I was born in Barcelona (Spain) many years ago In the 60s I came to London and established my self as a Freelance Press Photographer. I retired a few years ago as U.K. Correspondent of a popular weekly Spanish magazine. I photograph my surroundings attracted by the complexity/simplicity of our lives. Alfred Stieglitz began photographing clouds as a young man: he called these photographs Equivalents because he believed they conveyed his subjective emotional and psychological experiences. Many other photographers have done the same thing. My Equivalents are those folks I point my camera at. My capture can not be repeated. It's unique and transient like clouds. And my subjective emotional and psychological experiences are enhanced by making me feel alive. BTW. I still keep my old Nikons Rolleiflex 2.8 and my first Pentax Spotmatic (The tool, in the 60s) If you like to see some of my old shots look in.. www.flickr.com/photos/albertobotella/sets/72157622888726824/

Gallery Photos (240 total)

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“The ultimate wisdom of the photographic image is to say, ‘There is the surface. Now think - or rather feel, intuit - what is beyond it, what the reality must be like if it looks that way. ‘Photographs, which cannot themselves explain anything, are inexhaustible invitations to deduction, speculation, and fantasy… The very muteness of what is, hypothetically, comprehensible in photographs is what constitutes their attraction and provocativeness." Susan Sontag on Photography.

August 2012:

Up to a few months HDR was not my cup of tea.

Why the conversion? It has been a rational process. First I went so see David Hockney exhibition at the RAC. His colours resonated in my psyche, they really stirred an sort of indescribable feeling, a sense of cheerfulness. When I found out that most of is work is now done digitally using an IPad I was astonished. ( It has been said that if the masters of the past had the technology that we enjoy today they would undoubtedly used it - they did,after all use cameras- Lucida/oscura + lenses.

The same day I visited the National Gallery. One of my favourite artist has always been El Greco, once again admired his work and then, a thought crossed my mind...... THIS IS DIGITAL HDR! His tonal ranges go well past the range of the human eye.

And that was it, I'm converted. In my retired/pleasure/ photography for fun. I never was a great devotee of colour. Why? Because in my opinion colour is bare reality and B&W is and interpretation of that reality, a form of abstraction of the real.

Now- for the time being- I think that HDR is as valid interpretation of the real as it is B&W with the same indexicality. If I can bring forth the filing that Hockney's work roused on me on the viewers of my pictures I shall have achieved the goal that all of us strive for.