“Flames of fire floating on water”
“Art is also simply a way of life,
and whatever life one leads,
it is possible, without knowing it,
to be preparing for it.”
and whatever life one leads,
it is possible, without knowing it,
to be preparing for it.”
R. M. Rilke
There are places that call out to you. Places that invite you, exerting a powerful attraction. For more than twenty years, I have returned to the island of Menorca with my family to reconnect with its powerful and prodigious nature, and also with our friends. Walking its paths and its coastline awakens the senses. These are moments to pay attention, to remain open to the importance of small things, to the details of the immeasurable. It thus becomes a time for reflection, meditation and silence. The true luxury, the great joy, is to be there. To be in front of the relentless waves, before the horizons and infinite blues, before and within the changing light that overwhelms you and the scents that arrive from everywhere.
I also feel a particular attraction to all the objects that the sea, as a warning, an alert, even a reproach, returns to us and deposits on the wild coves. These 2,121 lighters, every single one of them, were found and collected while I walked along the coves on the north coast of the island. I am drawn to the rough beauty of these small objects, to the extraordinary and unrepeatable patina of time. The erosion of sun, salt, seawater, sand, rocks and wind has transformed the lighters into small sculptures. Chance did the rest.
Once collected, transported and sorted, almost methodically, I photographed the lighters in the studio in Barcelona, without any point of reference, from above, against a light background.
These images are a stark reminder of the millions and millions of these seemingly harmless, ephemeral, non-biodegradable devices that remain scattered across the planet. We have astronomical data at our fingertips about global pollution. There is no time for excuses.
Carles Roig / March 2020
CATCarles Roig és fotògraf professional des de 1986. Al llarg de la seva trajectòria ha mantingut una mirada intuïtiva i un esperit creatiu constant, tant en encàrrecs comercials com en projectes educatius i en el desenvolupament de la seva obra més personal. El 2002 va fundar La Retrateria, un espai polivalent des d’on ha continuat ampliant la seva feina i explorant noves formes d’expressió fotogràfica.
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Carles Roig has been a professional photographer since 1986. Throughout his career he has maintained an intuitive approach and a constant creative spirit, both in commercial assignments and in educational projects and in the development of his most personal work. In 2002, he founded La Retrateria, a multipurpose space from which he has continued to expand his work and explore new forms of photographic expression.