Francisco Paco Carrascosa : Johnnie Walker on the beach: Gallery S O London
As part of Photomonth, East London Photography Festival, Gallery S O London presents an exhibition and book launch of Francisco Paco Carrascosa's Johnnie Walker on the Beach.
"As a 'paparazzo of everyday life', I have distilled my view of the world into a photographic essay in book form, consisting of 2640 pictures. The resulting five volumes are my homage to life, photography and the commonplace."
Francisco Paco Carrascosa
The grey façade of a faceless building, with an open window. In front of it, a man dressed in a bathrobe is standing on the balcony making a phone call. This picture, taken in Japan in October 2008, marked the beginning of Francisco Paco Carrascosa's photo project "Johnnie Walker on the Beach", an odyssey lasting several years. In this work, the artist and photographer (born in Valencia in 1958, living in Zurich) seeks out situations in which people feel unobserved - niches of private, everyday space in the public sphere.
The resulting images are still lifes and serial narratives: people, animals and objects, arranged in chronological order, by place and time of year. For the photographer this represents a homage to "observing the observer" and to the film "Blow-up". Carrascosa plays with the digital zoom and shutter delay of his ordinary consumer camera. He explores the "blind moment", rendering overlooked moments visible. These insights into the private sphere differ from the tabloid style of the paparazzi and the "look-at-me" images pervading the social networks. This photographic cornucopia fills five meticulously designed volumes, printed in a numbered, limited edition and signed by the author.