SUBCELONA

Subcelona was my first work, the aim was to draft a series of photographs which explained a specific theme, in which an aesthetic and a concept were common to all the images that were to compose it.

The series was made between 1984 and 1985, I had just I finished my photography studies. I think that in this work, which I consider my “opera prima”, the influences of important masters and authors are present and that there is a marked concern for the technical control of the tone and the sharpness of the image.

I photographically synthesised the anguish of living in a kind of underground city such as the suburban transport of a big city.

Normally, when using underground public transport, journeys of 20, 30 or even 40 minutes are made. In the latter case, some people begin to suffer anguish for being unable to go outside for all that time. It is undeniable that this claustrophobic state and the inevitable violation of personal space affects to a greater or lesser extent the individual’s feelings of security, provoking defensive situations that often lead to episodes of aggression.

In my case, what I can say is that after the photographic sessions, which sometimes lasted more than four hours, on my way out of the subway I was grateful to be able to breathe fresh air, even if it was polluted.

 

Written by Luís Ochandorena to present the exhibition that took place in different galleries.

The youngest photographers in our country were born with an inferiority complex over the strength with which the previous generation of photographers burst onto the Spanish scene. Few have been able to convert this feeling into a grounding that could serve as a basis for the search for a personal language. Jaume Buxeda has begun to walk this path.

We can find in his photography elements that refer us, in themselves, to established photographers (inclination of the camera, quasi-surrealist spaces, absence of people and sky), but which as a whole weave together a stylistic base of their own.

Perhaps his most personal element is this aggressive way of disrupting space. We cannot say that this is only the result of the tilt of the camera, but that it is his personal view that makes us suffer until we find a point of reference that positions us with respect to the photograph. This aggressiveness is still maintained in the rather dense tonalities and in the great profusion, in many of his photographs, of the straight line.

But there is one aspect that makes the photo more pleasant, the lyrical tone with which he uses some elements, such as the texture of the walls or the fluorescent lights, even though the subject does not lend itself to poetic visions.

Now we will have to wait to find out what the selection of words in his photographic vocabulary will be, to see where his personal artistic journey will take us.

Luís Ochandorena, 10th of february 1985

 

DATE: 1985

MEASUREMENTS: 27 X 39.5 cm

NUMBER OF IMAGES: 25

ROLE: Negra Portréné

EXCLUSIVE SERIES: Copies mounted on passe-partout 40 x 50 cm