Black and white essay on the last five years of Arrecife

The optics with which daily actions are seen, the usual suspects, the commonplaces change in relation to many things. The time of day or the mood. The emptiness of a Sunday or the transfer of a morning during office hours. For five years, freelance photographer Gerson Díaz has been scouring the streets of Arrecife, drawing his camera to capture the essence of the Lanzarote capital. And like all essences, it comes in a black and white bottle.

The exhibition of this project, which can be visited until next December 14 in the Plaza de El Almacén, brings together 77 photographs that collect corners, lots, streets and people of Arrecife. “I started doing the photographs at a time when I had time and the only thing that saved me was to go for a walk and take pictures,” explains Gerson.

That salvation he speaks of grew as he walked daily through the same streets. “The intention was not explicit, the idea was to take pictures while doing my normal life.” The aim of the project was not to look for the special, although he believes that “in everyday life there are things that should attract our attention”. The result? The photographic summary of the last five years of the daily life of Arrecife.

Some architectural corpses of the capital have become true characters of the history of the city so much that Gerson believes that “there are corners that are forming the landscape, the cables are still hanging in the same way, I try to look at all that honestly.” And he looks at everything in two colors. “Black and white is good for what I want to tell and for me it is more natural because I see things in black and white,” he says. The group does not consider it a rigorous journalistic work but “an essay where it is shown as I see Arrecife”.

Veintinueve Trece

In the last edition of the Encounter of Photography and Visual Arts Veintinueve Trece, Gerson gave an explanatory talk about the exhibition. “It is a festival that each year is being overcome, this year with two national awards and a very complete program, anyone interested in photography throughout the Canary Islands cannot miss it.”

The photographer appeals. “We need more exhibitions that show a long-term work with photographs that carry a common thread because we can usually see very good photographs, but outside series that tell a story.”

Social networks

Photography has benefited from the drift of the instant that emanates from the internet and social networks. “Almost no one stops to think a lot about what the written text is being left out, now there is more visual communication, not only through photographs, but also emoticons, gifs … The way we communicate is changing” .

It seems that the Internet is not a space created for reflection although that has played in favor of photography. “However, I still like printed photography and I miss stopping and thinking”.