Gabriel Campuzano *

Sevilla, 1955.

In 1973 he enrolled in the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura (University College of Architecture) of Seville, and in the ’80s started producing photography series with traditional black and white techniques. After 1990 he gave his career as a photographer a definitive boost, developing projects in the shape of artist’s books carried out with Polaroid material.

Pictorialist in style, his work is framed by the use and manipulation of Polaroids, with which he diminishes the realism of the representations and creates images damaged by the passage of time which are transformed into inarticulate narratives. From 2000, architectural and urban themes have gained importance in his work, as well as the notion of the archive, applied to the recording of one’s own memory through the documentation of biographic experiences. These are the concepts that govern his series Archivos A. Arquitectura Interior (Archives A. Interior architecture); Archivos B. Background; Archivos C. Ciudad imaginario (Archives C. Imagery city); Archivos D. Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, and Archivos E. Espacio Propio (Archives E. Own space). In them, reality, imagination and memories are interwoven in order to make sense of urban profiles, concrete scenes or landscapes. Presently, his Polaroid snapshots combine and enter in conversation with digital photographs, electrographic transfers and drawings, which together create fictional tales and narratives.

In 2008 the Sala Chicarreros of Seville and other Andalusian exhibition halls hosted the show Alcacogrhujamase. Ciudad Imaginario (Alcacogrhujamase. Imagery city), 64 photographs that —just like the acronym that gives the series its title— recreate the eight capitals of the autonomous community of Andalusia in a game of memory. He was selected for the Descubrimientos section of PHotoEspaña 2011, and in 2012 carried out solo exhibitions in the galleries H2O (Barcelona) and El Fotómata (Seville). He has been awarded two City of Seville awards (1981 and 1982) and has profited from the scholarship for plastic creation of the CSF (1983) and the one for photography projects by Cajasol (2004). His work is included in the permanent collections of the Andalusian Center of Contemporary Art (Seville), the Valencia Institute of Modern Art, and the Ordóñez Falcón Photography Collection.

Rocío López de Castro

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* Entrada correspondiente en The A-Z os Spanish Photographers realizado por el equipo dirigido por Oliva María Rubio para Ediciones La Fábrica (2014)