From now till April 16th, In camera is showing a selection of photographs from The Waiting Game series by Catalan photographer Txema Salvans, a documentary project that takes a completely new approach to the genre and to aesthetic codes.
There are two parts to “The Waiting Game”. It started out as a magazine assignment on street prostitution, which is banned in Spain. Txema Salvans thus travelled the Spanish roads and motorways along the Mediterranean coastline where, under the burning sun in the dust of the trucks, he came across women practising “the oldest profession in the world”, out there alone, waiting for clients. Salvans decided that this sensitive subject was deserving of a longer, documented series and ended up spending eight years on it.
In Barcelona, he had previously developed a technique of taking photographs without anyone noticing. He dressed up as a land surveyor, with a high-visibility jacket, hard hat and a tripod. “I was so visible that I became invisible, it was pretty paradoxical! I might not have been honest with my subjects but I couldn’t have been any more honest with the photography in the sense that my presence didn’t have any effect on the scene.”
For his documentary work, Txema Salvans thus used the same disguise and set himself three principles, “with the aim of protecting each woman’s identity and to show them as women, not as prostitutes.” The first rule was distance. His photographs are taken from afar and are more akin to landscapes than portraits. He also opted for intentionally stark lighting, so as not to flatter the scene. Finally, he carefully chose the exact moment at which to press the shutter button, deliberately avoiding the subject of the transaction and leaving all suggestive poses aside.
A second part prolongs the existentialist thinking reflected in “The Waiting Game”. The theme of waiting pervades the series, as the common denominator to a variety of human experiences. This time, the subject is the angler and the wait is stripped of any dramatic implication. There’s a hint of irony but the subtlety, respect and thoughtfulness that Txema Salvans devotes to his subjects are always the same. A language of its own, regardless of whether the context is tragic or simply a popular pastime.
EXHIBITION
The Waiting Game
Txema Salvans
From March 10th to April 16th, 2016
Galerie In Camera
21 Rue las Cases
75007 Paris
France
http://www.incamera.fr
