Alberto Lizaralde
Frail
[ EPF 2011 HONORABLE MENTION ]
Frail is about those everyday moments when everything collapses. Little moments where our life changes, spins and breaks. Suspended moments in which something has just happened or is about to. Situations in which time, objects and places lose their physical nature. Tiny fragments of life which, when put together, redefine our idea of control of ourselves and the world around us.
We are vulnerable in the everyday.
Bio
Alberto Lizaralde was born in 1979 in Madrid (Spain). In 2002 he obtained a degree in Advertisement in Madrid. He worked as a film critic and directed two short films and some cultural live events. He currently lives in Madrid (Spain) and combines his work as creative supervisor at Contrapunto BBDO advertising agency with his projects in documentary photography.
Haven’t had time to digest the photos, but great captions. Seriously.
Fuzzy concept? Sorry, this does nothing for me at all.
#16..
Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i love it!
its straight to the point!
the Real Thing.. the “truth” if any, is all here…
just feel it…
this is photography u can feel, dance with, or surf on it, or skate on etc..its like a moving vehicle without fancy symbolism stays right to the point…
true , honest, simple, brilliant!
yes We Are Vulnerable in the every motherF%^&^%gDay!!!
bravo
Jim…
Try it again, take your time and breathe deeply and let things be and I’m convinced you’ll get it. Don’t underrate yourself so much :)!!
I can feel this essay, it’s my cup of tea. I just wish it was in BW, just that extra abstraction to shake my soul and whizz me off my feet. For me good photography makes me see everything for the first time.
“The question is not what you look at, but what you see”
Thoreau
@Paul, I actually really enjoy it in color. Reminds me of the stuff LPV puts out which I absolutely love. Solid work here Alberto, I really enjoy it.
Even though I can appreciate some of the images, individually, the essay, as a whole is far
from ready for prime time imho.
I don’t ‘feel’ the concept is illustrated at all with the exceptions,perhaps, of #1 and #16.
The little obscure vignettes of everyday details does nothing to push the theme of ‘frail’ forward
I totally agree with the concept, but my impression is that most of the shots lack the visual quality that can support such a bold research. Only the portraits are fully convincing, imo.
………………. ?
There is an interview on his site that is worth reading….it gives a bit more insight into this project.
#1 does it for me.
PAUL. What exactly do you FEEL???
Remembering that most ACTUAL emotions can be described in a single word.
Like….hopeful
or……trusting
or……disappointed
I like the pictures very much. The feeling of vacuum, of vulnerability comes out in several of the pictures. The portraits were just great. Well done!
John…
I see the commonplace seen, heard and felt which we usually pass by unaware of it’s power. Our habitually overworked switchboard just takes in the bangs and screams we feel everywhere. I am a stranger to many daily occurrences round me so I stop and feel. The ordinary will turn into the extraordinary and there is no need to label things just feel. And those that already have labels I rip them off and rediscover all of them once again. I make them mine; my song, my poem, my howl and my whisper.
Please don’t understand just feel.
“There never was a world for her. Except the one she sang and singing, made.”
Wallace Stevens
Carlo..
Thanks for pointing out the interview.. as always, I tend to spend more time with essays that I don’t get, than with those that hit home right away.. I can understand, reading the interview, what drives the photographer here, but that still doesn’t help me to connect with the work, except for a few frames..
Congratulations Carlo
This essay resonates with me a great deal. Angst, evident in those blank stares, seems to be common to the human condition.
Paul, Are there your own words or a quote? In any case, appropriate.
Kinda reminds me of the Kellogs ad a few years ago “Kellogs corn flakes, taste them again for the very first time” :)
Gordon…
Thank you, those are my words. I felt particulary inspired this morning, I began writing everything with “We” but I generally hate preachers and as it also sounded so highly pretencious I decided to adjust it all to “I”.
A probable explanation as to why work like this does not say anything I an interested in hearing.
The current state of my walls.
“it doesn’t mean that much to me, to mean that much to you”
-Neil young.
I think eva’s picture looks great.
nice one John!!!! (who’s singing?)
I don’t know.. I get the concept, but the photos just don’t work for me. The artist statement is thin, and could be followed by just about any photograph. I’m thinking ‘decisive moment’ in other words. For it to work for me, I’d need some shots that are less metaphorical and more about those moments of collapse. To me the portraits look like people deep in thought, but not frail, not on the brink of something.. I don’t get 13.. and the only object shot that resonates for me is 6.. yet it doesn’t ring true to the artist statement, what is about to happen? what is impending, what is frail? Is it a statement on death and decay? loss of worth perhaps?
I’m guessing 16 horsepower. Great band somewhere between underrated and unknown, at least in the states. Had pretty much forgotten about them. Thanks for the reminder. Almost guessed John Mellencamp before he started singing. Still, similar to JM’s later work.
Don’t see how those pics exclude you liking this essay, but I have no problem with you, or anyone else, not liking this essay.
Panos. Michael is right, David Eugene Edwards. (16 horsepower, Woven hand ). Even a cynical atheist such as myself feels humble around his faith…..it resonates authenticity…and while I do not share his beliefs I feel very strongly that his is not a fashion position or a con trick as so much is these days.
A shame on America that his work is not better known there.
John…
Never heard that music before, it made me stop in my tracks, so did your walls. Paintings, photos and music all stir my sky, in fact I want to ride life or make photos like that guy sings.
Paul. make photos like YOU sing…fuck everyone else. be moved, be Inspired, be humnbled, be angered…but be true. Not a chance of a shot otherwise.
Paul; David Eugene Edwards from 16 Horsepower is in “Searching for the Wrong-eyed Jesus”
A shame on America that his work is not better known there.
——————-
nahhhhhh….just a shame on me, actually…not america (this time;)
John..
honored but intimidated to hang there, you got some great stuff up your walls.. not only the photos, but those paintings!! Thank you :)
John G, I have the same issues with overtly Christian work, yet some of my favorite artists are, or have gone through phases where they were, overtly Christian. Nick Cave, Dylan, and Tartovsky spring immediately to mind. Of course they are hardly typical in how they express their beliefs, unintelligible to normal religious people.
Nick Cave’s “No More Shall We Part” is one of my favorite albums (discs, records — what do we call them these days?) and I think it’s a bit representative of the ongoing conversation here regarding essays like this, and the differences between essays and singles for that matter. “No More Shall We Part” is a collection of excellent singles that form a whole that is greater than its parts. Taken together, these singles tell a larger story, but the story is so complex and open to interpretation that it is difficult for many to recognize it as a coherent story. Alberto’s essay, and others with similar approaches, are similar, I believe. For lack of a better word, I consider these types of things “literary” stories, though I’d like to find a better word since with photography we’re dealing with images and feelings much more, or even excluding words. Nevertheless, it’s a valid form and one I think has a lot of possibilities, though just as any art it’s not going to appeal to everyone.
Been drivin’ me crazy.. that’s not from ‘Woven Hand’, but from ‘Folklore’.. finally found it!
does “we are vulnerable everyday” the same as “we are vulnerable in the everyday”, but one is just plain simple english and the other heightened poetry? inquiring (simple) minds…..
Nice walls John…
John – I had to look at your walls video twice. I watched it silent the first time and thought silent was how supposed to be. I did not realize that my black, who has been lounging on or very near to my keyboard since I sat down, had muted the sound. It was quite effective silent.
Then I saw the references to the sound track, so I went back and watched it again.
It was effective with the sound track – and yes, I, an American living in the midst of ignorance, was unfamiliar with the piece, but taken by it.
Still – the silent version spoke loudest and most powerfully to me.
Sometimes it ain’t to bad to be underrated, unknown, forgotten. It usually keeps a sense of authenticity to the work and nice and out of the reach of the mediocre blood sucking fans and managers.
Eva,
I feel almost the same way as you. Just pointed out the interview because it gave me more insight than what its written here. I thought people will find it useful as well.
Gordon,
Congratulations for what?!?!?! :)
I found the artist statement interesting. Than I looked at the photo. But I did not see so much correlation with the statement. There are a few photos i like and can correlate somehow (1-2-7-11), a few I like but find difficult to correlate (4-6-10), others where I have doubts (frailty and doubts are correlated!) and a few one I do not understand in respect of the Artist statement (8-11-14). It is possible my limited knowledge of english language drove me in a wrong direction or my “visual understanding” is limited as well. It is anyway interesting to be confronted with something we, me in this case, do not fully understand.
robert
PD: @ john, beautiful walls, paintings and photos…
Hi Alberto, thanks for submitting these for us.
I definitely enjoyed some of these images, with no’s 2,8 and 16 grabbing my attention.
There seemed to be a quiet, considered poetry in there somewhere that I liked. Shades of Alec Soth perhaps? (gasp!)
Having said that, I found the thin captions and personal statement a bit frustrating. I wanted more information.. a denser, more rounded package. (Maybe that’s a bit old-school but hey.)
Either way, the project made me think.
BURN: Keep chucking in the curve-balls guys.. very good to see.
B