Pablo H. AznarWe live in an absolute present, in a culture of immediacy in which we maintain our own identity with difficulty, subjected as we are to the pressure of a social uniformity that penalises the will to go against the tide in what Vargas Llosa calls the Society of the Spectacle.
What a principle for an article! But don’t worry, kind reader. You haven’t got the wrong publication. This is not a sociological essay.
On the contrary, in these lines I want to talk to you about the image made art. I want to talk to you about a photographer. An artist who substitutes the brush, the hammer or the chisel for the lens and the flash, with no other purpose than to make her photos talk about you.
Because what characterises Elsa Gallego’s portraits, one hallmark of this photographer from Madrid – a cat in everything but her birth – is her ability to go against the tide, to offer us an introspective vision of those she photographs, capturing in each of her works those traits that characterise her subjects in comparison to others… to speak to us about them. To break with uniformity, with the more of the same that abounds so much in these times. This is the only way to see – in the words of Steve McCurry – what is invisible to others.
An excellent portrait implies a connection between the photographer and the subject. When that connection occurs, photography becomes a deeper form of communication, where the photographer can see and show what makes the person unique (and all people are unique, I assure you), their identity, experiences, and emotions. This goes beyond the “simple” representation of appearance and goes into the ability of photography to tell and transmit.
Like an oil painting, Elsa Gallego’s portraits offer us an original approach, which captivates us with its ability to achieve depth, richness of nuances and a very special luminosity – another of the hallmarks of this artist of the image.
Her treatment of the image replaces the superimposition of layers typical of the oil painting technique with intriguing visual effects that achieve a unique three-dimensional sensation. The result is a work of art that captivates the viewer with its visual depth and enveloping atmosphere.
If you want a picture made image, a photograph that brings out your true self, Elsa Gallego should be in the range of photographers to consider. Because as the great Godard said, when you photograph a face, you photograph the soul behind it.
Are you up for it?
Instagram: @elsagallegophotographer
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