Fran Martí

fran-marti
Fran Martí

A personal journey

by Fran Martí (Spain)

I am a freelance photographer who has been working for many years on editorial portraits and travel photography. I wish to enhance my personal work thus far unpublished. The 13 photographs that constitute this portfolio were created over the last 8 years and belong to an unpublished project called “panta rei” (πάντα ρεῖ) “everything flows”.

This work attempts to express the ephemeral moment of nostalgia and transit. Not only physical, but also emotional or symbolic. The work evokes a time that we have not lived or another world that is not our own.


Portfolio from the Un voyage personnel workshop with J-M Castro Prieto, March 2012.

Written review by PAULINE VERMARE,
Associate Curator, International Center of Photography

I am instinctively drawn to and moved by the sensitivity and refinement of Fran’s visual universe. The quest for this special moment in light and darkness reminds me of Junichiro Tanizaki’s « In Praise of Shadows », and brings to mind another Japanese concept : “Mono no Aware”,  the beauty of the ephemeral. How rare and difficult, to capture this with a camera while translating the poetry and beauty of the fleeting instant. This corpus is well-thought and well-constructed, without rigidity or predictability.

The images that move me the most and that I find esthetically the most achieved are 3, 5 and 6, the latter one being particularly beautiful and poetic. The shadow of the balloon on these trees take you up and down in a very delectable way. I love the window (3), its femininity and psychoanalytical dimension. Image 12 -- almost there, but the composition is not strong enough, I wish I were closer to the reflection of that three. The monkey (10) is funny and interesting but perhaps too far removed from the epicenter of Fran’s imaginary world. The other images in the portfolio are good, and I can see why Fran took this pictures and what he saw when he took them, but it might be too obvious and somehow I get a feeling of déjà-vu looking at them. Perhaps because the form takes over the feeling, there is too much going on with the blur and wide angle. Being obvious is never good. They are not bad pictures, they just don’t strike that same subtle cord.

Overall I think this is an excellent portfolio and I would love to see more of Fran’s photographs, more delicate dreams with light and shadow, more trips like the ones I took here. Thank you.


More Portfolios

La_disparition_du_paysage2023©ThomasGlaser_001_0584

La disparition ...

by Thomas Glaser (France)

01-SLibermann-Studio-231124-186

Charlotte S. 24...

by Sophie Libermann (France)

3-2

So close, so fa...

by Thierry Laporte (France)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Les Infrarouges

by Martin de Haan (The Netherlands)

001-Dagmara BOJENKO – Série portraits – Ici et maintenant

Here and Now

by Dagmara Bojenko (France)

Série web Lucie Poinsatte-1

Douceur

by Lucie Poinsatte (France)

01 (Copier)

Stay

by Jean Paul Abjean (France)

©jb_portraits_01_sd

La fenêtre

by Jessica Bordeau (France)