Hi friends!
Last week I briefly touched on a photograph that stood out to me from the moment I scanned it and that eventually led to the work I’ve spent the last couple of months making.
So, about this photograph, I remember sitting on the pier in Xlendi and being more intrigued by the activity on the shore than by the views of the sea. I believe at the time I was subconsciously aware of the fact that for me to experience the way of life in Gozo I needed to look at the people and watch them as they go about their day.
As I was sat there I remember this man showing up and blocking a huge chunk of my view, that’s when he became the main focus of my attention. His way of distantly experiencing the people and their connection to the shore, almost mirroring my own perspective and experience. This half-hour moment when I was looking at a nannu looking at the gentle hustle and bustle in Xlendi, is what over the following months drastically changed my work.
As a photographer, there are two ways of approaching work: you can choose to look outwards, or you can look inward. During the months leading up to summer, I started immersing myself more and more in the local culture and life, this evolved to what is now my way of looking inward.
This introspective approach to my work has become something I now strive to continue practicing, there’s something there for me which I’m not willing to let go of just yet. I want my photographs to have a mirrored layer - an expression of my sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of this world when they appear before me.
By the Seaside
“It is extraordinary to see the sea; what a spectacle!” Claude Monet once wrote. It is no secret that many photographers over the years also found their inspiration near the sea.
Custodians of a Desire: Herbert List’s Couples at the Beach
During the 1930s, Herbert List spent time on the Italian, German and Greek beaches, and by the serene Swiss Lake Lucerne. Produced during a politically turbulent moment in European history, the work shows an escapist and idealist state of mind, where the power of youth and romance perseveres. But beneath the playful surface of List’s compositions lies deeper explorations of sexuality, framed within the context of a culture where, in many countries, homosexuality was illegal.
👉 see more via Magnum Photos
By The Sea: Photographs from the North East
Markéta Luskačová first visited the North East of England in 1976 and quickly fell in love with the soft sands and craggy cliffs of Whitley Bay, a seaside town just eight miles east of Newcastle. “I liked the people in the North East, I liked their faces. The sense of community is so strong there,” says the Czech photographer.
👉 see more via British Journal of Photography
Revisiting Martin Parr’s Last Resort
Leisure, in all its manifest forms, has occupied Martin Parr for his entire career. But from funfairs to food to flower shows, nowhere is the pursuit of pleasure more nakedly apparent than on the beach. “The beach is always going to be an integral part of what I do – it just goes on and on,” says Parr. “I’m off to the beach tomorrow.”
👉 see more via British Journal of Photography
Perfect Day
In Perfect Day, Txema Salvans photographs Spain's holiday-makers in unexpected corners of the postindustrial landscape. Sunbathers congregate in car parks, swimming pools are nestled between encroaching buildings, and cranes and cooling towers loom over beaches. In these surreal, banal and humorous scenes, Salvans reveals how the pursuit of leisure persists in spite of the ominous pressures of the built environment, expressing a deeply human determination to adapt, and find repose, against the odds.
👉 get a copy via Mack Books
🧠 Brain Candy
Word of the day: Umarell
/uma'rɛl/ (oo-mah-rell), n; pl. Umarells.
A folk term in Bologna referring specifically to men of retirement age who pass the time watching construction sites, especially roadworks - stereotypically with hands clasped behind their back and offering unwanted advice.
Thank you for making it to the end of this second issue of Darkroom, I hope you enjoyed it. See y’all next week.
Much love,
Lisse
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Darkroom is a publication by Lisse Wets.
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