PhotoIreland in collaboration with the Istituto Europeo di Design Madrid (IED Madrid) presents seven projects by recent graduates of the European Master of Fine Art Photography, in IED Madrid. Reflecting on memory, identity, and place, these emerging practitioners construct a fresh and contemporary language with works that elaborate on key concerns of their generation.
Shiv Ankit Ahuja, Anubhav Syal, Natalia Queirolo Calmet, Shane Green, Paulina Lara, Ana Sofía Ayarzagoitia, and Duarte Amaral Neto.
The selection presented for this exhibition shows the work of seven emerging photographers from the European Master of Fine Art Photography, IED Madrid, 2015-2016. Identity, representation, body and space, are all notions present in their works. Each of them, in their own personal way, have approached reality through photography. Showing how individuals perceive the world and make it material through the act of capturing images. Their perceptions allow us to interpret what we see, both in reality and in images. Because in the end, we create our stories from what we witness.
Exhibition curated by Paulina Lara.
Manzanares, Shiv Ankit Ahuja
The Manzanares river connects nature and urbanisation, and the artist developed a body of work centered around exploring the river both in its origin near the mountains, as well as in the new urban areas built around it. The first symbolising life, the second “progress”. These pictures show the relationship between river, nature and city. With the sublime presence of mist in the images, it offers the viewers an insight into the organic environment, as opposed to manmade creations.
With a background in Economics, Shiv combines freelance photography and musical talent playing keyboards for indie bands in New Delhi.
He is currently living in South Korea, as an exchange student at the Chung-Ang University.
Handmade Disaster, Anubhav Syal
“I started to become extremely conscious of how I would represent the crisis, did I want to make a man in his sleep look like a dead person? The answer was loud and it was clear […] I was already a refugee”, the author says. The artist uses photography to share his own experience as a volunteer in refugee camps. He wanted to make it clear that his approach is not to show victims, but human beings running errands, looking for a place where they feel they can belong. This project shows how borders are as subtle as the lines we see on a map, but powerful enough to leave us homeless and without an identity.
From Jaipur, India and currently living in Madrid, he works as an independent filmmaker and producer. He moved to Europe in the pursuit of becoming a fine art photographer.
Where they end, I Begin, Natalia Queirolo Calmet
We all have something to hide, and the artist has used photography to portray what, through her perception, shows who people really are. Her subjects are analysed through two different approaches: her personal interpretation and her attempt to be objective. Different people, different environments, but the same photographer behind the camera.
Calmet was born in Lima, Peru, graduated in Communications and Journalism, and now with a Masters in Fine Art Photography. She is currently producing and living in Madrid, Spain.
Things Fall Apart, Shane Green
This project explores the compulsive use of photography to share and archive experiences, whilst also celebrating the unintended consequences that occur during the early adoption of new technologies. These images selected by Shane are taken from pictures uploaded to Google Maps for the world to see.
Based in Mallorca and formed in Management and Communication, Shane is a British photographer, dog lover, celery hater and jewel maker. He explores photography as a medium and as a technology.
La noción de hogar, Paulina Lara
This project is fictional archeological research, which explores the recent past of demolished houses in the urban space of Madrid. Imitating the working style of archeologists, Paulina collects, classifies and photographs materials in order to reconstruct a personal and abstract version of these houses. The raw materials from the demolished houses are like puzzles that can be organised in many possible ways, in order to rebuild the house that once was, before being reduced to pieces.
Paulina has been trained both as an Art Historian and as an artist with a special interest in photography. She is currently living in Madrid working as a Junior Tutor for the Fine Art Masters Program at IED, and as a curatorial assistant to Moritz Neumüller.
Cada Noche Temo Ser La Cena, Ana Sofía Ayarzagoitia
“I still don’t know what I am looking for, maybe it is something that I will never find, or something I’ve already found. Trying to put this puzzle together that I still can’t decipher completely, and I am hoping that with time, I can understand it better”, the artist says. Immediacy, as a quality of photography, allows us to capture memories as we breath. The artist uses her camera to get closer to the ones around her, to the ones she feels attracted to. As a diary, she keeps these images as the memories of the experiences she has lived, as the echo of the past and a blink of light in the middle of darkness.
From Monterrey, Mexico, she is now participating as an exchange student at the Chung-Ang University. She has studied photography in Mexico, Cuba, and Poland.
Cratera, Duarte Amaral Neto
For the artist, telling a story is to create fiction through the visual and the verbal languages. It becomes a game between his version of the story and what he wants us to believe. A meteor, a geologist, the darkness of a cave and a post-apocalyptical landscape: this is the scenario for him to manipulate. These series of images welcome us with mystery and an unwritten future.
From Lisbon, Portugal, Duarte explores the line between fiction and reality through words and images. At the moment, he teaches at the Photography course of the Instituto Politécnico de Tomar.