“Photography has something
infernal about it,
By which I mean:
There’s no coming back.
Taken by its hand,
we pass by the other side of life.
And there, caught in its world of light and shadow,
and only a presence, we also live.
Immutable.
Our troubles forgotten, we atone for our sins.
At last, domesticated; stuck.
On the other side of life. From which there’s no coming back.”1
Alberto García-Alix’s photographs plunge us into a story that runs through his life, forming a vital message focused on photography.
The images with which this narrative is constructed come from the various stages of his life, forming a journey between present and past. From which there’s no coming back.
The uvre of García-Alix has gone through various stages. Until 1986, he took 35mm portraits of his family and friends. He then grew more professional and began a shift in compositional approach that put him at the avant-garde of contemporary photography.
His incursions into the worlds of professional photography, publishing, writing and audiovisual design have made García-Alix an eclectic creator. The coherence of his output marks him out as a highly influential Spanish artist.
1. An edited extract from the original script of De donde no se vuelve (“From where there’s no coming back”) written by Alberto García-Alix.
Exhibition organised in collaboration with La Fabrica, Madrid, to mark the 10th anniversary of PhotoEspaña, the Madrid Photography festival, and the Comunidad de Madrid.
