Photography Exhibition Review
Miquel Salom’s Ictum Olim II Exhibition - now extended for more dates
The people of Pollenca have been given a reprieve this week as the Miquel Salom photography exhibition that was supposed to run until the 25th of May has been extended until the 7th of June.
The collection of photographs depicts striking landscape scenes of the north of Mallorca and specifically the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range.
Salom uses his signature photography style of the Ambrotype, a method of photography first used in 1850, whereby the image is imprinted directly onto a plate of glass through the careful application of chemicals, light and the correct environmental conditions. Ambrotype photographs cannot be in any way altered or corrected once the image has been captured making each Ambrotype picture completely unique and causing much care and repetition to be taken by the photographer in order to capture the image as desired.
The artist has taken years to research and perfect this technique in order to capture the truly unique images we can see displayed in Pollenca today, many with marks and flaws from development which add to their character rather than detracting from it, flaws the like of which you don’t see in modern photography.
The name Ictum Olim translates from Latin to mean ‘the impact of the past’ and although the artist clearly had the technique and the subject in mind when he named the collection, it also resonates through the pieces when you see them presented in the Church de Santa Maria. The pieces are displayed through the centre of the church where the pews once would have stood. Up on the altar, and indeed tied to the altar’s architecture, is a replica of the tent which Miquel designed and created to act as camera and dark room for his project. The juxtaposition of a modern recreation of the past displayed next to true relics of the past is worth seeing in itself.
Aside from the photographs and the darkroom tent on display there is also a three minute video playing on a loop which shows a time lapse sequence of the entire process behind the capturing of one image in the collection, Ictum Olim II – XIII, such are all the pieces numbered rather than named. The video shows Miquel Salom and his team as they set up the camera/darkroom tent on the 2nd April 2014 at El Colomer, Pollenca. You can watch the entire process as they set up camp and all the equipment, treat the glass in the correct chemicals, set up lenses and prepare the shot then capture the image and develop the plate there in the field. Much as I enjoyed the finished products on display the making-of process is perhaps even more interesting, and being able to watch it like that as you stand by the finished article feels truly modern.
Miquel Salom has dedicated his life to his art since the age of 14 when his father handed him a camera for the first time. He has travelled extensively having visited over 50 countries worldwide and yet chooses to split his time between the very different Mallorca and New York. He says that to him “art is the ability to visually capture a luminous instant of my soul” and that photography is the tool that he uses to do that.
The exhibit is free to enter and closes on 7th June so if you haven’t had a chance to see it, now is the time!
Location: Church de Santa Maria de Deu de Roser, Pollenca.
Free to enter.
Open: until 7th June Tues-Sat 11.00-13.30 and 17.00-21.00. Sun 11.00-13.30
