out the talented artists Man Ray, Randy Blythe, and Suehiro Maruo. If it wasn’t for them, I would’ve never gotten into photography and Visual Horror Surrealism. They will always be my inspiration with my art. I would recommend checking them out if that’s your cup of tea. I want to give a huge shout out to all of my fellow photographers out there, too. There’s Ekaterina Gorbacheva- thanks for always being there for me, and being the spooky vamp that you are. My fellow “Footographers” gang, including OG, Erick, Amy, Adam, Selva, Joe, Nopalito, Ray, Alleister, Momo Mars, Geo, Miguel, Anthony, and Snacc. You guys always look out for me, and words can’t tell you how grateful I am for it. There’s also the talented photographers Marvin Wood III, Erick (aka sofakingerick),Becky DiGiglio, Sean Stout, and Isabella Bubola. Thank you for your words of encouragement and input with my art.