About my Photograph Paisatge 07
About this photograph: A pond in the middle of a meadow. There was nothing left to irrigate; the pond had ceased to be of use in times now past, but it had miraculously been saved from the devastation of all that is considered "useless". It seemed to me a magnificent allegory of that which “exists for its own sake”. *All of the prints in the series THE ELEMENTS were made by the photographer himself in his laboratory, on Chlorobromide, Silver Gelatin protected by immersion in Selenium.
Process Statement
I print all my work myself. Images are printed on Kantmere Art Classic Paper. Prints are signed and numbered in pencil on the reverse of the image.
ELEMENTS . Armengol, Manel
In 1993 I started the series The Elements (Water, Air or “Wind”, Earth or “Rock”, etc.) with the aim of showing aspects of nature from a contemplative and loving viewpoint. When digital photography appeared, I wondered whether at some time, in a more or less distant future, human beings would become submerged in a virtual world from which there would be no turning back, unable to distinguish between that which is seen-felt-perceived via experience, and that which is imagined or virtualised as if it were reality. It was then that I felt the need to photograph the Elements of nature in a way that was as pure, and as free from mental intervention, as possible. Contemplating how the water of the river related to the rock it immerses, how they touch; how the air-wind speaks to the branches of a tree … to remain in almost absolute silence, to open the shutter of the camera, for 1/8, ½ or for 4 seconds, and feel within this silent time my gaze centred on the “subject” chosen, so that the image would imprint itself not only on the photographic paper, but also on my own perception. Many of the photographs taken up to 2001 were published in two small books “Voices of Water” and “Memories of Winds” by Shiseido Word in Japan, with poems by my friend Elia Taniguchi and design by the master Mitsuo Katsui.