Photographic Exhibition — Itinerant Contrasts

“To travel is to leave home, to dress like a madman, saying everything and nothing on a postcard. It's sleeping in another bed, feeling that time is short, traveling is returning...”

Gabriel-García-Márquez

Life is a journey, it is the search for oneself. In it we integrate and adapt to the environment, other times we transform it to our needs. This work shows the contrast of landscapes completely intervened by man or virgin, going through a transition in which architecture and nature merge and are reconquered. I started this project 3 years ago and I have developed it in black and white on three continents.

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Sarah Vallance

Welcome to “Itinerant Contrasts”, a wonderful exhibition which celebrates three years' travel across three continents. Alejandra Lopez-Zaballa has visited Burma, Sri Lanka, Australia, Japan, America, Cuba and Mexico using her camera to capture a mixture of the natural environment and the man-made. These wonderful black and white photographs depict different ends of the same spectrum: the virgin world of a bamboo forest and the masculinity of the central train station in Kyoto.

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Unicos – Kyoto Bamboo Forest – Measures 0.80×1.2om — Unique — Kyoto Bamboo Forest — Measures 0.80×1.2in

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Conectados – Kyoto Central Train Station – Measures 0.80×1.20m — Connected — Kyoto Central Train Station — Measures 0.80×1.20m

There is a haunting quality that lingers with each of these photographs, whether through the total absence of humanity or the carefully wrought man-made structures of some of the world's most notable architects, like the dome of the cylindrical Solomon Guggenheim museum in New York City, or the sails of the Sydney Opera House. In certain of these photos, nature and the built environment are fused. Ta Prohn, the twelfth century temple in Siem Reap has been overwhelmed by nature, strangled by the roots of a spung tree. A rickety, wooden jetty juts out across the waters of Mandalay, clouds loom ominously beyond the Brooklyn Bridge.

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Abrázame – Sydney Opera House – Measures 0.60×0.90m — Hold me — Sydney Opera House — Measures 0.60×0.90m

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Solomon R. – Guggenheim NYC – Measures 0.60×0.90m — Solomon R. — Guggenheim NYC — Measures 0.60×0.90m

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Conquista – Ta Phron, Siem Reap – Measures 0.61mx0.61m — Conquest — Ta Phron, Siem Reap — Measures 0.61mx0.61m

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Al otro lado – Mandalay, Myanmar – Measures 0.60×0.90m — On the other side — Mandalay, Myanmar — Measures 0.60×0.90m

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1870 – Brooklyn Bridge, NYC – Measures 0.61×0.61m — 1870 — Brooklyn Bridge, NYC — Measures 0.61×0.61m

Each of these photos makes exquisite use of light, reflection and fog. The photographs of Bagan, the ancient Burmese city in Mandalay, and Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka show the landscape masked by mist creating an ethereal, dream-like quality. This collection brings together the works of an exceptional photographer who is curious and sensitive to everything around her.

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Infinito I – Bagan, Myanmar – Measures 0.50×0.90m — Infinity I — Bagan, Myanmar — Measures 0.50×0.90m

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6:30am – Adam’s Peak, Sri Lanka – Measures 0.60×0.90m — 6:30am — Adam's Peak, Sri Lanka — Measures 0.60×0.90m

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Infinito II – Bagan, Myanmar – Measures 0.60×0.90m — Infinity II — Bagan, Myanmar — Measures 0.60×0.90m

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Alba – Mandalay, Myanmar – Measures 0.60×0.90m — Sunrise — Mandalay, Myanmar — Measures 0.60×0.90m

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Cálido – Sri Lanka – Measures 0.60×0.90m — Warm — Sri Lanka — Measures 0.60×0.90m

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Descanso – Sri Lanka – Measures 0.60×0.90m — Rest — Sri Lanka — Measures 0.60×0.90m

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Misterio – Myanmar – Measures 0.60×0.90m — Mystery — Myanmar — Measures 0.60×0.90m

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.