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Anette Holt
Abstract photography is what I enjoy most. I love looking for details, finding new angles and playing with different techniques like ICM and multiple exposure.
Do you know the feeling? Stuck with your photography and generally a bit meh towards your images, asking yourself whether your photos are “good enough”? Inspiration has vanished, motivation is nowhere to be seen, new ideas are in hiding, and you begin to wonder whether your mojo will ever come back. In other words, the creative block has struck.
Whenever I hit such a phase, I turn to the work of Ángel Albarrán and Anna Cabrera for some creative input. The Spanish photographer duo have been working together for almost 30 years and have created an extensive portfolio that is, in equal measures, uplifting and inspiring. Immersing myself in their dream-like images enables me to let go of my worries and self-doubts, thereby making room for creativity to return.
An image I keep coming back to in particular is this work from Albarrán Cabrera’s series ‘Nyx’. The name derives from Greek mythology, where the goddess Nyx is the personification of the darkness and is considered one of the first beings to exist. As such, she stands at the beginning of all creation - a fitting coincidence.
This photograph shows a path meandering through a very dark, barren landscape into a distant mountain range. In stark contrast to the almost hostile foreground, the path leading through it is of golden colour. The mountains in the distance are also lit up in warm gold tones, perhaps by the rising or setting sun. There is no further context given - it is a timeless scene and the intention is obviously not to show a particular place or landscape. Upon taking a closer look, it becomes apparent that the path leading our eyes and thoughts into the distance has the contours of the branch of a gnarly tree. Is the path in reality a tree? Or is it something else? Does it matter?
Many of the scenes in Albarrán Cabrera’s photos look familiar at first glimpse. But then we notice that something is odd, that something jars. The angle isn’t quite right, the scale of things is funny, the colours are different to what we would expect. The photographers are not shy to invert, flip or rotate an image, nor do they hold back with changing hues and colours.
By breaking the rules and conventions of photography, Albarrán Cabrera’s images challenge our perception. These are not pin-sharp or perfectly composed landscape photos but mysterious, longing, melancholic images that invite us to contemplate, to allow our thoughts to wander and to fill the image in front of our eyes with our own stories based on our own memories, experiences and emotions.
And so does the selected image take the viewer on a journey through their own feelings, memories, fears, dreams, wishes, hopes. This journey will be different for each of us. We don’t know where the path takes us, whether we could get lost, what lies in the distance; it is even possible that the mountains are just a mirage. The story will vary for everyone. It might even change for the same person over time, for instance depending on our mood, the time of year, the current circumstances we find ourselves in.
Albarrán Cabrera’s work reminds us that the construction of reality is a highly subjective matter and that it can be liberating to let go of preconceived ideas and expectations. ‘Nyx’ does exactly that to me - it takes me on a trip through a landscape of emotions and opens a path for my creativity to come back.
Do you have a favourite image that you would like to write an end frame on? We are always keen to get submissions, so please get in touch to discuss your idea.