David Salcedo
Salcedo is a Barcelona-based photographer and teacher, represented by Millennium Images in London and ZET Gallery in Braga.
Ocho puntas
In their own words:
“A kind of magic happens when you write, the lightness of ideas is transmuted into the weight of the physical. Our thoughts become certainties in the eyes of others, and there is no greater fear for those who live in doubt. When I take a portrait, something similar happens, though my gaze almost makes the fears of indecision disappear. Intuition surfaces, and what I think is portrayed with ease and seems right; as always, appearances deceive.”
“Photography inhabits the same territory as failure, and any element left unconsidered is on the verge of destroying it or turning it into something sublime. That is why a deep technical, aesthetic, philosophical and spiritual analysis of what has been obtained is necessary; everything must align for whoever looks at it to fall under el hechizo. Editing is as important as the shot itself; an author defines themselves by deciding what belongs to them and what does not, and through those answers, they present themselves to the world. For those of us who live in doubt, it is the hardest stretch to walk, showing the world who we are when, most of the time, we do not know ourselves.”
Ocho puntas
“It is difficult to define it as a place, because it is only a set of routes without a clear origin or destination. People do not live there; they pass through it when forced to and have the strength to endure its harshness. Going through it has always had something of an adventure, and any event that occurs there feeds the desire to pass through as briefly as possible. Every city has a corner like this in the depths of its soul. In this case, it is a square whose centre is guarded by an army of pigeons and crowned by an eight-pointed star.”
“Ocho Puntas unfolds a poetic and uncompromising perspective on Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona. An untamed space where paths without a clear destination, like those found in all major cities, converge beneath an eight-pointed star. The uninterrupted sequence of 62 black and white photographs, the result of eight years of observation, reveals a city inhabited more through the body and memory than through a map. Pigeons, shadows, and everyday movement become symbols of an urban ritual that reveals both rawness and beauty. This work invites us to read the city as a narrative and as a profound lived experience.”
Photography & Words by David Salcedo