Project: Intersections

Intersections is a project made in Barcelona over the course of the summer of 2004, and exhibited in the Reference Gallery in El Raval of Barcelona in 2005. 

The idea of the project was to set up my 5x4 film camera with a suitable urban background and wait for people to come up to me and ask me “¿Qué haces?” or “What are you doing?” 

I was interested in making a portrait series after the reveal project in Bristol, and wanted to explore ideas of curiosity and passive involvement, letting the local people come up and chose to participate themselves. ⬇︎

After explaining the concept, I told those who decided to proceed that they would receive a copy in the mail, and be invited to the exhibition. What I didn’t tell them was that I was making two images to make a false panorama, and when they received their final print, they discovered another person alongside them.

In this way, I hoped that relative strangers, people who lived in the same neighbourhood, would maybe meet in their streets after participating in the project and say hello… Of course, they all met up on the opening night of the exhibition, which had a fabulous atmosphere and was also a little strange for everyone to see themselves in a gallery.

I am doing this project in other places after focusing on other work- we’ll see how it goes. This was made with black and white film (Tri-X) developed in PyroCat developer and printed on fibre based paper toned in selenium, giving a rich acutance and lovely tonal range.