New York, .- The Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar premiered on Tuesday as a photographic artist in New York with his first exhibition of snapshots in the Big Apple, where he said to “feel the emotion of the debutante”, a sensation that he confessed had already forgotten .
“Everything is new because it has just started, and I just started as a photographer, it’s very exciting that feeling of starting something,” Almodóvar said in an interview with Efe during the opening of his exhibition at the renowned Marlborough art gallery. in the center of Manhattan.
The reception of the exhibition made it clear, however, that Almodóvar is no novice in the art world, and was greeted at the gallery by a number of enthusiastic followers who surrounded him at all times, on the hunt for a self or an autograph.
The filmmaker’s exhibition, which can be seen from this Tuesday until June 29, consists of a total of 25 colorful “still lifes” in which colorful vases and dried flowers, which are not dead, are the protagonists, as Almodóvar emphasized: It impresses when they say dead flowers. “
“The dried flowers are much more photogenic. (…) For me they have more dynamism than fresh flowers,” said the Spaniard to explain this unique preference. “For me they are more full of life,” he said.
The exhibition of Almodóvar is called “Waiting For The Light” (Waiting for Light) because that is precisely what he had to do, in a corner of his home, until he could press the trigger of his camera.
Next to his work table, he said, he has a small table where he usually places vases, flowers and other items, and waits at the right time of day.
“There is a moment, every day is different, (…) in which there is a wonderful light with the objects that I have on, and I take advantage of that light,” said Almodóvar, who explained that this moment interrupts the writing process in which he is usually immersed, which serves as an opportunity for “mental rest and relaxation”.
The group of pictorial photos of “Waiting For The Light”, taken mostly in 2018 and 2019, not only take as reference the realism of painters from Madrid such as Antonio López García and Isabel Quintanilla, but also take inspiration from certain techniques used by the popular British painter David Hockney.
This influence is perceived especially in the use of vibrant and intense tones, and in how he uses colors to create divisions in the backgrounds of the composition.
Although Almodóvar is already an old acquaintance in the seventh art, since this Monday he attended the gala organized by the Film Society of the historic Lincoln Center to give a speech on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the institution, he is aware that it is very young even in the world of photography.
“As a photographer I started just two years ago, at Easter two years ago, and the first thing I did was still lifes in my kitchen with the kitchen plug without keeping anything, exactly as it was,” said the director of tapes such as “Todo About my Mother “and” Talk to Her “.
It was at this early stage when the owner of the Marlborough galleries, which has a space in Madrid, proposed the filmmaker take the work to New York, where he said “feel for the first time as an intruder.”
“I am a newcomer and to debut at the Marlborough is to start at the top,” confessed Almodóvar, who said he was “very excited” with his first show in New York.
“Maybe it’s the last too,” he joked minutes before going back into the crowd of fans. (EFEUSA)
