Around Autumn 2020 I was asked to be part of an exhibition in girona with three more Photographers in La Fundacio Valvi (Girona)
Overwhelmed that someone asked me to be part of an exhibition, I guess I felt deliriously happy and my ego was flying around the house like a unicorn. I never had my pictures printed, I never imagined someone would be remotely interested.
Blau Cel
Photography it’s something I took on when I could not longer paint with oil. Since I have been clean I have to find ways of letting out all the triggers, all the anxiety and evry word I don’t know the meaning of. Photography is just a way to let off some steam, to fill in a hole that sometimes gets a little bit healed.
It was always a way to be just myself, away from a spinning brain, arguments, routine, work, no work, volurary work, away from everything and everyone. In a way trying to find a personality that has been lost. Growing up means not taking myself too seriously, knowing I am living on a borrowed time.
The Hob
Once upon a time I had a ‘creative’ job that cost me almost or better phrased, cost me my life (physically speaking and the loss of any normal connection.
All was burned with a slow fire that as mesmerising it was left a very bleak landscape and so after that I woke up in a different country where I didn’t even know how to speak, with nothing much but a terrible headache. And so I started walking at the opposite direction I came from. It is not running away, anything but that.
It’s like getting into a sanitiser room.
And back to this…. when I was asked I was so confused because my confidence and that life was over and I never expected that. Now I am a little bit of a sociopath that for whatever reason I like to be accepted. And I couldn’t say no. I am glad I said yes because for once I felt so proud when I saw that hanging on a wall. And because to be able to be around people in the same wave length makes me feel so, so alive and happy and complete. I shared the Fundacio valvi with Jaume Geli at the helm with Jaume Llorens who I admire profoundly, his little pictures a diamonds that have depth and light, Sergi Batlle also printed and exhibited before and Mercedes Werner a very tough and solid photographer.
The Big Bang
All started with taking pictures of my kids with a mobile and the save up to buy a Canon EOS and then saved for a Canon EOS Mark IV with three glasses. 85mm. 100 Macro and 24/70mm.
Pandemic made me almost sick of DSLR and Computer editing so I took on Darkroom and now I am a proud owner of a NIKON FM3a with a 65mm Voighlander glass and a Hassleblad 500cm with a 120. That´s it.
The Exhibition was born from the idea of trying to be me, or as close as I could be, away from any influence (called a father figure, a trend or anything) just my intuition and try to find the best printer I could find, someone I could trust, that gave me confidence, experience and room for mistakes. That was Ferran Gimenez, a true gent that guided me through the process of composition and colour.
One thing is to put a picture on social media (Instagram, Twitter or this web) but a very different story is trying to imagine this little pieces of puzzles and games to a wall. A Wall is scary as hell.
My work has never made any sense, I never wanted to have any sense or personality, it has always been intuitive and a quick entertainment a way to scape from the burden.
So the logistics came to life, a good quality picture (think pixles) that could be printed as big as possible, I am not Cartier Bresson or Michael Kenna to expose small. I wanted big and I wanted colour. Then the frames came to live, they don´t have a style, they don´t have a narrative, they do have my intuition and my colours.
My photographs come from ordinary moments, I have never wanted to go to Iceland or Tibet, I find that in me an impossible task, I can´t put into a frame the glory of a real landscape.
Yet daily life amazes me, washing my induction hob with white sope makes me happy for a few minutes, it looks divine. The sea when the waves come and go and wash you and take you away for a few minutes, Or when my daughter gets ready for a portrait, i prefer that instant than the pose, I like those little moments, thast ugly plant the people ignore and never crop from a dog walk. A snow ball thrown into a frozen river …Those little frames make my life joyous.
To see that on a wall, when all the work was done on a table gave me so much emotion I had to cry. I nerv saw my pictures printed but to see them big was a rather surreal moment, It feels like they are from someone else, not me.
Fotos de Claudi Valenti, Tino Soriano i entranyables convidats. Live music was perfomed by Toni Pujol and Tati Cervera that played a magnificent version of Dat Dare among other tunes.
Press and TV:
Television 19/5/2022 TV3
Online Art and Photography Mag. Sichtbar.Art
Newspaper :10/05/2022 El Punt Avui+
Digital Art News 13/05/2022 Bonart
I hope if you go you enjoy it as much as I have.
