• Juan Baraja

    Photographer of Time and Light

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Photography: Paula Yubero Works © Courtesy Juan Baraja 
11 / 01 / 2023
Text: Verónica de Mello
“Photography is a tool that brings you closer to reality in a different way, fragmenting it, telling the truth yet also lying, and has the ability to narrate stories.” 
His work is an intersection between art and architecture, in a vision captured by his camera lens. He studied at the University of Fine Arts in Barcelona but, as he declares, he “has always been a photographer” and his desire to perpetuate the present, to retain that moment, to stop time and render it sacred, has led him to produce images devoid of any symbols of emotion.
Up until 2014, the human figure was not part of the universe he depicted; this addition was sparked by the work developed in the Eyjafjördur fjords in Iceland, where he investigated this habitat dominated by major constraints and “an almost porous light.” In his work, impassive faces and bodies appear that are rendered motionless, without the slightest tension caused by movement, an ode to purity, to calm, to a rhythm that demands that we stop and look. To see what would otherwise not be obvious to us, to discreetly demand that pause when faced with the image.

His studio is in the centre of Madrid, in a former industrial building, a workplace with plentiful light and vibrant colours, a studio-home that reflects his positive outlook and his eye for aesthetics. Research has guided Juan Baraja to Lisbon, Washington, Rome and Reykjavík, among other locations where he has explored the aesthetics that interest him. The themes of his investigations are diverse, from the social neighbourhoods of the 70s to the Utopie Abitative project, through which he seeks to understand the difference between the architectural utopia of that decade and the marginal reality of today’s experience. This pursuit of architecture as living spaces, as containers for life, withdraws the sense of grandeur or monumentality that it may possess and conveys to the viewer the truth that the photographer manages to capture in that calm gaze concerned with composition and light that characterises him so well. Beauty, not as an instantaneous or fleeting moment but, rather, as a truth that keeps its own time and which, for that very reason, is capable of revealing its scars.

VERÓNICA DE MELLO What interests you in static images?
JUAN BARAJA
Photography is a tool that brings you closer to reality in a different way, fragmenting it, telling the truth yet also lying, and has the ability to narrate stories. In my case, the static image is accompanied by fixed elements and, in the absence of movement, each shot can be dilated in seconds or even minutes. Working with large formats, the black cloth, helped me rediscover photography.
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How did your relationship with architecture begin? When I started photographing, I found that architecture was a subject that suited my way of working. It allowed me to take things slowly and pay close attention to the scene, allowing me time to control every detail of the image, from concentrating on a precise composition to making a thorough assessment of the light on things. 
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"NORLANDIA"  
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"NORLANDIA"  
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“Y VASCA/EUSKAL YS” (2021). 
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"MELARA"  
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"MELARA"  
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“EXPERIMENTO BANANA” (2014). 
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“EXPERIMENTO BANANA” (2014). 
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"PARNASO"  
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“SERT-MIRÓ” (2015). 
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“ÁGUAS LIVRES” (2012-2014). 
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“CATEDRALES” (2012). 
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For more information, visit Juan Baraja website.
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