Peephole
An image of a Flamenco dancer. Only she’s not dancing—she’s spraying graffiti on the wall, a spray can held elegantly in her hands. She gazes seductively, her shoulders rolled back. She’s aware of her charm. As beautiful as she is, what I find truly interesting is the small square opening in the wall, where the […]
Happy shit
Once upon a time, there was a small restaurant on the corner of the square with a limited but excellent selection of simple tapas and wine. Suddenly, the restaurant was gone, but the wall I used to face when enjoying drinks on the terrace was still there. It’s the wall of a derelict building, and […]
Emptiness
In Japanese philosophy, emptiness is not the absence of something; it’s the presence of emptiness. Emptiness is something—it’s the absence of something and the presence of nothing. That’s also how you can view this photo. There are things on it—text, two figures, and an anarchist symbol—but there’s also a lot of space filled with nothing, […]
Art
The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Vermeer, Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix, and The Birth of Venus by Botticelli—three absolute masterpieces by top artists, all represented in this photo. From Botticelli, we see the blowing figures and the shell, visible on the poster to the right.
Paella
The poster you see here is about the celebration of modern art. A Feria is typically a fair, a market, or a kind of festival, where there’s plenty of food, drink, and partying, as is common throughout Spain. But this Feria is also about art. Next to the poster is a QR code that apparently […]
Shy
She looks away a little shyly, her face turned over her shoulder. She’s in a rather unremarkable spot in El Carmen; a modest place. Usually, I can’t pinpoint where everything is in this neighborhood, where it’s so easy to get lost, and where wandering and getting lost is part of the fun. Yet, somehow, I […]
John Doe
Something tells me I should know this person, but honestly, I don’t. He’s a stranger to me, hanging in a small side street off the Plaça de la Reina, on the edge of El Carmen. And that’s why I call him John Doe, the name given to someone unknown. I even went back specifically for […]
Raw in Blue
What a beautiful abstract piece this is, spray-painted on a wall. I saw this image in El Cabanyal, a disadvantaged neighborhood that will soon turn into a yuppie area, given how fast it’s ‘improving.’ To get a good photo, I had to make my way past a few addicts who were using right by the […]
Sucked in
The two people are being helplessly sucked upwards. They do nothing to take control of their fate. It feels like something out of a comic book. You can see this artist’s work in various places. This isn’t just quickly tagging or spraying a figure—this is well-thought-out work. That’s the hallmark of all their compositions. I […]
Victory
The relentless Spanish sun beats down on the peeling posters, creating a beautiful three-dimensional effect. The angular appearance of the man resembles Socialist Realist art produced in the old Soviet Union, but if you look closely, you’ll see the word Hombre, so the poster is clearly Spanish. There was a time in Spain when communism […]