FREQUENCY, 2020-23

The photographic series Frequency, like an epiphany, provokes me the revelation of the tension and the conflict over the desire to build a custom habitable world, for and by human beings. Cities seem to concentrate the satisfaction of each of our needs, needs without limits that we do not know where they begin and where they end, are revealed as indistinguishable from the desire itself that wanders from the shelter of a building with great heights, from light to energies, from walking to highways, from creating to spectacle, from health care to assisted prolongation of life. A kind of parallel world created especially for humanity as if it were a duality in opposition to the voluptuous and dark world of foliage that could devour us, full of dangers and mysteries of nature. And between it and the human world appear the patches, the marks from the cracks and wounds of streets and buildings that cannot regenerate themselves, heal itself like the forest does, no matter how hard you try. Cement patches and the bricks are the scars of the cities, the hidden frailties of this desire to control and the construction of a safe, complete, self-referring, and sanitized world.

It is the year 2020 and the conflict of this desire with its artificial duality has come to light. The streets, backyards, empty entrances, walls and dead ends are images of loneliness that makes it uncomfortable to express the absence of our presence. At times the ominous has taken the place of that absence, fills it, and we perceive it everywhere without being able to name it. It is on the tip of the tongue and in every vision, as when we observe these photographs. Anguish -that unspeakable and formless feeling that ran underground under the city patches keeping us safe from conflict- its felt in the isolated wandering, like a cold stream in black and white that stops us from looking with more attention and without escape to that daily environment that has become insecure and unknown.

Text by Mónica Salinero Rates, Doctor in Political Science and Sociologist

Frequency, 2023
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46 photographs
72 pages
8.75 x 10.5 in
Soft Cover
Smyth Sew
Swiss binding with exposed spine
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The Burtynsky Grant
CONTACT Photography Festival. Winner 2021 (CA)

FRECUENCIA (solo show), 2022
Curated by Maria Jose Sagredo. 
Installation views, Galería Animal, Santiago de Chile.
Installation photograph © Felipe Ugalde.
Works available with Galería Animal.

Gelatin silver prints (fiber 255 grs.), Fine art prints (Hahnemühle Rag Baryta 315 grs.). Unique frames (various sizes) on Raulí wood and Nielsen aluminium frames, mounted to archival board with museum glass; Gelatin silver prints and unique Newspaper prints, mounted with Rare-Earth Magnets. 

Audio by artist Justin Pape. Composed by improvisational guitar recordings and field recordings in Ontario, Canada. The audio piece was part of the show "Frecuencia" at Galería Animal, Santiago de Chile. 

Frequency, B-Sides (Set of 3)
Intended to waste as little as possible, these three publications are a photo/graphic and editorial exercise using proof sheets from Frequency's printing process. Randomly cropped and edited into three unique b-side books.

5 x 6.75 inches
Over 400 pages each
Uniques

Photopolymer Gravure (diptych), 2021 — Hahnemühle German Etching, 22 x 15.5 inches. Printed in collaboration with print maker Angela Snieder. Unique

COLLECTIONS
2023 — MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, Archives & Library Collection (US)
2023 — NAC - National Gallery of Canada, Library & Archives Collection (CA)
2023 — Library & Archives Canada / Bibliothéque et Archives Canada, Collection (CA)
2023 — AGO - Art Gallery of Ontario, Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives Collection (CA)
2023 — San Telmo Museum, Gabriela Cendoya Bergareche Collection (ES)
2023 — CONTACT Photobook Lab, CONTACT Photography Festival (CA)

AWARDS, GRANTS, HONOURS
2023 — Getxophoto. Pause! Open Call 2023. Shortlisted (ES)
2022 — Canada Council for the Arts. Travel Grant. Arts Abroad program (CA)
2022 — Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2022, Nominee (GE)
2022 — Ontario Art Council. Exhibition Assistance Grant 2021-2022 (CA)
2021 — The Burtynsky Grant. CONTACT Photography Festival. Winner (CA)
2021 — Urbanautica Institute Awards 2020. Representations of Space, Architecture, and Conflicts. Winner (IT)

EXHIBITIONS, TALKS, FAIRS
2023 — Photobook Exhibition and Panel Talk (group show) Rencontres de la photographie en Gaspésie (CA)
2023 — CONTACT Photobook Fair. Stephen Bulger Gallery (CA)
2023 — Espacio Migrante (group show). Museo de la Ciudad, Santiago de Querétaro (MX)
2022 — Frecuencia (solo show), Galería Animal (CL)
2022 — Salon 44 (group show), Gallery 44 (CA)
2021 — Latin American Galleries Now. Galería Animal + Artsy (US)

PRESS, REVIEWS
2024 — The Urbanaut Podcast (IT)
2023 — Ciel variable, Photobook Review by Louis Perreault (CA)
2023 — Palm Studios. Featured work (UK)
2022 — Frecuencia, Artishock Magazine. Article by Alejandra Villasmil (CL)
2022 — FotoNostrum Magazine, Issue 23. Feature Article (ES)
2021 — Urbanautica Institute Awards 2020. Book (IT)