After a most gloomy winter, the sun is finally here. And with it, the first book of Ana Cuba, Lloret. The Spanish photographer spent several days—and some sleepless nights—immersed in the seaside town of Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava, famous for its non-stop parties that attract youngsters from all over Europe. Her time there inspired a book as electric as it is poetic.
In Lloret, town of dreams and desires, the beat drowns out the sound of the waves, and the scent of monoï oil mixes with the fumes of alcohol. Ana Cuba never thought she’d ever visit it. Yet, when the opportunity arose to meet the youth ready to break out of their chrysalis for a summer that had the taste of a rite of passage, she did not hesitate. She casts an outsider’s gaze on the town, infused with all her sensitivity as a photographer. The book offers a striking contrast between Lloret’s flashy atmosphere and the softness of her images, made possible by the film she used.
Lloret is built around a 24-hour timeline, from one early morning to the next. Ana Cuba was particularly drawn to those moments of dawn and twilight, when the sun blends with the sea to envelop bodies in its warm light. The early hours also allow many encounters: tipsy silhouettes wandering on the beach, groups of teenagers diving into the sea for a delayed midnight dip, newly born couples embracing…
Lloret de Mar has been a major tourist destination since the 1970s. It is said that the myth of the “Latin Lover” was born there, as evidenced by the snapshot of a young Apollo flexing his biceps amidst a foam party. For Ana Cuba, this image, her favorite, embodies all the hyper-masculinity that plays out in Lloret. Femininity is also performed to excess. But behind these heavily made-up faces and bodies squeezed into the smallest pieces of fabric, one can still read the purity and sometimes awkwardness of childhood joys, which they only just left behind.
Lloret is a beautiful journey back in time, back to our own electrifying adolescence and its summery appetite for dance, laughter, and encounters, a taste for life confined to the here and now, like there’s no tomorrow. Finally, summer is here.
Lloret — Ana Cuba
Published by Zufal
Foreword by Nacho Alegre
Playlist “My Spanish Lover” by Martine Syms
21cm x 30cm, 104 Pages
First edition published in 2024
Limited print run of 120 copies
Distributed: Tender Books (London), Village (Leeds/Manchester) Terranova (Barcelona) Do you
Read me (Berlin), Yvon Lambert (Paris)
Available in bookshops and here
