Used to travelling, Spanish duo Albarrán Cabrera has adapted its pace to the exceptional situation we are all facing. It is in the intimacy of the studio and the laboratory, in this cocoon of quietness and introspection, that they have found the inspiration they need. In return, they generously nourish their audience on social networks, publishing their photographs, but also sharing quotes and references, books, films, artworks, that open windows in this time of isolation and confinement to remind us that art and nature are wonderful consolations for troubled souls.
Under the title Very Subtle Light, the opening exhibition for 2021 at the Esther Woerdehoff Gallery presents a new selection of their works and reveals their latest research to the public. In addition to the precious printing technique that has established their reputation among world collectors – a pigment print on Japanese gampi paper and gold leaf – other experimentations, chosen with mindfulness for each image, are also presented: silver prints, early cyanotype or platinum-palladium processes, the addition of mica and precious pigments or toning of the prints. For the first time, the artists also present the results of a brand new process : prints made on glass, a genuine “photographic object” that evokes the primitive processes and gives a fragile and transparent materiality to the image.
Chosen from their different open series, the works on show unveil Nature in a cosmological vision that evokes the earth, stones, oceans, trees and flowers, animals. All theses things that bind us to the planet as humans made of stardust, recent inhabitants of an ancient but fragile world, of a planet that is only a “pale blue dot” in the infinity of the cosmos. Through shadows, game of light or colors, their photographs always keep a part of mystery, a freedom given to the spectator for his own interpretation, his own emotion he can feel and relates to his experiences and memories. Through their works, Albarrán Cabrera invites us to “re-establish our relationship with the oceans, the Earth and Nature as a whole”, a message essential to our humanity and for too long ignored.
This exhibition will also evoke their latest book, published this autumn in Ateliers EXB “Des Oiseaux” collection.
Their books are available at the gallery :
Des Oiseaux, Atelier EXB, 96p. – 35 €
Remembering the future, RM editorial, reprint, 64p. – 55 €
Text by Florence Pillet
“What is space? It’s nothing other than very subtle light”
-Proclus Lycius (8 February 412 – 17 April 485 AD)
We perceive the space through the interplay of lights and shadows, to such an extent that the fifth-century AD Neoplatonic thinker Proclus Lycius, declared that space and light were the same thing. He defined the space as a “subtle light”; the space is light, subtle, transparent, that wraps the bodies and shapes them.
It is generally believed that to have a “good light” one must have “a lot of light”. It may seem that more light will allow you to see the space better, but the quality of the light is even more important than the quantity.
A photograph represents a specific space. It is usual to think that the photographer is always trying to find the right scene when in reality we are always trying to find the “right” light. Light is “right” when its quality and quantity are appropriate for the space and is able to shape it.
We wanted to show here a set of images where this “subtle light” acquires particular significance showing us reality in a renewed way.
Swedish cinematographer Sven Nykvist, director of photography for Ingmar Bergman, says in his documentary Light keeps me company: “Light gives me a feeling of spiritual atmosphere. Light is with you –you do not have to feel you are alone.”
Text by Albarrán Cabrera
Albarrán Cabrera : Very Subtle Light
20.01 – 13.03.2021
Galerie Esther Woerdehoff
36 rue Falguière
75015 Paris
Opening reception
Due to the sanitary situation and the curfew, the openings will take place:
Wednesday 20 January from 4 pm to 7 pm
Thursday 21 January from 4 pm to 7 pm
The gallery is open to the public from Wednesday to Saturday, from noon to 7 pm.
