A photographer who captures moments of life in his images, almost photographic paintings, shows his creations at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge from 24 May to 30 October, in an exhibition entitled “Contes Possibles”, which brings us to the talent and the ‘cinematographic’ method of Jeff Wall.

He is an artist of the image who was born in Vancouver (Canada) in 1946 and who has obtained among others the Hasselblad, one of the most prestigious awards in the field of photography. He creates perfectly detailed images, as in a film scene, which seem totally spontaneous, but which have been curiously prepared.

The author has been one of those who have defined the so-called photoconceptualism, that is to say, the conceptual tendency (the idea or concept is more important than the work itself) applied to the photographic image. He has therefore been one of the central figures in the conception of photography as one of the contemporary arts.

The works, as you can see, are centred on composition, on a practice, that of the tableau, which you will see reflected in the thirty-six photographs,of a total of more than two hundred images taken between 1978 and the present day.

Jean-François Chevrier, with the assistance of Élia Pijollet, has acted as curator of an exhibition that brings together works that are extremely diverse both in terms of the technical resources and the themes they deal with. They are works with enigmatic meanings that could perfectly be, each one of them, the beginning of a possible story, hence the title of the exhibition.

Come to La Virreina and see older, documentary works such as the one that was shot in 1980 and shows a rural landscape of Vancouver, as well as more recent works from 2023, which make use of the allegory to compose images in an almost cinematographic way and then show scenes that suggest hallucinatory or dreamlike worlds.

If you want to get to know Jeff Wall‘s work, don’t miss the images that, like the one you see in the photograph (created from the novel Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison) are being exhibited these days at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge. Consult the website for more information about the exhibition.