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Pedalling into the Past
When I was a child, I loved riding my bicycle. I had a little blue Orbea that could take me to every corner of my village in the blink of an eye, giving me an enormous sense of freedom. Some days, when the whole group of friends got together, we would set off on small adventures beyond the village, discovering places that would otherwise have been completely out of reach. On those outings, the moment we looked forward to most came after a long climb, when at last the road would open into a long downhill stretch that allowed us…
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Two Kindred Beauties
Black and white photography works in a very different way from colour photography. By reducing an image to a scale of greys, bounded by the purest white and the deepest black, many photographs lose part of their impact. Once colour disappears, some scenes become a uniform mass of similar tones, lacking the contrast and visual elements needed to draw the viewer’s eye. That is why those of us who enjoy black and white photography tend to seek out strong contrasts, rich textures, and clearly defined silhouettes, elements that allow us to create images with character and visual strength without relying…
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A Sea of Flowers
Most of my photographs revolve around specific subjects, whether it is an old house, an electricity transformer tower, a bridge, perhaps a farm animal, or some unusual piece of machinery. I am almost always driving with my radar switched on, watching for anything that might catch my eye as I crawl along quiet back roads, much to the frustration of the drivers who end up behind me (fortunately for them, I have a habit of pulling over and letting them pass). Although this is usually how I find my photographs, every now and then the roles are reversed. Instead of…
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The Time Machine
If you asked me why I enjoy photography and I had to answer in a single sentence, I would probably mention its ability to pull you out of your routine and lead you to new places and new experiences. In fact, that was the main reason I embarked on this journey. I used to be an extremely home-loving person, perfectly happy spending months at home enjoying my books and hobbies. Photography became the perfect excuse to step outside my comfort zone and start exploring places both near and far that I would otherwise never have discovered. Even today, I am…
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Planning improvisation
I have to admit that the photographs I enjoy the most are the ones that emerge from exploration, from an improvised itinerary with no fixed destinations or carefully planned routes, simply following unknown paths shaped by chance and unexpected discoveries. Of course, chance can be unpredictable and does not always lead to the result I hope for. Quite often it means walking mile after mile through a photographic drought, where the landscape stands out mainly for its monotony and complete lack of visual interest. While these journeys can be deeply rewarding, they can also be exhausting, especially when they produce…
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A Welcoming Land
Somehow, we often forget that photography, much like painting and other creative activities, is the final result of a process, and that it is precisely this process that shapes and develops its meaning. It is true that an image, as a static object, cannot show us the full context experienced by the photographer while making the photograph. Yet this does not prevent an important part of that experience from finding its way into the image through the emotions it conveys, the atmosphere it recreates, and the subtle nuances that our minds perceive intuitively. In a sense, photographs are made up…
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Industrial Biscuit Tin
I think many of us, when we were children, at some point during our childhood ended up enjoying the packaging of a toy more than the toy itself, turning it into an impregnable castle, a top secret garage, or perhaps a spaceship. Maybe, at another time, we came to value the tin box of a biscuit tin, where we kept newspaper clippings, important bills, or perhaps photographs from our teenage years that were better kept private, more than the biscuits themselves. And I am sure there are many more examples like these, in which the content becomes something anecdotal compared…
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Photographic Biases
The different sensations that train stations evoke in me are simply indescribable. It is almost like trying to describe a color, because in that case you always end up referring to objects that display it or to scenes where it predominates, but you cannot truly describe the color itself. The same happens with the feelings that surround me as I walk through the spaces of these places of transit. I can associate the impressions they create with certain lived experiences, with other memories or with other situations, but it is very difficult to describe the exact nature of each of…
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Seeing without seeing
Our mind is limited, and as such, it needs to select the information that matters and discard whatever adds no value. It is a basic mechanism for optimizing resources, and without it we would probably be unable to handle everything we receive. In fact, overstimulation is one of today’s problems, because the amount of information that comes to us through audiovisual media ends up exhausting and even harming our mind. Everything in moderation, and that includes stimuli as well. This mental tool for eliminating irrelevant information is present at every moment of our lives, and of course it is also…
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Untamed Photography
The ability of photography to surprise us knows no limits, and the image that accompanies these lines is a clear example of an unexpected outcome. When I woke up that morning, the only idea running through my mind was to explore the Asturian mountains. I expected to find landscapes of great beauty, vast horizons in which to lose myself and let my gaze wander, postcard worthy scenes that captured all the strength and raw beauty of this imposing land. But, as often happens with expectations, they were not fulfilled, and the reality of the day turned out to be quite…
