SECOND PLACE WINNER - Open Category: Photojournalism / Story (AMATEUR)
El Clot (The Hole)
Photo © JORGE LOPEZ MUÑOZ
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“I didn’t know why I was photographing gypsies, but I did know that I was building something and that I had to embrace it all” (Josef Koudelka).
This is a project of artistic documentary and portrait photography.
El Clot neighborhood has virtually disappeared, with the only remains left standing on the dockworkers’ block. Its inhabitants are mostly gypsy families who have occupied the abandoned apartments in the building.
Gypsies belong to Spain’s largest ethnic minority, a minority that is very heavily socially stereotyped and according to various surveys, also the group most harshly rejected by mainstream society.
This work is a reflection, a way to explore the world and understand it. I am interested in the individual, their face and architectural environment. I have always worked with human beings, with real people and their real situations, with people as photographic object.
I seek an unbreakable but intimate portrait, direct but sensitive, objectively powerful but full of personal emotion, the product of commitment to people and their environment.
Although El Clot is a slum I have not encountered either rejection or pain. They are, in short, impoverished but also happy people, even openly proud. I want to show how they live, trying to turn this work into an affirmation of the dignity and humanity that is in all people, and trying to capture in pictures the wild vitality and hope of this community.
Present in the background there are, however, more ambitious objectives: methodically documenting all aspects of gypsy culture, its territory and its people, becoming a work about their identity.
Master of Fine Art Photography and Professional Projects, LENS School of Visual Arts of Madrid.
Master in Graphic Arts, UPV Polytechnic University of Valencia.
2015 INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS:
Public Art Exhibition with JR's Insideoutproject.
Valencia, Spain.
Winner of Emergentes Call / BARBASTRO FOTO Festival.
Sala El Moliné – Barbastro, Spain.
Winner of NANO busca un Autor Call / NANO Festival de Fotografia.
FOLA Fototeca Latinoamericana – Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Winner of WARSAW PHOTO DAYS 2015 Festival Call.
No4 Gallery - Warsaw, Poland.
BACK TO GALLERY
“I didn’t know why I was photographing gypsies, but I did know that I was building something and that I had to embrace it all” (Josef Koudelka).
This is a project of artistic documentary and portrait photography.
El Clot neighborhood has virtually disappeared, with the only remains left standing on the dockworkers’ block. Its inhabitants are mostly gypsy families who have occupied the abandoned apartments in the building.
Gypsies belong to Spain’s largest ethnic minority, a minority that is very heavily socially stereotyped and according to various surveys, also the group most harshly rejected by mainstream society.
This work is a reflection, a way to explore the world and understand it. I am interested in the individual, their face and architectural environment. I have always worked with human beings, with real people and their real situations, with people as photographic object.
I seek an unbreakable but intimate portrait, direct but sensitive, objectively powerful but full of personal emotion, the product of commitment to people and their environment.
Although El Clot is a slum I have not encountered either rejection or pain. They are, in short, impoverished but also happy people, even openly proud. I want to show how they live, trying to turn this work into an affirmation of the dignity and humanity that is in all people, and trying to capture in pictures the wild vitality and hope of this community.
Present in the background there are, however, more ambitious objectives: methodically documenting all aspects of gypsy culture, its territory and its people, becoming a work about their identity.
About author:
Photography degree, EASD Art and Design College of Valencia.Master of Fine Art Photography and Professional Projects, LENS School of Visual Arts of Madrid.
Master in Graphic Arts, UPV Polytechnic University of Valencia.
2015 INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS:
Public Art Exhibition with JR's Insideoutproject.
Valencia, Spain.
Winner of Emergentes Call / BARBASTRO FOTO Festival.
Sala El Moliné – Barbastro, Spain.
Winner of NANO busca un Autor Call / NANO Festival de Fotografia.
FOLA Fototeca Latinoamericana – Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Winner of WARSAW PHOTO DAYS 2015 Festival Call.
No4 Gallery - Warsaw, Poland.
BACK TO GALLERY