ALFONSO QUIROGA. 10 Fundamental Photographers. On site. Architecture
02/07/2014.
Fundamentals METALOCUS
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
With Alfonso Quiroga we get to the final stages of our series, the next-to-last installment. We came back to the center, to Madrid. Quiroga is passionate about photography and it can be noticed in the way he speaks to us about it:
"Photography is part of my life in a natural way. It is my profession, but I am also passionate. This means I have a dark room in my studio, and cameras of the nineteenth century that I use, I researched old processes and put them into practice... And that is why I also value and know the most advanced digital techniques that are helping me on a daily basis".
"Photography is part of my life in a natural way. It is my profession, but I am also passionate. This means I have a dark room in my studio, and cameras of the nineteenth century that I use, I researched old processes and put them into practice... And that is why I also value and know the most advanced digital techniques that are helping me on a daily basis".
Bitácora Building, CPS Group Headquarters, Leganes. Touza Arquitectos. Julio Touza Rodríguez, Julio Touza Sacristán. Photography © Alfonso Quiroga.
Bitácora Building, CPS Group Headquarters, Leganes. Touza Arquitectos. Julio Touza Rodríguez, Julio Touza Sacristán. Photography © Alfonso Quiroga.
Campus Repsol, Méndez Álvaro, Madrid. Rafael de la Hoz Architects. Photograph © Alfonso Quiroga.
Botín Foundation Headquarters, Madrid. MVN Architects. Emilio Medina, Diego Varela. Photograph © Alfonso Quiroga.
Botín Foundation Headquarters, Madrid. MVN Arquitectos. Emilio Medina, Diego Varela. Photography © Alfonso Quiroga.
Botín Foundation Headquarters, Madrid. MVN Arquitectos. Emilio Medina, Diego Varela. Photography © Alfonso Quiroga.
Inmunotek Laboratories New Headquarters. Eduardo Fernández. Impulso Arquitectos. Photography © Alfonso Quiroga.
Inmunotek Laboratories New Headquarters. Eduardo Fernández. Impulso Arquitectos. Photography © Alfonso Quiroga.
Daoiz y Velarde Centre Rehabilitation, Madrid. Rafael de la Hoz Arquitectos. Photography © Alfonso Quiroga.
Rey Juan Carlos Hospital, Mostoles. Rafael de la Hoz Arquitectos. Photography © Alfonso Quiroga.
His career is more extensive than that of others. After 20 years dedicated to advertising and art photography, an ambitious industrial photography commissioned assignment made him rethink many things. So his specialization in architectural photography came not long ago. At the dawn of the crisis in Spain, "as a need to specialize and at the end of a learning process."
Among the issues he brings up, the first thing he mentions, as an introduction, is that he always preferred "patient" photography, which is not always understood in the highly demanding commissions made by the architects. His work is based on "the right moment, the right time of year and weather conditions; not to depend on any agendas, not to hurry". And that's what he says he offers.
The next step is the technical quality, which is assumed, but not always sufficiently appreciated. "In a time when anyone with a smartphone becomes a professional retoucher, we have to give a twist on things offering a perfection in the execution that most people are not aware of. It is our competitive advantage, and a piece of specialized equipment is essential."
Unlike many colleagues, Alfonso Quiroga is not an architect, in exchange he offers us a precious value. His eye has been educated since the beginning by looking at classics of photography such as Harry Callahan, Edward Weston, and Alfred Stiglitz among others. "At the time, these artists were considered Masters of their craft and precursors of what we nowadays know as "Modern Photography". Their conception of form, volume, and minimalism, of negative space, shaped my style when composing a photograph. For me, architecture photography, in addition to its documentary value, has a unique feature. It allows you to be a witness and intermediary at the same time. A lot of people only get to see a building through my photos if they never visit it. Architectural photography transcends place."
Text by.- José Juan Barba. Dr. Arquitecto.
Wet plate collodion. Photograph by Alfonso Quiroga
Alfonso Quiroga. Personal work.-
Within my personal projects, there is always room to investigate ancient processes. To experiment with the birth of photography I am imbued at the moment, outside my strictly professional work, with what is known as the process of wet plate collodion photography, one of the first photographic techniques in history.
It appeared in 1851, one of the first steps towards snapshot images. Some call it the 19th-century Polaroid. It is a very complex process, 100% chemically handmade, and it produces unique images. I make them on glass plates (called ambrotypes), with an old, wooden, large format camera and antique brass lens built around 1860...
It is called wet because the whole process, from the plates' chemical sensitization to the final exposure and image development, must be done approximately in less than 10 minutes before the chemicals dry, otherwise, the end result is ruined. This requires having a dark room near the place where the photo is taken, which means having to build a portable darkroom if you perform outdoors.
A laborious technique, every unobserved detail is certain to end up in an error, sometimes even obsessive. It is the counterpoint to the conception of the photographic digital process that I work with every day: hundreds of photos taken in a very short time, accumulated in memory cards and hard disks, in contrast to the patience, the care, and the uncertainty of seeing the birth of each photo one by one, that's the real reward.
More information
ALFONSO QUIROGA
Alfonso Quiroga (La Coruña, Spain, 1969) has a degree in Fine Arts with specialization in Photography (BFA In PHOTOGRAPHY) by Western Michigan University, USA. Among its graduate courses include the Polaroid Alternative Photography Techniques and processes in old Chicago, USA and Advanced Digital Treatment in the Photography School EFTI Madrid. Currently specialized in architectural photography. Lives and works in Madrid.
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