Spanish Photographers

The camera is the mechanical extension of the photographer’s eye. Through its lens-covered aperture, the photographer selects a particular subject to document and prints it on light sensitive paper. Photography’s capability to capture a veritable appearance of reality in all its detail has secured it as an indispensable scientific tool. The extensive development of photographic techniques and equipment have expanded the scope of views and subjects: high-speed photography captures the action of moving bodies; infra-red and ultra-violet photography reveal the minute elements of nature, even the mysteries of planets, stars, and space.

Photography is an extremely manipulable medium however, inviting the artist’s creativity and perception in the choice of subject, the measure of light, shadow, focus and shutter speed of the camera’s aperture, and deliberate processing in the darkroom. Since the production of the first box camera in 1888, photographers have considered photography as a significant art form. These artists developed techniques and styles that experimented with the intensities of tonal contrasts, the rhythm and distortion of forms and images, and the presentation of an intimate view into the character and atmosphere of a person, object, or event.

Pablo Genovés

Photographs are articles of memory, documenting bygone events, scenes, faces and emotions. These objects allow the remembrance of a particular experience often the saddest coupled with moments of pleasure and happiness. In contemporary art, themes that deal with the human experience center on the contemplative, the ideal and immaterial reality that the artist aspires and dreams of.

In Pablo Genovés’ photographs, the artist is fascinated with recording the fleeting memory of happiness. Happiness is an extremely inconstant and enigmatic emotion that Genovés interprets as chopped-off, deconstructed, reconstituted, and deformed images derived from modern world iconography: smiles on painted lips, dapper young men and elegant ladies, tea parties, ballet dancers. These happy images spring from a fantasy world yet are established in reality as historical documents of early black and white advertising and anthologies.

The computer manipulations and alterations of the photographs further heighten ambiguity and complexity in meaning. Superimposed over whipped cream, the images are transformed into impastoed paintings or soft-textured sculptures. Through this technique, the distinctions between art forms are blurred almost like the ephemeral quality of memories.

Alberto Garcia-Alix

Alberto Garcia-Alix’s photographs of inanimate objects, empty spaces and rooms, and portraits of eccentric characters often reveal the solitary nature of human existence. Isolated and seemingly commonplace, Garcia-Alix’s images narrate his subject’s personal history in the textures and forms, facial expressions and emotions while interpreting the mysteries of its environment.

Comparable to a 17th century Dutch still-life or memento mori, the objects and personages in the photographs are not merely decorative elements beautifully contrived but are transformed into symbols of life’s brevity, caprices, and vanities. The moments captured and immortalized by Garcia-Alix’s photographs are his selected poignant and sentimental observations of lived experiences. A true artist, Garcia-Alix uncovers the hidden meanings of his subject and shares his enlightened visions of life to the viewer.

Ricky Dávila

The photographs of Ricky Dávila may be strictly classified as traditional photo-reportage, though at closer inspection reveals an inconspicuous dimension: a poetic view into the lives of his subjects. Dávila, though conforming to a journalist’s impersonal and distant character, creates photographs in an attempt to understand the complexities of the outside world. The artist believes that the photographic image has the power to provoke an emotional response from the viewer, and to evoke introspection from the photographer. This process of self-examination encourages an artist to confront and justify his creativity, his work and its meaning.

Portraits in photo-reportage are often treated as objective documentation of reality. But the documentary photograph, like painting or sculpture, also undergoes the creative process. The photographer is the intervening force necessary to capture the essential elements of the subject. His choices, tastes, beliefs and personality fully permeate each photograph and contribute to the general point of view being expressed. Each photograph must project to the viewer the emotions of the subject. In turn, the subject becomes to the viewer a symbol of humanity and everyday life. Photographs may have different interpretations to various people, representing a higher form of language: visual poetry.