Barcelona, on a winter day. I love the morning light and stop in a small square for a while. A young man is filling big containers of water in the fountain. I approach him, I would like to make your portrait. He says yes, we chat for a while, Salva is his name.
I continue walking, I am meeting my mother at the Cafe de l’Opera mid morning. I feel happy that she liked the idea, she has not been walking much since the pandemic started. We sit by the front door while she explains old stories about the place. “At this time of the day, whenever there was a Wagner Opera, this place was a hive of activity. The operas were so long that we had a two hour break for lunch” I love to see her smiling.
Silveta is working at home today and I call her as soon as I make it to Sants. I know I am going to convince her to meet for a quick coffee. “There is a very beautiful square around the corner, I think you’ve never been”. As I get close, I can hear someone calling out the seven times table. “We do this every morning”. “Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do”.
There is a story behind every picture, my story and their story and for a short period of time they merge. This is my city and I love the people that lives in it. I love those short encounters, they bring me joy, the joy of life passing by.
Back to the city that saw me grow, I photograph those things that happen everyday, ordinary frames that I would like to store in a box below my bed for my grandchildren to find one day. I want them to be able to enter those moments when I was there and feel my emotions and the essence of the time I was living. I want them to realize that ordinary life is not ordinary, it is extraordinary. Barcelona, February 2022, fragments of life and light, simple everyday scenes that happen all the time around us in the city. That’s the beauty of it, that they are so simple.
