Art, art, art, darling!*
* Bonus points for knowing the reference
A primary motivation for choosing to settle in Barcelona was the massive variety of art to be experienced. In just our first couple months, we have seen some fantastic exhibits: World Press Photo 2023, a William Eggleston exhibit, The Miró-Picasso exhibition, and most recently, an exhibit of the photographic duo Albarrán Cabrera.
The number of exhibition spaces here is titillatingly voluminoso. Of the exhibits listed above, one was a joint exhibit between the Picasso Museum and the Fundació Joan Miró, two well-known and well-attended museums; the rest were at exhibition spaces I did not even know existed before I moved here. And all, except the Fundació Joan Miró, are within walking distance of our apartment. (Notice my obsession on this blog with how walkability makes a city so much more livable and exciting than a car-first city? My former town, Phoenix, could learn a few things from studying this city.)
While all the exhibitions were fantastic, the Albarrán Cabrera exhibit at the Foto Colectania was the most revelatory for me. They are two photographers working together, Anna Cabrera & Ángel Albarrán. The exhibit was called “The Indestructible”. The big idea that got me going was their desire to go beyond photographs that document reality, to photographs that start to dig deeper than mere documentation. At the exhibit I purchased their beautiful book “Photographic Syntax”, and they put it best in their own writing:
At first we photographed with the simple intention of recording what we saw. But soon our interest shifted from capturing the superficial appearance of reality to investigating its ‘underlying structure’.
One of the series of photographs called “THE MOUTH OF KRISHNA” illustrated this perfectly: only after looking at many of the images did I realize they were taken in Japan. Looking closely, I noticed some of the trees were Japanese maples; others were cherries in bloom; some pictures contained Mt. Fuji. But upon first glance, the pictures did not announce “These are things in Japan”.
The prints themselves were gorgeous artworks, many printed on Japanese paper covered in gold leaf, so that the prints were luminous and shifted in appearance when viewed at different angles. It is easy to forget that viewing images on a screen is nothing like the experience of seeing artworks in their physical form.
Barcelona provides plenty of photographic material and I have taken a lot of pictures so far, but this exhibit clarified for me what I am trying to do myself. At this point, I am still very much in a “recording what I see” stage. With more time and work I hope to get to the “underlying structure” of the roots growing under this city’s visual garden.
One of my pictures taken here since moving to Barcelona. Still closer to “travel photography” than what I would like. This is saying “here is a place in Barcelona”. Not that I dislike this photo; it is far enough from the Scott Kelby Travel Photo™ that I am satisfied. But still, not far enough away from that genre either.
Getting closer? Though taken in Barcelona, this is not a “Barcelona travel photo”. Still very documentary though? But heading in the right direction? I do not know yet.