ECHOES OF “EL ANDA” (V) - 2009, Coronation

Posted on 16/03/2021 at 19:30

José María Cámara Salmerón

I must confess that the illusion is never lost. The illusion of announcing Holy Week in Cieza through your own photography is never lost. I always dreamed of achieving such high merit, but what I never imagined, not even remotely, was to announce it twice, in a row, and in the midst of a global pandemic; which, in a certain way, tarnishes the award, but not the pride of seeing a work of mine announce Holy Week Ciezana, as Gómez Villa would say.

It is undeniable that in this second year everything has already been said. I think that my photos are already known with the simple fact of being seen for the first time. Darkness dominates the scene and the look is the axis on which the composition is structured. However, despite the fact that these elements remain with respect to the Cieza 2020 Holy Week poster, the first in memory, it is true that in this second poster there are certain aspects that I take to the extreme. For example: I apply the photographic rule of three thirds so that only the right side of the face of Jesus in the Coronation of Thorns can be seen, a magnificent work by Romero Zafra, as you all know. This application of the three-thirds rule is much more "aggressive" than the application I made of it in the 2020 poster, since in that case the carving of Ecce Homo was located on the left side of the image, but it was I saw fully, unlike this year when I focused attention on the sore and bloody gaze of Christ. This look that I point out means that for this poster it was not necessary to show anything else. The conjunction of thorns with blood, sweat and tears give the scene a pathos that exacerbates, even more, the Andalusian baroque represented in this work, which makes it quickly connect with the viewer contemplating the poster. Regarding the rest of the technical aspects, Caravaggio's tenebrism is repeated for the second consecutive year, as the technique that develops and bases photography, and the works of CONTRAPUNTO, Israel Adorna, Santi León and Mercedes Fittipaldi as the source from which I constantly drink in my billboard production and in my sacred photography.

Finally, I want to point out that this photo arose from a second study session at this portentous size of the Brotherhood of Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno since, due to an erroneous hard drive formatting, I lost all the photos from the first session and had to repeat it completely again; adding up to a total of six hours of work between both reports, which, without a doubt, makes this poster less expected than the first, which is why people have already taken my measure and it is not so easy to repeat first prize. But that itself, at the same time, makes me feel even more proud, if possible, for the number of hours dedicated to the achievement of this photograph, which in reality was not at any time intended as a poster announcing Holy Week, much less as a work to be submitted to the contest, unlike the photograph "1972, Ecce Homo" which was made with the aim of being an advertising poster.

The fusion of overhead light with polychromy, the Andalusian baroque, the blood, sweat and tears of carving do not require other resources to achieve the proposed goal, which is nothing more than to faithfully reflect in my photography the carving of Romero Zafra.

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