Making it playful: Paloma Rincón

Inspired by the colourful visual culture of the Mexico that she grew up immersed in, visual artist Paloma Rincón has built a distinctive creative world filled with saturated colour, tactile textures and playful illusions. 

Working across photography, film and motion, she creates handcrafted visual experiments for brands including Heineken, Coca-Cola, IKEA and Bombay Sapphire, often blending still life, live action and practical effects in unexpected ways.

For Rincón, playfulness is more than an aesthetic, it’s a way of seeing and thinking. Whether she’s building surreal sets, experimenting with materials or making everyday objects behave in impossible ways, her work balances technical precision with curiosity and humour.

Speaking to Amy Hey at OFFF Festival Barcelona, Rincón reflects on the value of working by hand, the creative freedom that comes from limitations, and how she transforms everyday materials into surreal, joy-filled worlds.

Sometimes there’s a touch of humour, not necessarily something to make you laugh out loud, but something that might make you smile. 

You have a very colourful and distinct visual language. How did growing up in Mexico influence that? 

I was really influenced by being surrounded by colour. The houses and streets in Mexico aren’t afraid to play with materials or use combinations that might feel a little unexpected. It’s a way of embracing colour without shame or the need for perfection. That sensibility is part of the culture, in the handcraft tradition, in the streets, and even in the food and the stands you find on every corner.

 I love to include palpable textures and often reduce the elements I photograph to a very simple version of themselves. 

How did you find your way into working across photography, film and motion? 

I first started working as a photograph, while exploring different genres. It’s always been hard to define what I do. When people ask what kind of photographer I am, I explain that I’m not just working in still life, portrait or fashion. I mix techniques and play with genres, often approaching still life in a non-traditional way. 

That’s how I developed my own visual language, which then evolved into video. It came through experimenting with techniques like time-lapse, stop motion and live action, often combining them within the same project.  

Above: Paloma Rincón presenting at OFFF Festival, Barcelona, 2026. 

What projects have felt like turning points in your career, and how have they shaped the way you think and make work now? 

My Heatwave project was one of them. I’d wanted to shoot with natural sunlight for some time. The images it produced, and the way I approached them, really pushed my creative process forward. It’s a project that’s very close to my heart, and it also opened many doors, helping more people discover my work. 

Another would be the Miguel project, which I also love. It was my first large-scale video project, and I had a lot of creative freedom. It came at a particular moment, just after COVID, and I worked with a great team in a very playful way. Collaborating with the agency and client felt natural. 

There’s a strong sense of play and humour in your images. How intentional is that? 

My work is very playful. On one level, the colours bring that sense of playfulness, but it also comes from the tactile nature of working with real things. I love to include palpable textures and often reduce the elements I photograph to a very simple version of themselves. 

I like to portray things like houses in the way a child might imagine them or take an object like a chair and simplify it, so it becomes immediately recognisable and almost iconic.

I like to portray things like houses in the way a child might imagine them or take an object like a chair and simplify it, so it becomes immediately recognisable and almost iconic. That simplification connects to the sense of play. 

I also enjoy making objects behave in unexpected ways, which adds another layer of playfulness. Sometimes there’s a touch of humour in that too, not necessarily something to make you laugh out loud, but something that might make you smile. 

Above: Image from Rincón's Heatwave collection. 

Have you worked on any projects that didn’t go to plan, but taught you a lot about a new process or technique? 

There was a particular project I shot for an Indonesian tobacco brand. It was an interesting process, a menthol cigarette campaign where they wanted to show a bubble effect, since it was one of those products you activate for a menthol flavour. Everything was built around ice. 

I don’t think I would arrive at those same results, or at least not in the same way, if it were purely a mental exercise. 

It was the first time I worked with a kind of fake ice substance, and I got quite obsessed with it. I didn’t initially think I would show that project, but I started experimenting with it and eventually it fed into other work. 

I used it later in my Freezing Flowers project, and in a shoot in London for Bombay Sapphire as part of their Stereo Creativity campaign. I kept returning to these ice shapes, these artificial forms of ice that don’t melt. 

Above: Images from Rincón's Freezing Flowers project. 

Your work often looks digitally manipulated, but it’s mostly made by hand. Why is that tactile approach important to you? 

There is always post-production in my work, but most of what you see is shot in camera and follows the rules of physics. What I’m really drawn to is not just the outcome, but the process behind it. Many of the results you see in my images exist because I’ve gone through a physical process to get there. That process directly shapes the final image. 

Once you’re on set, that’s where the magic of the real thing happens. You can start adjusting things based on what’s working. You build from there and let it evolve.

I don’t think I would arrive at those same results, or at least not in the same way, if it were purely a mental exercise. A lot of my ideas for other projects also come through experimenting, whether that’s testing for client work or working on more open-ended explorations. 

How much of your process is carefully planned versus discovered through experimentation on set? 

It varies a lot. For my personal work, I set a framework and some boundaries so I’m not starting from a blank page. That makes the process more productive. I define elements like colour palettes and key materials, and I make sure everything is prepared in advance. You can’t just go out and buy things on the day, it has to be ready. 

Throughout art history, some of the most creative periods have come from constrained situations 

For commercial work, everything is planned in detail. The sets are designed, sketched first, and then developed with the team. We agree on them, present them to the client, and once approved, everything is in place before we shoot. 

But once you’re on set, that’s where the magic of the real thing happens. You can start adjusting things based on what’s working. You build from there and let it evolve. That’s especially true when there are more organic elements involved, like splashes, materials with unpredictable behaviour, or talent performance. Those things can’t be fully controlled, and that’s also what makes the process exciting. 

Do you think AI allows for more playfulness and creativity or less? 

In my view, you don’t necessarily become more creative just because you have more possibilities. When I create a project, I usually set a framework and some limits. 

Everyone in the audience, every citizen, deserves a bit more playfulness in their life, and to be communicated with in ways that make them smile. 

So this idea of having no limits with AI is not, for me, the best way to work. Even in my project shot in my garden, I was working with very restricted conditions and only using materials I found available there. That constraint made the work better. 

I think you often reach more interesting places when there are restrictions. Throughout art history, some of the most creative periods have come from constrained situations