43 Mercats Municipals de Barcelona
by Chris Hewitson
43 Mercats Municipals de Barcelona by Chris Hewitson ©2022
WORKING WITH ED Following in Ed Ruscha’s footsteps This project responds to a request from Gary McLeod of Falmouth University for a project as a prelude to the module ‘Sustainable Strategies’ which commences at the end of May 2022. The brief given was to produce work based on the ideas of Ed Ruscha, particularly his photobook ‘Twentysix Gasoline Stations’ (see below). Since the early 1960s, Ed Ruscha has been offering the world his sideways-on, sardonic view of American life, particularly its southern Californian variant, He has lifted the familiar into the realms of the iconic. He has done this with petrol stations, apartment blocks and sytles of font to name just three examples. Ruscha’s subjects are often found in the places where he lives and works, pulling in a mixed bag of images from the film and advertising industries as well as an exciting array of trends and ‘cultural ticks’ arising from an area known for being a world centre of stylishness, Ed Ruscha is the archetype of the Los Angeles artist whose work turned pop art from a local into a global form of individual expression, 43 Mercats de Barcelona For this project, I focus on the 43 markets maintained by Barcelona city council and distributed throughout the city’s neighbourhoods and districts. I have chosen these buildings because while they are found across the city, and some even have iconic status, they are also akin to Ruscha’s gasoline stations in that while the buildings serve a necessary function in the local urban landscape, they may be generally taken for granted although life without them would for many people be unimaginable. Carryng out the project Photography for the project was conducted between 30th April and 5th May 2022, using a Fujifilm XT-4 camera with a Fujinon 16mm f2.8 lens. I took three photographs at each market site and all photographs are High Dynamic Range. I constructed a plan to follow lines 1, 3, 4 and 5 of the Barcelona are taken in High Density metro system, in each case taking a train to their farthest extent (and beyond in the case of Line 4) and working my way back into the city centre stopping off at each station near to a market. In addition, I travelled on lines 10 and 7, on each occasion to reach a single out-of-the-way market. I walked to the city centre markets, and for five awkwardly-positioned markets, I hired a taxi and driver for one hour on the afternoon of Sunday 1st May. Presentation in this book The photographs are presented in alphabetical order of the names of the markets in Catalan, except for Els Encants de Sant Antoni (bric-a-brac}, El Dominical del libro (second-hand books) and Les Floristes de les Rambles (Flower sellers on the Ramblas} which have different functions from the district markets. These three are positioned at the end of the list. Reference Ruscha, Ed, (1963) Twentysix Gasoline Stations, National Excelsior Press (plus subsequent editions).
L’Albaceria
La Barceloneta
El BesÓs
Bon Pastor
La Boquería
Canyelles
El Carmel
Ciutat Meridiana
El Clot
La ConcepciÓ
Els Encants Fira de Bellcaire
L’Estrella
Felip ll
Fort Pienc
Galvany
El GuinardÓ
La Guineueta
Horta
Hostafrancs
Les Corts
Lesseps
La Libertat
La Marina
La Mercé
Montserrat
El Ninot
Núria
El Poblenou
Provençals
La Sagrada Familia
Sant Andreu
Sant Antoni
Sant Gervasi
Sant Martí
Santa Caterina
Sants
Sarrià
Les Tres Torres
La Trinitat
La Vall d’Hebron
Els Encants de Sant Antoni
El Dominical del Libro
Les Floristes de les Rambles
All Photographs in this book were made by Chris Hewitson ©2022 Cover photograph by Chris Hewitson ©2017 Contact: email: chrishewitson@me.com telephone: +33 (0)6 03 71 94 96 website: www.chrishewitson.com