photography

clara acuna-gARCIA

Clara’s fascination with urban life started when she moved to Madrid as a teenager from the mountain town where she grew up. The capital’s different concept of time and space made an instant impression on her: the innumerable shops and bars, the neverending heterogeneous crowds, the 24 hour days; after leaving the enclosed and vigilant village atmosphere, the possibility of experiencing a new kind of freedom.

Two aspects of the crowd interest Clara: first, its physical characteristics/traits, structure, movement and inner dynamics. Second, the point of view of the subject inside the crowd, analysing the influence being inside a mass of people has on the individual.

Clara's interest lies mainly in the black-suited, always-hurrying, unapproachable commuters. When entering a crowd, the individual can play at being himself and somebody else at the same time. What we think of as 'ourselves': our ambitions, our frustrations, our differences and worries, is put on hold; Our physical and personal traits blur in the flow, and we are offered the chance of acting out our own fantasies, or those we find reflected in the eyes of passers-by through fleeting eye encounters. For this to happen, distances must be kept, the flow must never be interrupted; Strangers must remain strangers, encounters ephemeral, and meetings should only take place in the realm of fantasy.

The fact that Clara's photographs are out of focus should make any closing statement slip, interrupting the chain of meaning, cutting the connections between object and direct meaning. This slip from meaning, this delay of recognition, forces the spectator’s mind to slide sideways in search of other means to achieve satisfaction, hopefully leading him into the realm of fantasy.

Clara has always had an interest in photography and the moving image, and studied Fine Arts at the University Complutense de Madrid. She spent the following year in Brussels’ Academie Royale des Beaux Arts with an Erasmus scholarship, developing her interest in the linguistic aspect of the visual arts. After travelling the world taking photographs for another year, she moved to Britain, attracted by London’s vibrant and innovative culture life. She finished an MA in Photographic Studies at the University of Westminster in 2002, and currently lives and works in Madrid.