"(...) the trip began with an unexpected event. On the second day, the hot shoe on Pablo's camera broke and what could have been an anecdote or a disaster becomes the starting point of this exhibition: Ópalo.
Opal is a type of mineral that can have fluorescent and phosphorescent properties. And as Tanizaki points out in In Praise of Shadows, it is one of those stones that "placed in the dark, emits a radiation and exposed to full light loses all its fascination as a precious jewel."
Giving up the use of flash was not easy for Pablo since it was an indispensable tool in his photographic practice. It meant embracing the shadow, letting oneself fall, not being afraid of the darkness or the gloom. Somehow, melting into the atmosphere that surrounded him and giving up the flash that freezes everything, searching for that opal light.
But the photographic act does not end when you press the shutter, it dilates and the journey into the shadows continues for months in the lab. Understanding photography as if it were a painting, time expands, you think about what you want to represent, the trace on the film and the posibilities provided by the enlarger come together to create a new image, a representation closer to the memory. It is in the darkroom where the photographer's own sensitivity ends up taking shape (...)”
From the curatorial text.
Mateo Pérez
Ópalo Notebook (69 pages)