He was the one who introduced me to “The Spirit of the Beehive”. I became captivated by the world of Victor Erice. The light and the shadow. And a stirring feeling, lurking deep within the story, that I couldn’t quite name.
I learn that the Spanish Cilil War lies at the root of Erice’s films, and that Spain was under a dictatorship until the year I was born. I packed my bag with my camera, a DVD of “The Spirit of the Beehive”, a book about Erice, a pair of flamenco shoes, and a book of “GUERNICA UNDERCOVER”. And I headed for Spain.
The first place I visited was Granada, the setting of film “Sacromonete”. I had read that this region, in the south of Spain, was one of the first to be consumed by Franco’s regime. In Erice’s film “El Sur”, the south is a worm place year-round, but here, influenced by the Sierra Nevada mountains, it gets cold enough to snow.
I found an old church on the outskirts of the city.
“Did he, too, look at the light pouring through this window? But his light and this light are different. What moment in time did his light belong to? From here, I would travel to Madrid, where Erice supposedly lives. Would I be able to meet him?”
I stood there for a very long time, thinking these thoughts, just looking up.
Come to think of it, I wonder what happened to the man who once said, “Let’s go and see something together”, and then we never did. Because of the film you introduced to me, I thought, I am here in Spain now.
This photograph became the genesis of my series “Particles of Being”.
