While popular culture beguiles us with the myth of an untamed nature in which to get away from the frustrations of our daily lives, our most habitual experiences keep us tied either to mass tourism or to fleeting escapes to places that are simply what is left of the Mediterranean landscape: vestiges of what was once countryside, now overrun by industry, housing developments and superstores. Appropriated out of necessity and transformed through sheer resilience, these places have been rescued from their inhospitable dimension to become plausible options in which we can still enjoy a bit of free time in the sunshine, well away from the bustle of the city. It is precisely these sites of leisure in post-industrial society that interest Txema Salvans, whose shots of them bring out all their surreal banality and sharpen the funny sense of strangeness they engender.
Contributor
Txema Salvans is a Catalan photographer based in Barcelona. Much of his work focuses on the Mediterranean. His books of photographs include Perfect Day, The waiting game I and II and My Kingdom, among others.