Belén Álvarez
My passion for painting slowly led me into photography. The fact of freezing instants that, for some reason, caught my visual attention has always been fascinating for me. The truth is that my grandfather awoke my curiosity towards photography, the magic of his dark room, where through certain mysterious liquids black and white images emerged had always captivated me. But, at that time, my mind was focused on brushes and canvas.
Long time after and, due to different events and my pragmatic sense of life, I approached artistic images by natural means such as the light, which I recreated in painting. Getting meaningful images thanks to the use of a number tecnical resources that led to a pictorial final image became my challenge. Carrying a camera is easier tan carrying an easel, canvas and paints, thus I decided to buy a good camera with my very first salary while living in Barcelona in the 70s.
I got totally carried away by all the ideas I got while looking through the viewfinder of my Nikon F2. I shot objects and landscapes that conveyed my country’s idiosyncrasy, sometimes it was the buildings, some others a simple still-life of apples in a country house at sunset.
My pictures are intuitive. There’s no significant action which gives the image a specific meaning, there’s just a hint that helps the imagination open to the viewer’s personal feelings.
I still have a lot to explore and understand and everyday I look just as if I was doing it through a viewfinder. Visual arts will always help me express the feelings I need top ut into images.