Watch out for the masterpiece series called El Carrer the street. Grainy black and white images show hard yet mesmerizing depictions of life in El Raval during the s. Barcelona, being a port city, always had a thriving sex industry to cater to visiting sailors. Joan Colom captures the working ladies and their clients integrated into everyday life of this borough. How did he manage to get these images? Quite simply: from a camera carried below the waist. He never drew attention to himself by looking through the viewfinder.
As he walked, he clicked. This unobtrusive method gives completely natural and uninhibited scenarios. Also, the low level of the lens brings your eyes to curvy bums and breasts, giving you an intimate and fascinating inside glimpse.
I suppose, if you take sneaky photos and publish them without permission, you will at some point get into trouble. This is exactly what happened in when he found himself about to be sued by an unhappy subject.
This scandal put a halt to his photography for a number of years. The city went through many changes over the next few decades, including a big clean-up for the Olympics that was hosted here in Here resides a multicultural population with a lively street scene.
Old men on benches, artists painting walls, prostitutes peddling and sightseeing tourists reside hand in hand. Luckily for us, Joan Colom took up his camera again to capture in colour this modern era. I doubt whether the tourist office would use these images for promotional purposes as the number of visitors would probably plummet!
