Over the past few weeks of being back in Madrid and realizing just how much I appreciate living here in comparison to cold, gloomy England; I decided to make sure I tried out some new and exciting things in the city.
CityLife Madrid always have a salsa class night on every Monday and I was yet to try it, so when my boyfriend visited in late January we finally went! I had some free vouchers for us both left over from a CityLife Welcome Pack I received when I first moved here, so it was a double bonus that it was cost-free! It was such a fun and exciting experience, we both really enjoyed learning a salsa motif and also some other traditional Spanish dancing. The class was taught by professional instructors and they made it very easy to follow with an engaging and fun atmosphere.
I have also been to several new places in relation to photography/art. I recently visited the venue Casa de America and went to a photography exhibition they currently have on there. It’s by the photographer: Bernardo Aja, the body of work ‘EntreMuros’ is a set of family portraits. They were quite odd and unusual and a lot of the photos had been printed at a huge size which made a visually striking impact when you entered the exhibition rooms.
I also paid another visit to the Tabacalera exhibition space in Lavapies, it had some intriguing and questionable art displays – as per usual. I think it is a very interesting space though and it often has very unusual works in there so I will try to visit here often to see if I can grasp any inspiration for my own photography work.
Photography book shops have been hard to come across in Madrid, in that of course, most books are published in the native language. When looking for ideas and inspiration for projects, I find that looking through photo books is really helpful to view a photographer’s concept and execution of how they have made their work. After receiving a suggestion from my course director back in the UK at Coventry Uni, I was able to finally visit a proper photo book shop, filled with the book collection the publishing company has, that company being: Ivory Press Books. It’s a wonderful shop and I spent an hour or so there just looking through their many books and gathering ideas for potential final major projects for my final year in Coventry and concept ideas in general.
I have also recently begun my Spanish tutoring lessons; myself and two of the girls have one 2-hour session once a week. They are proving difficult and challenging but definitely helpful for living here in Madrid and also particularly for pronunciation – I have already seen and heard my Spanish improving. We sometimes get set homework by the tutor which is good for practicing what we’ve been taught in the lessons and makes the lessons more worthwhile! Although it is very difficult learning a new language, I hope that by the end of the year, I will be able to hold some kind of basic conversation in near enough fluent Spanish. I think it will be a demanding task but let’s hope I get there! It’s such an amazing and useful skill to have so I am hoping this will happen, but we’ll have to see…
In terms of photography projects, other than the ones I have made through the university tasks and the fashion/portraiture shoots I’ve done in my own time, myself and Kelly have also began developing a collaborative documentary project. The concept is about both our appreciation for being able to do this Erasmus year and the impermanence of it, consequently, attempting to document it whilst we can in terms of the landscapes we particularly appreciate and admire. Additionally, it also refers to how Brexit may impact students being able to do Erasmus years in the future and Brexit in general - engaging with the local community and other EU citizens to gain their perspectives on the Brexit situation and how it affects them. We have already been out to the main areas of Madrid, asking people in person to fill out our survey as a starting point of our data collection for the project. We are now branching out to posting these online and have received a good amount of responses so far! We are also conducting colour film shoots in Madrid of the places we really appreciate. We intend to hopefully exhibit this work somewhere in Madrid by the end of the year. So, although it’s still in its early stages, it’s exciting that this project is fully underway and hopefully you’ll see a finished product of it on my website or on here later in the year!
Here is a cheeky sneak-peak of a digital version of one of the colour film photos we took on our shoot! (At Campo del Moro in Madrid)…
