LELA AMPARO
Lela
Amparo
Visual artist & ambient producer · from Tucson, Arizona · based in Gothenburg, Sweden
She feeds the photographs of a lifetime of travel through machine learning, until familiar terrain becomes a place that does and doesn’t exist. Her sound does the same to time.
A camera always in hand.
Lela Amparo lives in Gothenburg, Sweden, and is originally from Tucson, Arizona, where she spent the majority of her life. Through countless journeys, she always had a camera with her, which eventually led to her daydream-induced visual landscapes.
Most recently she signed with the London-based talent agency MTArt. “I am beyond thrilled to have that close partnership, as it will allow me to focus even more on my artwork, both visual and audio, and to hopefully elevate it to another level.”
The outdoors, and the peace or loneliness it brings.
“My greatest inspiration is the outdoors and the peace, or loneliness, that can accompany it. When I was young, I would spend most of my time out in the desert chasing sunsets and the endless stars at night. Something about those moments in time have stuck with me and have left a residual effect of nostalgia.”
“Regardless of where I am in the world, when I find myself with the chance to go explore nature, I am immediately brought back to those memories of my youth.”
“Chasing sunsets and the endless stars at night.”
A place that does and doesn’t exist.
“The way I approach my visual art was quite accidental and experimental at first. I always had a camera with me, but often I would find myself with thousands of photos, not sure what to do with them once edited. Eventually the idea struck me to combine all of these photographs, these moments in time, and see what would happen if I processed them with the help of artificial intelligence.”
“I didn’t have high hopes, but the results resonated with me on such a level that I had to keep experimenting. Ever since that first test, I have continued to alter the photos here and there, trying to re-create a place that does and doesn’t exist.”
The distance between Tucson and Gothenburg.
Amparo draws on the distance between these two worlds, the warm desert of her youth and the cold Nordic present, capturing the melancholy of movement and the disorienting beauty of displacement. Her landscapes are familiar terrain altered into dreamlike, ethereal dimensions, blurring the line between the known and the imagined.
“The melancholy of movement, and the disorienting beauty of displacement.”
How did it affect your creativity?
“The pandemic forced me to change my view of creativity, in the sense that collaboration felt off limits and it was really up to me to create whatever I had in mind. This sense of self-reliance made me grow more confident as an artist, and it is something I appreciate.”
“Of course, as time went on, there were bits where I craved breaking out of Sweden to see anything else and feel inspired again.”
Who do you reflect upon as an icon?
“This is a tricky one. Someone I reflect upon as an icon of our time, one who has not only inspired me but continues to create and re-invent himself in a genuine manner, is Bonobo. Both as a musician and as a photographer, his artwork captures such a beautiful emotion that most of us can relate to in one way or another.”
“Seeing how he has progressed over the years, the different techniques he has utilised, it is all incredibly inspiring. No matter what he releases, I will always be intrigued and find a deep connection to his work.”
What does wellbeing mean to you?
“Wellbeing to me is taking time for myself to clear my thoughts and reset. This can be anything from going on a hiking trip and disconnecting from the digital world, to a night out with my closest friends. Having that time to clear the palette of the mind does wonders for me.”
“Something I do at least once a year is escaping to a small town in Scandinavia during the winter months, where I can enjoy the bitter coldness, the extra hours of darkness, and submerge into a cold and fresh state of mind.”
“The bitter coldness, the extra hours of darkness, a cold and fresh state of mind.”
Studio Higan is a multidisciplinary creative studio founded by Lela Amparo, where visual art and ambient music converge to create immersive, multi-sensory experiences. Her work delves into the connections between memory, place, and the surreal, blurring the boundaries between the known and the imagined.
As a visual artist, she harnesses machine learning to transform photography from her travels into otherworldly landscapes, familiar terrain altered into dreamlike, ethereal dimensions. Her music follows a similar path. As an ambient producer with over 20 million streams, she composes cinematic soundscapes that echo the vastness and quiet mystery of her visual work, inviting her audience into reflective spaces where time seems to stretch and reality feels fluid.
Antakly Projects, originally Ninu Nina, has been in conversation with the most inspiring voices in art, photography, design and culture since 2003. Interview by Leila Antakly. Lela Amparo’s landscapes hold two climates at once, and ask where exactly home is.
All works © Lela Amparo / Studio Higan. Thank you to Lela for the conversation.
studiohigan.com → Instagram @studiohigan → Lela Amparo @amparo.fm_ →
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Stay curious. ✦
Photo by Erik Hammagren
