PARIS PHOTO 2022
Andrea Torres Carlota Guerrero Paula Codoñer Rala Choi
Alzueta Gallery is excited to be able to showcase its selection for the Paris Photo 2022 edition. A booth curated around the eternal questions about selfhood and the use of photography to capture human intimacy.
In an attempt to show one of the most important and primary human qualities of beings, contemporary society has used art as its main weapon. Understanding such a complex concept as intimacy and being able to reflect all its nuances is a gift that artistic photography has mastered like no other discipline.
The photographer must be sufficiently in tune with himself and his subjects to be able to channel such a powerful feeling and convey it in a dance of light, shadow and colour.
Paula Codoñer (Valencia, 1991) plays with flowers as a transmission vehicle; as an excuse to transmit calm, beauty and balance. Petals that kiss, embrace, dance and converse. The work of Rala Choi (Korea) battles between the intimacy of others and his own. While we do not know his protagonists and their activities are often as mundane as watching television, we can also find embraces frozen in time by the young photographer, who shows us a deep connection between two subjects involving awareness, recognition, understanding, and sympathy, inviting us to be part of this bond, with him, from the distance and the safety of the camera.
Intimacy, however, can be experienced with oneself. Carlota Guerrero’s (Barcelona, 1989) ability to capture the depth of the female body has been praised internationally. Her images praise femininity and the body autonomy. A letter to the human form from the point of view of affection and introspection. Andrea Torres (Barcelona, 1990) opens a small window into the life of a persona we have never fully met. The term intimacy has its origins in the Latin words “intimus, intimare, intimatus”, which mean to impress, make familiar or have an affectionate personal relationship. Every spectator knows or feels that they know the infinite main character of Andrea Torres’s works, even if nobody knows what colour her eyes are.
To be able to revisit such a fleeting feeling is a gift we owe to these creators. Magicians who stop time and are able to evoke a real and raw feeling at the push of a button.
SESAME
2022. Black and White analog photograph on Hahnemüle Rag Baryta Paper intervened with acrylic paint. 185 x 158 cm.
PANSY
2022. Black and White analog photograph on Hahnemühle Rag Baryta Paper intervened with acrylic paint. 100 x 90 cm.
Andrea Torres Balaguer
The artist’s work is influenced by dreams and surrealism, exploring the relationship between femininity and nature through the symbolism and dream transcription technique. Inspired by references to psychoanalysis theory and magic realism, her pictures experiment with the conscious-subconscious. Thinking about the scene-action concept, she creates pictures that suggest stories and invites the spectator to interpret them, searching to experiment with the boundaries between reality and fiction. Andrea is graduated in Fine Arts by University of Barcelona. After winning the first award of Artevistas New Talents her work has been exhibited in Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, New York, London, Brussels, Berlin, Amsterdam, Miami, Mexico and many Art Fairs in Europe.
HYACINTH
2022. Black and White analog photograph on Hahnemüle Rag Baryta Paper intervened with acrylic paint. 185 x 158 cm.
Carlota Guerrero
Barcelona based photographer and performer Carlota Guerrero has become one of the most sought-after creators of the moment thanks to her female portraits. Hers is a sidereal trajectory that has much to do with the spirit of the times and with her vision of women as goddesses. A very special goddess: pagan, friend of her sisters, who does not attend to the industry’s canons of thinness and with a point between the classic, the innocent and the irreverent.
The world discovered Carlota with Solange’s album A seat at the table. The Spanish photographer created a very sophisticated and artsy visual universe for Beyoncé’s sister. Since then she has worked for Dior, Givenchy and The New Yorker.
CHELSEA
2021. Analog photograph on Hahnemühle Rag Baryta Paper. 93 x 123 cm.
UNTITLED
2021. Analog photograph on Hahnemühle Rag Baryta Paper. 71 x 51 cm.
MOTOMAMI
Analog photograph on Hahnemühle Rag Baryta Paper. 51 x 71 cm.
DANA, FLOR, MABEL, CAROLINE
2021. Analog photograph on Hahnemühle Rag Baryta Paper. 123 x 93 cm.
VIRGEN MARIA
2022. Analog photograph on Hahnemühle Rag Baryta Paper. 123 x 93 cm.
VOLATILE
2021. Analog photograph on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 gr paper. 143 x 113 cm.
EPHEMERAL
2021. Analog photograph on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 gr paper. 143 x 113 cm.
EVANESCENT
2021. Analog photograph on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 gr paper. 143 x 113 cm.
PAULA CODOÑER
Through the use of bold colors and a minimal composition, Spanish photographer Paula Codoñer seeks to achieve a visual balance appealing to all the senses.
Her work is the result of a very thoughtful process to reach the desired outcome, aiming to produce in the viewer a sort of calm, peace and joy.
An ephemeral moment of aesthetic delight through the swinging of the flowers captured through her lense. Her intimate and delicate vision has already captivated the fashion and design industry on a global scale
LOVERS
2021. Analog photograph on Canson Edition Etching RAG 310 gr paper. 100 x 67 cm.
RALA CHOI
Rala Choi is a film photographer based in Seoul, who’s best known for his use of rich, saturated colors.
The colors and textures of his images often make viewers question whether they are looking at a photograph or an oil painting.
He is the youngest artist who does Gum Printing artwork in Korea.
His works feature compositions, similar to those of oil painting portraits, rich colors and the warmth that can only be expressed by analogue films.
His photographs also often depict the intimate beauty of the natural body and flesh, so intimately that it makes you feel as though you can feel the temperature of the body through the photographs.
MAN WITH A HAT
2016. Analog photograph on Canson Edition Etching RAG 310 gr paper. 110 x 90 cm.
LIPS
2018. Analog photograph on Canson Edition Etching RAG 310 gr paper. 110 x 90 cm.