A stubborn landscape: Sewing glances with the thread of time
Wed., April 6, 4:30-6 pm
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Rephotography is an obstinate task, consisting of revisiting a historical image and making a new photograph from the same vantage point where it was taken. It is based on a scientific technique, Repeat Photography, used since the last third of the 19th century, to document long-term geological and ecological changes. It involves a precise methodology and invokes the essential photographic fact of activating the shutter of a camera in a specific place and time. Since the1970s, Rephotography has not only been operated by scientists, but it also landed in the hands of photographers and visual artists. We have made an eloquent tool of it, by creating complex images which we project into the future. In this voyage these images are propelled by the gravitational energy provided by the dreams of our predecessors in the task of creating a significant gaze, from an endlessly evolving vantage point.

In this lecture Ricard Martínez will offer an overview of his own visual work, based on this Rephotography methodology, including photographs, rephotographs and photographic installations in the public space. Much of the content poured into his projects is based on the graphic record of the Spanish Civil War. This is a conflict that dramatically altered the history of his country and the fate of its citizens. In this regard, his Rephotography work reveals the extraordinary validity of that distant era in the current local landscape. He also creates visual works based on his family album. It is a constant task, almost perpetual, that arises from the review of domestic photographs. In this journey back to the intimate story, the deep connection of great collective events with small intimate experiences is uncovered.

This event is sponsored by Lehigh University's Department of Modern Languages & Literatures.