Faraway So Close
This is the diary of a journey by Alex Llovet. In his own words: "In 2009 I became a father. Overnight, and with no idea of what was in store, I saw my wife give birth to our first daughter. A deep love towards that tiny person slowly inundated my life. But the stronger the light, the darker are the shadows, and becoming a father sent me back to dark episodes of my own childhood. You cannot be a father without the memory of being a son, so five years later, I aim to fuse these two roles through photography in the search for my own identity: I go into the woods, sometimes alone, sometimes with my daughter, because that is where my memories lie, and where realities resonate as distant in time and space as they are near emotionally. And this exercise inevitably describes the limits between reality and fiction (like my pictures, some of them “found” and some “staged”), because the passing of time pushes the truth into forgetfulness and maximizes the imagination."
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64 pages
20 x 29.3 cm
sewn
hardcover, rustic bound with viewed threads, capped and protected with dyed black cold glue
cut edges stained with black aniline
texts in English and Spanish
edited by Silvia Omedes and Alex Llovet
design by Inés Casals
limited edition of 400 numbered and signed copies
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"This is a passionately personal book and that's all to the good. The simple images come from the heart, a place where I feel the best work usually comes from. There is no clever artifice here, just pictures that hum with promise."
Harvey Benge
"His images are always quiet and serene but at the same time intriguing and expressive, inviting us to debate and discover the meanings of the scene. Alex’s images are multi-layered and every time we go back to them we will uncover hidden surprises."
Analog Magazine
"The brutality of bringing someone to this world is what makes it start at Alex the search for something else: a journey towards memory through the echo of its intimacy in nature. A beautiful and trully coherent work, as well as open and dreamy. "
Silvia Omedes / Photographic Social Vision
"Llovet is undoubtedly a clear current reference in Spanish photography, because he knows how to reflect a personal and unique mode, full of poetry and lyricism."
Francisca Pageo / Détour
"His story proposes on each page a new enigma or mystery to reveal... that's one of his contributions to the poetic narrative and opens gap over the possibilities of creating and linking visual metaphors as true as latent ..."
Llorenç Raich / IEFC
"The book as an object becomes here a perfect artifact in terms of form, visual and content concept. A book that is from now on between my 2016 favorites."
Andrés Medina / Seeking Magazine