There is still much to see in Madrid
Microgeographies of Madrid is a book born from unconsciousness and illusion because Belen Bermejo , the author of it, she admits that she had never thought of publishing her photos. Yes, to expose them. In fact, it was while she was setting up her show in a bookstore Segovia when she received the call from Ediciones B. "And I said yes because I'm that unconscious and because I was very excited," the author admits with laughter.
Almudena Grandes wrote in Estaciones de Paso that seeing is not the same as looking and that, when looking, not all people see the same thing. And that is what happens to Bermejo when she walks, camera or cell phone in hand, through Madrid, for her Madrid , the one that most of us go unnoticed.
colors and textures
"Microgeographies are the small places that most people don't notice and that always have some greatness and something to show. What we see every day. One walks through the city, goes fast and pays attention, above all, to the great details, to the spectacular, to the brilliant and in what they teach us to look” , explains Bermejo to Traveler.es.
Places that, despite being visible, are still hidden and discreet, demonstrating that in Madrid there is still a lot to look at and that the everyday has a lot of poetry. Because it may be that in that everyday walk, we have taken the city for granted and we have lost our ability to contemplate it with eyes willing to admire.
“I think we are going fast everywhere. What happens is that in that going fast one can also notice things. I usually don't photograph one thing many times, but instead I take a photo and that's it. How it finish".
Thus, page by page, the reader comes across locks in the Salamanca district, stones in the Retiro Park, autumn leaves that contrast with the chairs of a bar in Argüelles, plants that overflow from the windows in Malasaña, graffiti in Embajadores …
abound the colors , loud and, if possible, with contrasts; Y the decadent because, as Bermejo acknowledges, “we really like what is decadent. When I see something abandoned, broken or chipped, I always take a photo”.
In our way of looking certain details are lost
“I really like what is abandoned, what is rusty, everything that has a lot of color catches my attention. I like the textures, I like the walls and I really like the chips because I always see as many layers and islands and I like that vision”.
And among those colors, chips and textures, a recurring guest in his photographs: The rain . “I really like taking photos in the rain because big cities, and especially Madrid, have a special shine when it rains. The rain in the big city allows me to see colors that otherwise are not there. (…) Then apart from the rain, it seems to me a very poetic concept”, he reflects.
Microgeographies of Madrid is the definition of pretty book or pretty picture book , of those in which you know that no matter how many times you turn a page because there will always be room to discover a new detail.
“I compiled the photos that I liked the most in Madrid, then I removed them. I selected about 125 photos, the ones I liked the most and with the idea that they would all make a set. I was pasting them in a notebook to see how the photo went on each page. As for the texts, I had some written and I also made new texts for some of the photos”, says Bermejo.
What do we like decadent!
And it is that many times a photo makes the imagination take you further and a text takes a new direction. “It took me some time to combine the photography with the text. I also didn't want there to be text with all the photos because It is a photo book sprinkled with reflections, with thoughts and with little stories that some photos evoked me”.
Bermejo, who she prefers to say that she takes photos rather than define herself as a photographer because "I think I must have the necessary humility to recognize that mine is self-taught", she has been photographing the city as a hobby for a long time, taking advantage of her daily walks, the commutes to work, the runs between the office and the restaurant at noon. "I guess my curiosity decides for me."
The good thing about this is that Madrid seems to be infinite in terms of things to discover and Bermejo assures that he has many details left to photograph that he finds in each of his forays into the city. “I also tell you that I take pictures every day and many times I leave the house and take a picture of something that I myself have gone through every day and suddenly something else caught my attention".
It is not clear to us if, in this time of tourist invasions, we want to share our secret corners. Even so, Bermejo has pulled generosity and has included an index at the end of the book indicating where each photo is taken.
Rain suits Madrid
The intention is that readers see that they are places of passage, where we usually walk. “From a church on Gran Vía to many doors in the Salamanca district. Even details of the Retreat that are not usually the ones that are seen”.
Because, in the end, Microgeografías de Madrid is about that, about the magic of getting lost in the city to “transmit a view of Madrid that encourages us to understand that in the small there is also the great and that cities have to be looked at with different eyes”.
And if this is already beautiful in itself, this project acquires even more greatness if we take into account that Bermejo will donate the full benefits of the book to projects in the Medical Oncology area of the La Princesa Hospital in Madrid.
There is always something to look at in Madrid