"Our relationship with photography has changed radically in the last three decades. The way we make, consume, and interpret images is completely different now, with digital photography, than it was between 1826 and the end of the last century, when it was still a chemical process," reflects Martí Llorens, leaning on the bar before an evening Negroni. "In terms of conservation, it's also very different, because now it's impossible to manage all the photographic information produced every second, something that could be done with physical archives," he adds, satisfied that, in the background, "anything but reggaeton is playing."
Above all, he defines himself as a photographer, "because in the end that's what I do and all my activity revolves around that." With a degree in Fine Arts, specializing in Image, from the UB and a Master's in Theory and History of Architecture from the UPC, Martí has dedicated himself to the photographic documentation of architecture and engineering projects and to the study of the history of photography, which led him to the practice of historical photographic procedures, forming, together with his partner and partner in crime, Rebecca Mutell, the association Factoría Heliográfica. "I am not interested in technique as an end in itself, but rather I am interested in the way the photographer and the viewer relate to the world through that technique."
Thus, creative projects have emerged such as Memorias revolucionarias (Revolutionary Memories), photographs taken during the filming of Vicente Aranda's movie Libertarias, but printed in such a way that they looked like old original photos from the Civil War; Estratos (Strata), an exploration of Montjuic Castle using a large format camera and waxed paper negative, a 19th-century technique, which redefines the space by turning it into an environment out of its time and place; or Berlín-Potsdamer Platz, using various cameras, from a medium format panoramic to a 1950s bakelite 'poor camera'. He has won awards and scholarships such as the European Photography Award, Endesa Foundation Plastic Arts, Art and Law, and CONCA Research and Creation.
Standing out are the three volumes ---recently published--- of the anthology Buscando lo imposible (Museo Universidad de Navarra), edited and commented by him and Rebecca and translated into Spanish by Ana Galán. It consists of a hundred original texts, in French and English, related to the origin of photography that, for the most part, had never been translated into Spanish. "It is the result of our interest in creating a basic bibliography in Spanish that refers us to the origin of the medium, as a vehicle to better interpret its present and future."
The project of a lifetime
Investigating the origin of photography and its first technical procedures has led Martí Llorens to a philosophical approach that delves into how society has understood and related to the world through this medium. But, at the same time, the artist is part of the photographic memory of his environment."At twenty-five, I built a pinhole camera with which I went to the Icaria neighborhood, in Poble Nou, to photograph its disappearance, in the midst of Barcelona's Olympic mutation," he explains with a smile. It was not the first camera he built, but those images remained as a unique testimony of that transformation process, of the death of a Barcelona eager to shed its skin and become European.
"I was lucky that, at that time, it was easier than now for such a project to be remunerated, which allowed me to buy more material and continue learning, growing technically and professionally." The images capture the before and after of those demolitions and represent a piece of living memory of a Barcelona that the local is expanding through the project under construction Archivo Icariano: an incomparable portrait of the transition between one city and another and which, over time, could even be defined as two distinct cities.
A project that also connects with another he has been working on for some years, which also explores Barcelona's past, though digging deeper: "focused on redefining the trace of the wall that can still be glimpsed in some parts of the city, through a technique with waxed paper negative similar to the one I used for Estratos".
Excluding luxury
For the artist, leaving his home in Barceloneta, his lifelong neighborhood, and being able to see the sea, scan the horizon, is something that captivates and anchors him to "this city that, moreover, has so many strata of its history in plain sight."But, over the years, the relationship has become tense "due to that eagerness that the castes that govern Barcelona as if it were their private estate have to complicate everything." And, undoubtedly, not everything about that bygone city of the late 80s was better, "but it was livable, whereas now I think we are not going anywhere, and the fact of living in a small apartment in Barceloneta and having a workspace in Raval, things that used to be the most normal thing in the world, have ended up becoming an impossible luxury to afford for anyone who is not a millionaire." He finishes his Negroni with a grimace of displeasure, before concluding: "that being the case, I feel more out of place here every day."
– What will make you feel at home, and it's no luxury, is the gastronomic offer of our bar, in case you want to have dinner. There's a menu, tapas, combined dishes. All delicious…
Martí Llorens recovers his smile. The sky has darkened and the scenery comes alive with the promises of a new night, which has just begun its first movements.
"Combined dishes remind me of those infamous aluminum trays from the military service that they gave you at lunchtime, and tapas usually hit me hard –he explains–, so easy: I'll opt for the menu or à la carte." And, at the prospect of an intense chat about the past and present of our place, and the way we configure it in images, he orders another Negroni, without losing his newly recovered smile.