Representar El Silencio - Nicolás Combarro
Representing Silence is a project that reflects on the architectures of repression in Spain and France within the European context of totalitarianism and fascism in the 1930s and 40s. The project begins with the Francoist system of repression in Spain from the military uprising in July 1936 and the Civil War until the end of the 1940s. This includes the concentration camps in Spain - more than 300 in which over 700,000 prisoners were incarcerated - in addition to the system of penal colonies and prisons for political prisoners, which remained in effect until the dictator’s death in 1977.
The project also addresses the system of internment camps in France, which began with a 1938 law on “undesirable” aliens and continued until the end of World War II. Spanish republicans exiled from the Spanish Civil War were concentrated in these camps, first in Southern France and later distributed throughout many other countries. Of the more than 200,000 repressive structures that existed in this country, many of those detained ended up in labour camps or were deported to German concentration camps.
In its newly created section, the photographic approach uses projected light to reveal some of the remains of the repressive constructions, which have become structures of memory. The artistic methodology learns from archaeological work that has uncovered many of these structures to establish a symbolic and material bridge that counters amnesia and silence.
The image attached to this entry is the main shot from Paris Photo. Grainy and dark, we can make out a structure in the middle of a copse which even without context is an unnerving scene. It gives the feel of being led to your death away from the rest of the world. In relation to my own work with Dystopia I have tried to shoot the perfect, clear image directly in camera to present a world of suffering and disrepute. This image’s use of grain and mystery was inspiring in the sense that it made me realise I don’t have to strive for technical perfection. The story is actually the main thing that matters and how that narrative is presented doesn’t have to align with the traditional notion of landscape photography. It can be messy, it can be imperfect, it can have that feeling that the shot is in flux but as long as the story is strong then there isn’t a problem.
